Fiona Phillips (Gilmore, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When our kids twist an ankle during their weekend footy match or break a finger playing netball, they shouldn't have to sit in pain for hours in a busy emergency department waiting room. When we cut our finger while making dinner or go down with a virus, spending hours waiting to see a doctor in the hospital ER is exhausting and, quite frankly, infuriating. We all know our emergency rooms are clogged up, placing our wonderful nurses and doctors under more pressure. That's why the Albanese Labor government is opening more Medicare urgent care clinics.

Our walk-in Medicare urgent care clinics are taking the pressure off our hospital emergency departments, and they're also providing free medical care for people when they need it. Parents and families swear by them, with one-third of presenting patients being under the age of 15. I'm proud to be part of an Albanese Labor government that is listening to my community on the New South Wales South Coast by ensuring that locals have access to the medical care they need. More than 12,000 patients have used the Medicare urgent care clinic at Batemans Bay since the doors opened in December 2023. I know it will give my community peace of mind to know that under a re-elected Albanese Labor government the Batemans Bay clinic will be open 18 hours a day—the longest operating hours of any clinic in the country. That's free urgent care for urgent but non-life-threatening conditions, available from 6 am until midnight every day. All they will need is their Medicare card, not a credit card. I'm absolutely thrilled that, after lobbing for a second urgent care clinic on the South Coast, Labor will also deliver a federally funded Medicare urgent care clinic in Nowra. The Nowra clinic will be open seven days for extended hours, and will take pressure off the very busy Shoalhaven Hospital ED, which saw more than 23,000 non-urgent and semi-urgent presentations in 2023-24.

The Liberals labelled our urgent care clinics as 'wasteful spending', but tell that to the people of Nowra, who are desperate for this service. Tell the more than 12,000 people in Batemans Bay that have avoided the ED queue. If the Liberals get their way, they will close Medicare urgent care clinics, forcing sick and injured Australians back into hospital waiting rooms. The Liberals had nine years to open Medicare urgent care clinics, and they never opened one. Medicare urgent care clinics are an Albanese government initiative, because we believe in Medicare and in free, fully bulk-billed urgent care. You can't trust the Liberals with Medicare, and you can't trust the Liberals to keep urgent care clinics open.