Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Stewart for the question on this really important issue which I know she cares deeply about, which is access to affordable health care for all Australians. In the budget, we introduced the second biggest increase to the Medicare rebate across the board in the last 30 years. The biggest increase to the Medicare rebate in the last 30 years was last year. So, over just two years, we have increased the Medicare rebate by twice as much as those opposite managed in nine years. That's because we care about making sure that people can afford to go and access health care in the community, which is primarily through their general practitioner.

At the time of the last election, the health minister, Mark Butler, said general practice was in 'the most parlous state in the 40-year history of Medicare'. Bulk-billing was falling off a cliff because of a six-year freeze on Medicare rebates, which is why we tripled the bulk-billing incentive from 1 November last year in the largest investment in bulk-billing in the history of Medicare. In the seven months since we tripled that investment we have seen a turnaround in bulk-billing, with a national increase of 3.4 percentage points, from 75.6 per cent of all GP visits bulk-billed in October to 79 per cent in May. That translates to an estimated two million additional visits of Australians to their GP. Bulk-billing has increased in every state and territory. In Tasmania, it's up over eight per cent. In the ACT, it's up 5½ per cent. In South Australia, it's up five per cent. In the Northern Territory, it's up 4.8 per cent. In WA, it's up 4.2 per cent. In Queensland, it's up 3.4 per cent. In Victoria, it's up three per cent. In New South Wales it's up 2.7 per cent. This shows that our investments are working. (Time expired)