Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

One Nation's plan to put more money in Australians' pockets has a focus on strengthening Medicare. We'll begin by targeting fraud. As we learnt from the Independent Review of Medicare Integrity and Compliance, released by the Minister for Health and Aged Care in April 2023, the system has been rorted by up to $3 billion a year. There have been many examples of people using other people's Medicare cards or of doctors claiming rebates for patients they did not see. There are other examples of Medicare funded appointments being used to obtain cheap prescriptions sold at obscene profits both here and overseas. Much of this can be prevented by simply requiring photo ID on Medicare cards.

One Nation's policy will increase bulk-billing rates, which have fallen under Labor. According to the 2025 report on government services released this month, in 2023-24 bulk-billing rates declined from 51.7 per cent to 47.7 per cent despite significant funding injections by Labor. In the same year, the average out-of-pocket cost for a patient to see a GP was $45, and nine per cent of patients either delayed appointments or simply didn't go because of the cost. One Nation's policy will also look at increasing the Medicare rebate to better support bulk-billing. GPs facing huge costs increases in rent, rates, insurance and energy need to be better remunerated if bulk-billing rates are to improve and if we want to prevent the exit of GPs from the system.

Medicare must be made sustainable if we want Australians to continue to have access to affordable Medicare. Let's put photo ID on the Medicare card so that we stop this fraud and stop people coming in from overseas, taking up the Medicare cards of friends and family, using our services, getting their scripts and taking back medicines. We know that fraud is up to $3 billion a year. (Time expired)