Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Smith for her question. She knows, like all of us know, that bulk billing was in freefall when we came to government, and it's important to understand why. In 2014, Mr Dutton, the then health minister, tried to introduce a GP tax on every single Australian patient. And, when Mr Dutton couldn't get that through the parliament, he then started the Liberals and Nationals' six-year freeze of medical rebates. It went from a tax to a Medicare rebate freeze. At the time, doctors warned Mr Dutton that they'd have to increase fees and stop bulk-billing, but Mr Dutton arrogantly bulldozed ahead anyway. That is why bulk-billing was in freefall when we came to government.

Labor has responded with the largest increases to Medicare rebates in 30 years and opened Medicare urgent care clinics across the country. We have tripled the bulk-billing incentive to stop the freefall, and we delivered six million additional free visits to the doctor last year. Nationally, 77.5 per cent of all GP visits were bulk-billed in December last year. We know there is more to do, but what we have done has made a difference. The Royal College of General Practitioners has described Labor's investment as a 'gamechanger'. This stands in stark contrast to what they said when Mr Dutton was in charge of Medicare. They said that he was the worst health minister in the history of Medicare. We know Mr Dutton and the Liberals cannot be trusted with Medicare.