Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When the Minister for Health and Aged Care, Mark Butler, and the Albanese Labor government committed to tripling the bulk-billing incentives so more GPs would bulk-bill their patients, I knew that this would be life-changing for my community in Tasmania—just as our urgent care clinics are, as thousands of Tasmanians take advantage of those four clinics.

The numbers prove how important these decisions have been. The latest Medicare bulk-billing data shows that the Albanese government's record investment one year ago in strengthening Medicare has revived bulk-billing, with Bass residents in Northern Tasmania accessing an additional 20,129 bulk-billed GP visits in the last 12 months. These are life-changing visits, providing people with access to a general practitioner when they need it the most. It comes at a time when the cost of living means that more Tasmanians need bulk-billing to visit their GPs instead of putting off a medical appointment. Tasmania overall has witnessed over 152,000 additional bulk-billed GP visits, thanks to the Albanese Labor government. In October 2023, the bulk-billing rate in Bass was 68.9 per cent. In October 2024, it had risen to 72.9 per cent, because our government wants to provide access to medical care when people need it the most.

We are the party of Medicare, and you will only ever have improved access to health care in this country when you have a Labor government. On 1 November 2023, the government made the largest investment in bulk-billing in Medicare history, targeted to families with children under 16, pensioners and concession card holders. The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners called the investment a 'game changer', and, for the past 12 months, doctors say, it has given them the confidence and support they've needed to bulk-bill more often.

That's after a decade of cuts and neglect from those opposite—and we know what their current leader, Mr Dutton, did to health care in this country when he was minister for health. He was voted the worst health minister ever—not just by the public but by the medical fraternity.

Families with children under 16, pensioners and concession card holders are now bulk-billed more often, and 90.0 per cent of GP visits with children under 16 have been bulk-billed in the past year. Those 11 million Australians are the patients that see GPs most often. They make up 40 per cent of the population and account for 60 per cent of GP visits, on average. They pay taxes, so they should be able to access health care in this country. It is, after all, a universal human right, one which Labor honours and delivers.

The historic investment in bulk-billing builds on other ways the Albanese government is strengthening Medicare to make health care more affordable and more available. We on this side of the chamber know that, when it comes to Medicare and universal health, those on that side of the chamber—it's in their DNA—will do anything to try and destroy Medicare. That's why the Australian community voted for us, because they know we know how important health care is to them, to their children and to the people that they love. We have been funding and opening 87 Medicare urgent care clinics, so that Australians can walk in and get bulk-billed—all they need is their Medicare card—seven days a week, to see a GP when they need them most.

Taking away those patients that don't need to be in accident and emergency is something that has proven to be so beneficial in my home state. In my home city of Launceston, the figures speak for themselves. When we talk about health care, people know we are going to deliver on it. The difference between us and those when they were in government is that they had ministers who only ever wanted to destroy Medicare, cut bulk-billing, cut GP visits and give no incentives at all. That's what a Liberal government— (Time expired)