Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Clark for his question, because he knows that it's never been harder and never more expensive to see a doctor than it is right now in Australia. And it's no mystery why. It's a direct result of nine long years of neglect of and cuts to Medicare—cuts that began when the now Leader of the Opposition was the Minister for Health. We remember that we managed to block his original, radical plan that would've imposed a GP tax on every single Australian going to the doctor, but he was determined to, by hook or by crook, hack into Medicare funding. So, instead, he imposed a freeze on Medicare rebates that lasted for six long years. It was a pay freeze on the nation's GPs while their costs were going up and up. As the member points out, this has created unprecedented pressure on bulk billing rates.

The former government was allergic to telling the truth about bulk billing, but the truth is that fully one in three Australians now are paying a gap to see their doctor. That number is increasing and the gap fee has never been higher than it is right now. Amazingly, for the first time in Medicare's history, the average gap fee to see a doctor right now is higher than the Medicare rebate itself—for the first time in the history of Medicare. That is why strengthening Medicare was the centrepiece of Labor's policy on health at the last election. We committed $750 million to strengthening Medicare—a fund with $250 million per annum ongoing. We brought together doctors, nurses, patient groups and others in a taskforce that I will chair leading up to Christmas to advise the government of the best way to invest those funds. There will be different views within that taskforce. But, as we saw last week, when you bring people together in a respectful, constructive dialogue—

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