Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I am giving some numbers here to assist the opposition: 1.5 million is the number of Australians that have been to Medicare urgent care clinics. Ninety-four: that's the number that support Medicare urgent care clinics. Twenty-seven million: that is the number of Australians who support Medicare. All of us here support bulk-billing. The truth is that, at the election campaign, like at other times, we have campaigned to strengthen Medicare. That is what we have done since we came into office in 2022.

Those opposite, when they came into office the last time government changed—and we have no doubt that the same thing would have occurred again as well—had an attempt to introduce the Medicare copayment and abolish bulk-billing altogether. We had $50 billion ripped out of the public hospital system. We had a failure to train enough GPs. We had a complete failure when it comes to aged care, summed up by that one word: neglect. We on this side of the chamber are very proud that Labor created Medicare. We'll strengthen Medicare. That's what we do each and every day. In the legislation that we have, of course, been talking about this week for cheaper medicines, that's a part of our strengthening Medicare. (Time expired)

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