Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

That was a good speech by the member for Robertson. I commend him on many aspects of it and acknowledge the fact that he said one of the reasons why he became a Labor candidate was because of the lack of services within his local area. I'll just point out this: if he came to some of those rural and regional areas where there is a severe lack of services, he might well have become a Nationals candidate, because we all support our own electorates. We all stick up for those people who send us to Canberra to do a job.

I also acknowledge the fact that he is still working in his local hospital and I appreciate that. It must be very good for the patients of Robertson, the electorate he represents. And I acknowledge the fact that he talked about mental health being a taboo topic. For many, many years it was, particularly amongst men.

On 11 July, we had the member for Dobell, the Assistant Minister for Rural and Regional Health, the minister who assists the Minister for Health and Ageing with the prevention of suicide, in Wagga Wagga. She was attending the local headspace, a walk-in clinic. She made some announcements that were very well appreciated. That walk-in clinic is open to people seeking to obtain the services that they desire. Particularly for regional people who are doing it tough, that's a welcome addition. I acknowledge the good work Assistant Minister McBride is doing in rural and health. It is so very important.

The member for Robertson mentioned the endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics. They were also mentioned by the member for Dickson, who spoke previously on the bill. We'd very much like one in Wagga Wagga for the Riverina. That is an important topic. I note Dr Freelander is in the chamber; I know how important it is for the western suburbs seat of Macarthur that he represents—how important it is for him—too.

Now, we talk about urgent care clinics. The problem with urgent care clinics is that they have been placed in areas of political necessity for the government, not necessarily where they are most needed. If you look in rural, regional and, particularly, remote Australia, people don't have the ability to just walk in, produce a Medicare card and receive the services that they so desperately desire. All too often, particularly in remote Australia, it's, 'When in pain, catch the plane.' There's no treatment available there. People actually have to go to a capital city to get the treatment they need.

I hear this great clamour from Labor members—and I appreciate we're severely outnumbered at the moment—about cheaper medicines and cheaper scripts. The fact remains that the government had to be dragged kicking and screaming to come to the table to sign the latest accord in the pharmacy situation. We all remember the white coats when the Pharmacy Guild were in the public galleries complaining about Minister Butler's lack of empathy, care and concern for their needs. In fact, for many hundreds of those country centres, they faced the prospect of losing—and it was a very real threat—their only health professional in town. That was the local, friendly pharmacist—the local, friendly chemist—who for years had provided services because they didn't have a doctor, they didn't have an urgent care clinic or an endometriosis or pelvic pain clinic and they didn't have a headspace. They were doing it all on their own. And, all of a sudden, when the coalition—it was the Nationals, in fact—said, 'Enough's enough; we have to support our pharmacists,' we saw some action.

I've heard members of Labor in their first speeches talking about what Labor's doing as far as funding training for rural medical students. Well, that came under the Nationals. That is probably the legacy that I leave, because I know that the negotiations I had with then prime minister Turnbull—

Thank you, Dr Freelander. I had negotiations with then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull to get that Murray-Darling network of rural medical schools—so very important. They're in Orange, Mildura, Shepparton, Wagga Wagga, Dubbo—the list goes on. Just take Wagga Wagga, for example, which each year is providing 30 new doctors the opportunity to train from start to finish in a rural setting. And we all know that, if you train doctors from start to finish in a rural setting, where there are unique challenges and unique opportunities for rural medicine, such as snake bites and road trauma that you don't see in the middle of capital cities, where some of the sandstone universities are providing clinical and medical schools—you do see that in regional settings. It is providing the hope and the opportunity for those young people in Wagga Wagga with 30 places each year. I know that, with the big, new, shiny buildings that are being erected and finished, there is the opportunity under that $94.5 million program to have more students come on board, because heaven knows we need more doctors.

This particular bill, the Health Insurance (Pathology) (Fees) (Repeal) Bill 2025, removes the fees imposed on the pathology sector for certain categories of pathology applications. It responds to the findings of the 2022 Health Portfolio Charging Review by doing a couple of things—firstly, addressing the misalignment of fees charged under the pathology fees act with the charging framework and, secondly, providing fee relief and reducing the administrative burden on the pathology sector. You're not going to get the coalition complaining about that. The opposition leader has said we will certainly divide on bills where we must, but, when there's good policy put forward, we'll agree with it.

But we do get this feeling from the Labor members—and I appreciate that Medicare started under Labor—that they think they're the only party for health provision in this country. And Labor is not. I appreciate that the urgent care clinics are great—good luck if you have one—but GP bulk-billing fell from 88 per cent to 77 per cent and there have been 40 million fewer GP bulk-billed GP visits in the last year alone under the Albanese government. That issue is particularly exacerbated in rural and regional areas, where you don't have the luxury of having a number of GPs. We have quality GPs. We just don't have the quantity of GPs.

When questioned about bulk-billing rates and the proliferation thereof, Minister Butler came out with this famous quote during the last term of government. He said: 'If you can't get a doctor to bulk-bill you, don't worry about that appointment. Pick the phone up and get the next doctor and see if they'll bulk-bill you.' That might be all well and good in the leafy suburbs of Adelaide, but, I'll tell you what, when you're out in regional Australia, you take the first doctor's appointment you can get, and usually that doctor's appointment is weeks down the track, because they're just not available like they are in capital cities. That is a truism. I'm not exaggerating. I'm not catastrophising. I'm not being alarmist. It is the truth.

We appreciate what our doctors do. My family doctor, Dr Ayman Shenouda, is a member of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. He has done a power of good for country doctors. Not only has he tried to lift immunisation rates and been a spokesperson for GPs generally; he has also provided wonderful health care at Glenrock. GPs in Glenrock, by and large, bulk-bill, but a lot of practices in and around Wagga Wagga and in and around the Riverina do not. Australians are now paying 45 per cent more of the cost to see a GP from their own pocket, and out-of-pocket costs have literally reached the highest level on record.

So it's all well and good for Labor members to come in and spruik about Medicare. It is the brainchild of Labor. I appreciate that. But the data that I just talked about—the decrease in bulk-billing from 88 per cent to 77 per cent, the 40 million fewer bulk-billed GP visits and Australians paying 45 per cent more of the cost to see a GP—are from the government's own national accounts. It shows that more Australians are having to use that little green and yellow card that the Prime Minister is so fond of pulling out in question time and in press conferences. He can do that as often as he likes. It doesn't take away the fact that more Australians are having to use their credit card along with their own Medicare card. They're being charged the highest amount of out-of-pocket costs on record. Despite Labor's protestations to the opposite, we are seeing more Australians having to pay more in a cost-of-living crisis.

The Prime Minister told Australians that under Labor all you'll need is your Medicare card, not your credit card. But that's not the lived experience of so many Australians, particularly Australians who live in rural, regional, and especially remote areas. The Department of Health's incoming government brief, released under FOI, estimates that a quarter—23 per cent—of GP clinics across Australia will not bulk-bill, despite all the Labor government's promises. Doctors need to make money. I appreciate that. They run clinics. They're under strain as well, particularly in regional settings, but so too are people in the cost-of-living crisis, a cost-of-living crisis that has worsened under the Labor government.

It is appalling that this Prime Minister is willing to mislead Australians about only needing the Medicare card. That's not correct. Clearly he would have known about the health department's data before waving that Medicare card around. In an election situation, when people are looking to cast their vote, they'll listen to that and see that little grab on the news, and that's what they'll go with. But the true reality is that people are still having to pay, shell out their own money, to see a GP. And, of course, there's a coalition, as you'd expect, opposition—

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