Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question and recognise his passion over many years in this place for better services in his part of Tasmania in particular but the country more broadly. He knows there is a lot of pressure on our health and aged-care systems after a decade of cuts and neglect, after a once-in-a-century pandemic and with very significant demographic pressures. Like the member's state, my state is slightly older than the rest of the country. We're feeling those pressures more than most, but we are seeing it right across the system.

I respect the member's passion for this area, but I don't agree with a lot of the suggestions in his question. I have to say that this week is a particularly weird week for the member to suggest this is not a government focused on bold reform. This is the week when we are debating a bill to introduce a centre for disease control. This is the week when the Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care is rolling out a whole range of new measures to deal with the neglect that has been there for so long around women's health. This is the week when we are introducing an entirely new aged-care system under the leadership of the Minister for Aged Care and Seniors, and, at the end of this week, we will be introducing and rolling out the biggest-ever investment in bulk-billing in the history of Medicare.

The member for Clark knows more than anyone else in this chamber the benefit of investment in bulk-billing. Since we first tripled the bulk-billing incentive two years ago, the member for Clark's electorate has seen the biggest increase in bulk-billing of any electorate in the chamber, a 14 per cent increase, and more will come after Saturday. In Tasmania, we have seen the benefit of our policies to get more doctors and nurses into the system. The member for Clark has two urgent care clinics in his electorate, taking pressure off the hospitals that his question talks about.

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