Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

On the border of Macnamara and Goldstein, unfortunately on the wrong side of the tracks, lives a fantastic medical centre called the Elsternwick Medical Centre. No thanks to the member for Goldstein, but thanks to this Albanese Labor government, the Elsternwick Medical Centre has gone 100 per cent bulk-billed—100 per cent bulk-billing for the 77,000 consultations that the Elsternwick Medical Centre did last year. This is a fantastic medical centre. The GPs and the staff there are doing an incredible job, and I was pleased to go and visit them recently.

Of course, there were other plans by other people that weren't about bulk-billing. The approach of the Leader of the Opposition, when she was the health minister—obviously after the $7 GP co-payment was scrapped—was to lower the rebate of Medicare and then get the doctors to pass it on to patients. At that time the Leader of the Opposition said:

The price signal is about somebody paying a bit extra when they go to the doctor and not receiving a bulk-billed consultation when they can afford to pay … That's what we mean by the price signal and I think that's vital.

I'll tell you what this side of the House thinks is vital—that people can go and see a doctor with their Medicare card, not their credit card. This side of the House thinks it's vital that Australians can access the health care they need, at fantastic clinics like the Elsternwick Medical Centre.

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