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

I must say I'm a little surprised at the member's minimisation of the impact of the biggest ever investment in bulk-billing in her electorate, given that, as far as I can tell, no electorate represented in this place has got the sort of result that I just reported has come from Fowler. The relevance of that, if you read the annual report from the college of GPs, is that increasingly they say—about 70 per cent of GPs report this, I think—that the No. 1 issue that GPs are consulted about is mental health. It is their bread-and-butter work, and the affordability of access to GPs is more important for mental health support than probably any other condition we can think of. I'm surprised, frankly, that the member would minimise the impact of the record investment we rolled out on Saturday for the access and affordability of mental health support from GPs. That was one of the overriding priorities when we designed the system we rolled out on Saturday. I can tell the member for Fowler that constituents in her electorate will have more affordable access to mental health support from their GP than any other electorate represented in this chamber.

See this speech in context