Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

When the Prime Minister declared that you'd only need your Medicare card, not your credit card, he told one of the greatest untruths in Australian politics. Australians are entitled to expect that, when the Albanese government pledge to help their household budgets, they'll actually follow through. Whether they're the household budgets of parents with sick children or older Australians, they're all stretched to breaking point, and the cost of seeing a GP is an added pressure families simply can't absorb.

The facts are clear. Out-of-pocket GP costs have blown out to over $50 on average nationwide. That's an eight per cent jump in over one year. Bulk-billing rates have collapsed across the country. Under the coalition, the bulk-billing rate in my electorate of Berowra was over 90 per cent. Under Labor, this has fallen to just under 82 per cent. That's almost 17,000 people in my community who are now having to pay a fee to see their doctor because of the Albanese government's failed policies.

What's this led to? Australians are avoiding 10,000 GP visits every single day, with 930,956 fewer services given in the last quarter alone. That's more than a policy failure; it's a broken promise from this Prime Minister. On over 70 occasions, Mr Albanese said that 'under Labor all you will need is your Medicare card, not your credit card'. But the reality on the ground tells a very different story.

Let me tell you what Australians from my electorate are saying. They show up with their Medicare card and are hit with enormous gap fees. One pensioner was charged $211 for a single appointment. Another paid $44.66 for a telehealth call lasting barely three minutes. One person seeing a psychologist now faces a reduced rebate and must pay $275 per session. Another's had to cancel their mental health sessions entirely because their clinician was forced to introduce a gap fee to keep their doors open. A concession card holder is paying $109 a visit. And even last Monday, when I attended a GP myself, I was charged $96 following my consultation.

Bulk-billing rates haven't just plunged in Berowra. It's happened in 32 electorates across the country, many in outer metropolitan communities like my own, where families are already under significant cost-of-living pressure. Many facing these rising fees are the ones that can least afford to pay. They're the communities Labor claimed they would help. Instead, Mr Albanese and his government have abandoned them.

The government can't continue to blame whoever they want for these failures. The truth is it's their policies that have failed. They cannot continue to recklessly spend, impacting inflation. Their failed energy policies keep energy prices high. They expect small businesses, including GP practices, to magically absorb those costs. They can't ignore spiralling workforce shortages and expect practices to bulk-bill just because the government want them to do so. They can't tell Australians their Medicare card is 'all they need' while delivering a system where the card is no longer getting them through the door.

Labor needs to listen to patients, to doctors, to communities and to the reality that its policies are driving up costs and driving down access. It's become harder to see a doctor. It's become more expensive. Australians know that Labor has caused this. When Labor spends, you pay.

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