Jerome Laxale (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This motion is yet another example and attempt by those opposite to pretend that Medicare magically started declining the moment they left office, the moment Australians elected the Albanese Labor government to fix it. Australians deserve honesty. Bulk-billing is under pressure today because the coalition froze the Medicare rebate for six years and because the bulk-billing system was neglected for a decade by those opposite. Every GP in Bennelong knows it. Every patient who struggles to get an appointment knows it. Everyone who continues to pay a gap fee knows it.

What we on this side of the House won't do is let the opposite rewrite history to cover their own neglect. The biggest driver of rising GP costs wasn't the Albanese Labor government; it was the coalition locking Medicare rebate freezes for six straight years—zero indexation, zero increases, zero support for GPs. Australians, particularly those in Bennelong, aren't buying this weak attempt from the coalition to deflect from their responsibility, and neither is this parliament.

We were elected in 2022 and again in 2025 to strengthen Medicare. Medicare was created by Labor, protected by Labor and strengthen by Labor. We've invested $8½ billion to turn around the bulk-billing decline and expand universal access, that real, Australian value of affordable and accessible health care. We tripled the bulk-billing incentive in 2023, the largest investment in bulk-billing at the time, and it worked. There were 6½ extra bulk-billed visits across the country. Bulk-billing was up 3.2 percentage points nationally and 2½ per cent in New South Wales. That policy was directed at concession card holders and under-16s. On 1 November 2025, we extended that incentive to every Medicare card presentation at the GP. We've expanded incentives so that practices who exclusively bulk-bill get a bonus 12½ per cent payment when they do so. This rewards the clinics that are doing the right thing and makes it financially viable for the doctors to bulk-bill again. The accumulation of all these policies basically reverses the cuts to Medicare handed down by the Liberals and the former ministers for health, Dutton and Ley.

This policy is working. Already, 1,000 practices across the country have indicated they'll become 100 per cent bulk-billing clinics. This is on top of the 1,600 bulk-billing clinics that exist today. It's working. You reverse the trend by making bulk-billing pay doctors properly, not by freezing rebates for six years. A GP city practice that fully bulk-bills will now earn over $5,300 more than a mixed billing GP. In regional areas, the benefit is almost $24,000 more per year.

In Bennelong, we've seen this policy from 1 November deliver results. Before the reforms, less than 24 per cent of GP practices bulk-billed consistently. Now we've had four clinics shift from no bulk-billing or mixed bulk-billing to fully bulk-billed practices. This is just in one electorate. Eastwood Medical Centre, Kang Nam Surgery, Eastwood Specialist Centre and Myhealth Top Ryde have all moved from mixed or no bulk-billing to fully bulk-billed clinics. That means hundreds of families in Bennelong can now see their GP with just their Medicare card.

This builds on our network of urgent care clinics, which have bulk-billed since their inception. Well over 87 urgent care clinics have been delivered. They are not only providing fee-free care but also keeping people out of emergency departments. We expect more clinics across the country to make the very sound decision to bulk-bill all their patients. They know that when they do, they get to see more patients and deliver more care to the community. Compare our record of record investments in bulk-billing to the coalition's record of a six-year rebate freeze, zero indexation for GPS and zero structural reform. And they come into this place and they complain. Tell them they're dreaming.

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