Simon Kennedy (Cook, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, all you should need is your Medicare card, but, sadly, that is not the case in my electorate of Cook. The numbers are absolutely damning. Since 2022, there has been an 18.8 per cent fall in bulk-billing rates in my electorate. This is the biggest drop of any electorate in all of New South Wales. This is what breaking Medicare looks like. In my electorate of Cook, we only have two clinics that bulk bill. We have no federally funded urgent care clinic. Why, Prime Minister, are you denying the people of Cook essential medical services while parading a Medicare card around through the election campaign saying 'all you will need is this'? In my electorate, having seen the doctor only a couple of weeks ago, the out-of-pocket cost is over $100.

Take for example one of my long-standing clinics, the Caringbah Family Medical Practice. It has explained publicly why it cannot join Labor's new bulk-billing scheme. The message was both blunt and honest: the government's promises do not match the financial reality, it claimed. Caringbah Family Medical Practice said, 'No business can survive while losing money on every transaction.' This is the truth behind Labor's so-called reform, a policy that sounds generous but that leaves doctors and their practices fitting the bill, and patients far worse off.

The Prime Minister told Australia at least 71 times, 'All you need is your Medicare card, not your credit card.' He said it would be free to see a GP under Labor. But today the reality is very different. Paying $100 for a GP consultation is an everyday reality for the people who live in Cook. Parents who simply need a script, pensioners managing chronic disease, and young people who cannot get in to see a doctor without paying fees they cannot afford. Fewer Australians are now seeing doctors, 10,000 fewer a day. They are skipping potentially life-saving appointments, not because they don't need them but because they cannot afford them. Unfortunately, more Australians are paying to see a doctor than ever before. Some 43,000 extra Australians a day are now paying for a GP visit, many of them in my electorate of Cook. This is exactly what happens when a government uses Medicare as a political football instead of really supporting doctors and clinics like those in Cook.

Even with Labor's new incentives, the rebate does not cover the cost of providing quality medical care in my electorate. Once you add rent, staff wages, medical equipment, digital compliance, insurance and, critically, the skyrocketing bills under this government—for rent and energy costs in particular—clinics are losing money on every consultation. That's why my electorate of Cook has had the largest drop of any electorate in all of New South Wales in bulk-billing rates. It's why we have only two clinics, that are booked out and you cannot make an appointment to, that offer bulk-billing. That's why in my electorate people are paying over $100 on average to see a doctor, and it's not good enough. Prime Minister, start serving the people of Cook and start serving their needs.

To qualify for Labor's incentive, a clinic must bill every single patient every single time. This all-or-nothing requirement might sound good in a press conference, but in the real world, where rents are skyrocketing and energy prices are skyrocketing, it's impossible. These small community practices cannot survive on this government's slogans and wishful policy. This government continues to talk about strengthening Medicare, but every number, every clinic and every patient tells a different story. The truth is simple: access is weaker, costs are higher and the system is failing the very people this Prime Minister promised to help.

You cannot strengthen Medicare by driving clinics out of bulk-billing, you cannot help families by making it more expensive to see a GP, and you cannot promise Australians won't need their credit card while forcing them to use it more than ever before. Our GPs deserve respect and a funding model that works. Instead, Labor has delivered the exact opposite—a Medicare system under strain and tens of thousands of people in my electorate out of pocket.

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