Fiona Phillips (Gilmore, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In good news, from 1 November more people in my electorate of Gilmore will be able to see their general practitioner for free. I know that, for too long, too many people have been paying too much out of pocket when they go to their doctor, and that's why I welcome the Albanese Labor government's expanded bulk-billing incentives for GPs.

Labor are making the largest investment in Medicare since its creation to ensure people can afford to see their GP. The expanded bulk-billing incentive for all Australians plus the creation of an additional new incentive payment for medical practices that bulk-bill every patient mean nine out of 10 GP visits will be bulk-billed by 2030. I'm really thrilled that more than 20 GP practices in Gilmore have already switched to being Medicare bulk-billing practices; 11 were mixed-billing practices. I've spoken to lots of local doctors on the South Coast who are making the choice to switch their practice to be fully bulk-billing clinics. They are taking up the incentives because it's good for their business and, of course, good for their patients as well.

Grand Pacific Health in Nowra and the Queen Street Medical Centre in Moruya were among the first on the South Coast to sign on to become fully bulk-billing practices. They want to make a difference in the community and want to help their patients, many of whom are older with multiple conditions or are young families feeling the cost-of-living pinch. Grand Pacific Health Nowra Practice Manager Charise Morris said, 'Being sick was not cheap, especially for families and the chronically ill.' She told me that the change would make a huge difference, because, when people don't have to pay a gap fee to see their doctor for a general consult, that's money that can put food on the table.

In three weeks since its introduction, I can see that Labor's investment in bulk-billing incentives is working. It had already been working for pensioners, concession card holders and families with kids, and now it has been expanded for every Australian. The Albanese Labor government's $8.5 billion investment into Medicare will deliver an additional 18 million bulk-billed GP visits each year, hundreds of nursing scholarships and thousands more doctors in the largest GP training program ever.

We are also opening more Medicare urgent care clinics across the country, and I'm so pleased that, from 10 November, the very popular Batemans Bay Medicare Urgent Care Clinic has been operating 18 hours a day—the longest of any clinic in the country. We promised to expand the hours from 6 am to midnight before the busy summer holiday period, and that's what we've done. More than 20,000 people have walked through the doors since the Batemans Bay clinic opened. The community was crying out for longer hours to take pressure off the hospital and local doctors. The population swells over summer, so now locals and visitors will be able to seek urgent non-life-threatening care for all those pesky summer colds, holiday injuries, sprains and stings until midnight every day of the year without having to wait hours in the ED. I also can't wait for the doors to open on the brand new federally funded Medicare urgent care clinic in Nowra very soon; watch this space.

We're making it cheaper for people to see a GP, no matter where they live. That's real, tangible cost-of-living relief for ordinary Australians.

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