Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to talk about something that sits at the heart of our identity as a nation; something that speaks to our values of fairness, decency and care for one another; something that millions of Australians depend on every single day—that is, Medicare. It is difficult to imagine Australia without it. Even more difficult to imagine is that, before Labor's reforms in the 1970s, the size of your bank balance determined whether you could visit a doctor, get treatment or simply look after your health. Yet that was the system Labor inherited from the Liberal Party—a health system where private insurance decided who received care and who went without and a system that left many Australians on the wrong side of the waiting-room door, shut out from the care they desperately needed.

When Labor first introduced Medibank under Gough Whitlam, the Liberal and National parties fought it every step of the way. They refused to pass the Medibank legislation twice in the Senate, triggering the 1974 double-dissolution election. They opposed the historic joint sitting of parliament in August 1974 that finally passed the bills, and, when they returned to government after Whitlam's dismissal in late 1975, they moved quickly to dismantle Medibank and wind back its universal coverage.

Then in 1984, when Labor created Medicare, the coalition opposed it all over again. They opposed the principle of universal health care, favouring models based on private payment and private insurance. Their policy on health paper at the time recommended letting people opt out of Medicare altogether if they bought private health insurance. But an opt-out system like that only works for those who can afford it, and that is where the real problem begins. We end up with a healthcare system where your level of care depends on your ability to pay, which reflects the private insurance model, not the principle of universal access.

That is the reality of a market run system; its priority is profit. Under that model, those who can pay are prioritised and everyone else is pushed to the margins, trading away the principle that universal access to health care belongs to every Australian. It tells you more about their attitude to ordinary Australians than they would ever dare say out loud. The Liberal and National parties never wanted the universal principle of Medicare. I'm reminded that every coalition member of parliament since has relied on Medicare, despite their repeated efforts to dismantle it.

Medicare is one of the clearest demonstrations of our national values and is one of the most remarkable public health policy achievements in the world. Other countries study it and experts praise it. It delivers universal care that is the envy of many countries. It rejects the model that ties health to income, and replaces it with a universal commitment that recognises that a fair society safeguards the health of all Australians as a matter of principle, not privilege. It gives every Australian the right to see a doctor, the right to receive treatment and the right to live with dignity and security. It does all of this because Labor governments had the courage to build it for the Australian people and the determination to protect it.

Today, under the Albanese Labor government, we are strengthening Medicare once again. We've delivered the largest increase to the bulk-billing incentive since Medicare was established. We've opened urgent care clinics across the country so that families can access the immediate care they need, fully bulk-billed, without sitting for hours in emergency waiting rooms. One of the busiest of these clinics is in Dandenong South in my electorate of Isaacs, and other clinics serve the community every day in Frankston, Narre Warren and other locations. By mid next year there will be 137 urgent care clinics across Australia. We're investing in new women's health initiatives, including expanded endometriosis care. We're rebuilding the primary health system that was left idling in cuts and neglect for nearly a decade by the previous Liberal-National government.

These reforms mean more people can see a doctor without worrying about cost. More parents can take their sick children to an urgent care clinic and get the treatment they need close to home. More women can access the specialised health support they deserve, with 11 new endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics opening across Australia. That is what Medicare looks like when a government believes in it and strengthens it instead of trying to ruin it.

We should never forget how hard fought this achievement was. Medicare exists because Labor built it, and it thrives today because our Labor government understands that health care is not a privilege; it is a right. Labor will always protect Medicare for all Australians.

See this speech in context