Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bullwinkel for her question. She is someone who made a difference as a nurse and is now bringing the skills that she has and knowledge of the health system into this parliament.

On Friday, we signed a landmark funding agreement for our public hospitals—a landmark agreement with three times the increase that was there in the Morrison agreement that was done during the last decade. This will secure national access to world-class health care as well as disability supports, reducing wait times for surgery and in emergency departments and helping long-stay patients stay out of hospital rooms and get into dedicated care.

Every Australian relies upon Medicare. That's the principle that, if you're sick, all you need is your Medicare card, not your credit card. We know how important that is to Australians, and that's why we're strengthening Medicare across the board. We promised 50 urgent care clinics, and during the last term we delivered 87. Now there are 120 of the 137 we have committed to, being opened right now.

We've made PBS medicines even cheaper. A script now costs just $25, the same price that it was back in 2004, and we're adding more and more essential medicines to the PBS listing. That happened on 1 January, and, on the same day, 1800MEDICARE came online—a 24/7 free health advice line, making a difference already. Tens of thousands of Australians have taken advantage of that. We're also making it easier to see a GP for free, with 3,300 fully bulk-billed clinics around Australia—an extra 1,300 in just a few months, far exceeding what the predictions were.

All of those measures are good for people's wallets, but, importantly as well, they're taking pressure off the emergency departments of our hospitals, making an enormous difference. Labor created Medicare, and each and every day we're working to strengthen Medicare for all Australians. It's a big difference between the two sides of this chamber. We are absolutely determined that Medicare will continue to be strengthened, will continue to have more people seeing doctors with just their Medicare card and will continue to take pressure off the emergency departments of hospitals. I thank the premiers and chief ministers for their unanimous support.

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