Mary Doyle (Aston, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Labor is the party of Medicare. We created it, we protected it and, under the Albanese Labor government, we are strengthening it for the future. At the last election, the Albanese Labor government made a clear promise to the Australian people that we would rebuild bulk-billing and make it easier for families to see a bulk-billing doctor, and that is exactly what we are delivering. Thanks to our historic investment in Medicare, Australians can now access more than 3,400 bulk-billing practices across the country, and that number continues to grow every week. Almost 1,300 of these practices were previously mixed billing. That means more families are now walking into a GP clinic knowing that they will need only their Medicare card and not their credit card. In just three months, the national bulk-billing rate has surged to 81.4 per cent, the largest quarterly increase in 20 years outside of the pandemic.

In my electorate of Aston, almost half of the GP clinics are now bulk-billing-only practices, with there now being 22 bulk-billing practices in total. That's 15 additional GP practices now bulk-billing patients due to Labor's reforms. That is real cost-of-living relief for local families in my community in Melbourne's outer east. Because of our delivery, 96 per cent of Australians now live within a 20-minute drive of a registered bulk-billing practice. We promised a stronger Medicare, we promised more bulk-billing and that's exactly what we're delivering.

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