Sam Rae (Hawke, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Aged Care and Seniors) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Gilmore for her tireless advocacy for older people across her community on the beautiful South Coast of New South Wales. I'm grateful for the opportunity to tell the House how we're supporting senior Australians to access the services they need, no matter their means. I'm happy to inform the House that bulk-billing for over-64s is now at over 88 per cent thanks to this Labor government. New data shows that older Australians can now access over 3,400 Medicare bulk-billing practices across the country. In the member for Gilmore's community, 32 clinics are now fully bulk-billing. That's an extra 12 clinics since our changes came into place, delivering free health care to seniors close to home. And that number continues to grow across Australia every week and means that more than 96 per cent of older Australians now live within 20 minutes' drive of a bulk-billing GP. To all the GPs across the nation who are now supporting seniors to see a doctor for free, our government says, sincerely—fantastic. Great move. Well done, doctors.

All of this work builds on our government's other investments to support Australians, including older Australians, with the cost of living. On 1 January, we delivered the next stage in our plan to make the biggest cut to the cost of medicines in the history of the PBS, with all PBS medicines available for $25 or less. For seniors who hold a concession card, PBS medicines cost only $7.70, with an annual cap of 277 bucks. We're opening 137 Medicare urgent care clinics. More than two million Australians have already received free urgent care at an urgent care clinic. We've boosted Medicare, with $25 billion in extra hospital funding, helping older Australians get the quality, affordable health care they deserve.

It's a long list, because it was a big job to claw back Medicare after those opposite left it on its knees. They tried to cut $50 billion from public hospitals. They tried to end bulk-billing for all Australians with a GP tax. They tried to jack up the price of medicines, and, when they couldn't get any of that through, they started a six-year-long freeze on the Medicare rebate, which tore $8.3 billion out of the Medicare system. For nine long years, those opposite took Australians for granted. This government is relentlessly focused on the needs of older Australians. Health care is a critical component of their happiness and their ability to live with dignity in the community. We'll continue to invest in Medicare so that older Australians can get the health care they need at every opportunity.

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