Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Maribyrnong. As a qualified psychologist, she understands better than most the importance of stronger Medicare. Together we've been able to visit bulk-billing practices in her electorate at Gladstone Park and Moonee Ponds. She knows that in Victoria, I'm happy to report, the bulk-billing rate for pensioners and concession card holders is now 93½ per cent. For those Victorians who don't have a concession card, their bulk-billing rate has climbed by more than nine per cent in the last three months alone. Australians can now visit the website health.gov.au/bulk-billing to find a fully-bulk-billing practice near them. They just have to plug in their suburb or their postcode, and a local list will appear from among the 3,500 general practices that are now 100 per cent bulk-billing. That list is growing every single week.

I regret to say to the member and to the House that finding out about alternative health policies is a little harder, especially from the new Leader of the Opposition. The Prime Minister helpfully tabled the Liberal Party election review yesterday, and I can confirm that there is not a single mention of the word 'health' or 'Medicare' in that entire review—so there's not a clue there. Instead, I googled 'Angus Taylor health plan' and was directed to the Leader of the Opposition's website. I then discovered that all the historic material has mysteriously been wiped from that website. The most common result you get from the Leader of the Opposition's website now is 'page not found'. But I didn't give up. I was directed to a machine called the Wayback Machine, which I thought was the Liberal Party policy unit but in fact is a tool that, very usefully, has preserved all of the Leader of the Opposition's greatest hits: his support for the GP tax from Peter Dutton, cheering Sussan Ley's Medicare freeze, arguing that a higher GST is 'good policy'—not sure whether that's still his view—and so much more.

But I can also report to the House that that's not the only online tool that's preserved these greatest hits. The member for Mitchell's social media account—always willing to lend a hand—is also keeping the historical record alive. So, if you can't find your way to the Wayback Machine, just log onto 'Alex Hawke MP'. He's more than happy to make sure that everyone remembers what the Leader of the Opposition really thinks, even if he's trying to rewrite history.

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