Renee Coffey (Griffith, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This year's federal budget is about helping people now while making responsible changes for the years ahead. It delivers cost of living relief, strengthens fuel security, lifts productivity and reforms our tax system to address longstanding housing challenges. In health, we continue to strengthen and invest in Medicare. The Albanese Labor government is delivering $1.8 billion to make Medicare urgent care clinics a permanent part of our health system. The clinics are fully bulk-billed, walk in, open for extended hours and designed for urgent but non-life-threatening care. They are essential to the health of our communities.

In my community of Griffith, the South Brisbane, Coorparoo and Carina clinics have already seen more than 40,000 presentations. This means a parent can get help for a child with a fever, a worker can get treated for a minor injury and an older person can be seen after a fall. Our community loves them. I recently heard from Rebecca, a single mother from Coorparoo. She wrote in to me about her local clinic. She said:

I just wanted to thank you for the Urgent Care Clinic as I am not always able to afford to see a doctor due to being on Centrelink payments, studying and being a single mother of two kids.

Today I had incredible tooth pain after having a tooth pulled and it becoming infected.

Thank you dearly for providing this walk-in clinic.

It is so helpful and beneficial to people on the lower socio-economic side of life.

This story speaks volumes about why these clinics matter. This is what strengthening Medicare looks like, and this is what this budget delivers.

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