Matt Smith (Leichhardt, Australian Labor Party) | Hansard source

But the bulk-billing is what has made Australia great. Because if you don't have your health, you don't have anything. This $8.5 billion investment in bulk-billing has made bulk-billing more accessible for people right across the country, including 53 fully bulk-billed GP clinics in my electorate of Leichhardt, including Cooktown. It is very regional and very remote, but a lovely part of the world. It used to be mixed billing. Now it is bulk-billing.

The reason for that is this investment in the medical community committing to bulk-billing. They understand that they won't be sought after or have their rebates frozen time after time, effectively creating a pay cut, making it harder and harder for them to deliver for the communities that they love. Don't make any mistake about this—the medical community loves the communities they serve. They work long hours. The rural GP is a place of pride. It is something that people talk to. They become a leader within their community. And the work that this government has done, this Albanese Labor government, in restoring Medicare and bringing Medicare back has allowed those doctors to restore their place of pride within that community and to offer free, Medicare bulk-billed medical appointments. Not everybody can afford a gap, and your health is what is the most important.

In an electorate such as mine, there are some lower socioeconomic areas. They shouldn't have to compromise. They shouldn't have to look at themselves and ask: 'Do I go to the doctor this week or do I get food for the kids? Do I pay the school fees or the electricity bill? Do I make sure that my medicine is taken up?' If you have a chronic illness or a mental health illness and you need that medicine on a monthly basis, we're here to help. The PBS change freezes things at 2004 levels—after my shoulder reconstruction, I was back in the league by then—and makes life easier. It gives people dignity. It lets them know that Australia cares for them.

Every single bulk-billing patient is us telling the nation that we care for you, that we care for your health, that we care for your family. We want to make sure that you get to be the very best version of yourself, because that's what Medicare can mean. It can mean the difference between an undiagnosed mental health illness that drags you into the dirt or living your best life. It can stop bronchitis becoming pneumonia and then becoming something much, much worse. It means that we have the security and safety of knowing that our children will get the medical attention they need and they deserve.

This $8.5 billion is the best investment we have ever made. It's an investment in Australia; it's an investment in our future; it's an investment in our children. I am so very proud to be part of a government that has delivered this for the nation.

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