Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) | Hansard source

The most recent bulk-billing data is in, and it is really clear and obvious to all of us that Labor's reforms—our tripling of the Medicare bulk-billing incentive and the way in which we've invested in Medicare—are delivering. They are delivering for regional electorates, for outer metro electorates and for Australians. In my own electorate, because of the investment that Labor has made, we have reversed the trend of what was happening. Bulk-billing in my electorate of Bendigo is now back up to 89.2 per cent, and that is because of the investment of our government. We have gone from having two bulk-billing clinics when those left office to 37 bulk-billing clinics. That is what we have done.

I recently visited a clinic in my electorate which did not exist when those were last in government. It has opened since we came to government and invested in Medicare. It is at the Bendigo Marketplace. It is in the CBD of Bendigo supporting and servicing people in my electorate. A cautionary warning to those opposite in the Liberal, National and One Nation parties: every single one of those GPs servicing that clinic was born overseas, like so many of our doctors working in regional areas keeping our communities healthy. This is a good example of good migration policy at work.

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