Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

After just over 100 days in office, the Albanese Labor government is delivering a better future for my community. In 2019, the Morrison Liberal government cut our communities' access through local GP clinics to recruit doctors from overseas to deliver Medicare funded services. This was just one of the ways the Liberals made it harder and more expensive to see a doctor locally and around the nation. This had a direct impact on local GP clinics, with a loss of 40 per cent of local GPs. This was predictable, and we raised it from opposition repeatedly.

I am pleased to inform the parliament today that, working with the Minister for Health and Aged Care, Mark Butler, the Albanese Labor are delivering on our election commitment to reverse this cut in my electorate. The entire Wyndham LGA is now a distribution priority area again. GPs can apply to Services Australia to seek a DPA-type exemption, as per the normal process.

I look forward, too, to the realisation of an urgent care clinic in my community. I want to thank Minister Butler for his work in making this happen and his understanding of the pressures our growing community is under. The Albanese Labor government is committed to fixing the mess those opposite left in Medicare, and this is just part of how the Albanese Labor government is delivering a better future for my community.