Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the excellent Minister for Health and Aged Care. What is the government doing to strengthen Medicare, and why is this needed?

Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bruce for his question, because he understands acutely that it has never been harder to see a GP in Australia than it is right now and it's never been more expensive. The average gap fee now for a standard GP consult, for the first time in the history of Medicare, is actually more than the Medicare rebate itself. This doesn't just mean that Australians aren't getting the care that they need out in the community when and where they need it; it also means that there is huge pressure placed on our already stressed hospital emergency departments, which is why, of course, the Prime Minister and National Cabinet agreed last week to focus on health reform over the course of this year.

This crisis didn't just spring from thin air. This crisis is a product of deliberate decisions made by the former government. There is no person in Australia who bears more responsibility for the crisis in general practice than the now Leader of the Opposition, a man rightly voted by Australia's doctors as the worst health minister in the Medicare era. We remember that, after it was promised in 2013 that there would be no cuts to health, his first budget as health minister tried to slash $50 billion from hospital funding and slug every single Australian—every pensioner, every child and every concession card holder—with a GP tax for every single visit to the doctor. Then, after we blocked that radical, extremist agenda in the Senate, instead he imposed a freeze on the Medicare rebate that lasted six long years and cut billions and billions of dollars out of general practice.

Now, once again, it falls to a new Labor government to start fixing up the mess the coalition always leaves in health care and to fix the vandalism to a system of universal health care that is cherished by the Australian people but has always been hated by the Liberal and National parties. We are getting on with the job of strengthening Medicare. Just last week the Prime Minister and I were in Perth with the Western Australian health minister, Amber-Jade Sanderson, opening expressions of interest for the seven urgent-care centres that we promised the people of Western Australia—centres which will be delivered this year, which will be open seven days a week from 8 am to 10 pm and which will be completely free of charge and fully bulk-billed. Every single state and territory government, Liberal and Labor alike, have cooperated deeply with us on this program because they understand urgent-care clinics won't just make it easier and cheaper to see a doctor when people need it but it will take much-needed pressure off their hospital system. Fixing nine years of cuts and neglect doesn't happen overnight, but this government has no higher priority than strengthening Medicare.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.