Gordon Reid (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health and Aged Care. How is the Albanese Labor government making it easier to see a bulk-billing doctor, and why is this important?

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

I thank the member for Robertson for his question. We are so lucky to have this talented, young emergency physician as part of our government. We all deeply rely on his advice, particularly in relation to health care, because he campaigned so hard to deliver better health care to his community on the Central Coast.

Better than most people in this place, he understood the impact of nine years of cuts and neglect to Medicare. He was seeing it every single day at his workplace in the hospital. Billions of dollars cut from Medicare under those opposite had seen gap fees rise and bulk-billing rates decline. Indeed, some of the biggest drops in bulk-billing over recent years have been on the Central Coast and in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales.

That might not worry those opposite, because we remember that the father of the modern Liberal party, John Howard, described bulk-billing as an absolute rort. The Leader of the Opposition, in his first budget as health minister, tried to abolish bulk billing altogether.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The minister will resume his seat. The Manager of Opposition Business, on a point of order.

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, Mr Speaker, on relevance. It was a commendably tightly drafted question: 'How is the government making it easier to see bulk billing doctors, and why is it important?' It was not an invitation to range across the record of other parties going back 20-plus years. The minister, who is a serial offender in this regard, should be drawn back to the question.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Resume your seat. The question contained a statement in there about why it was important, so I'm going to allow some latitude. It is not a free-for-all for the minister to talk about previous governments, but he can set some context and continue with his answer.

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

It does, though, bother the member for Robertson, and it bothers everyone else on this side of the House to no end. That's because, for Labor, bulk billing is the beating heart of Medicare. That is why the centrepiece of our Strengthening Medicare package in this year's budget was $3½ billion invested to triple the bulk billing incentive. The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners described that initiative as a game changer, and so it is. It's a game changer for millions of mums and dads who want the confidence that, when their kid is sick, they can take them to a bulk billing doctor. It's a game changer for millions and millions of pensioners and concession card holders who have always relied on bulk billing GP services.

It is game changer for tens and tens of thousands of general practitioners—the backbone of our healthcare system—who now know they have a government in Canberra who deeply respects and deeply values the hard work that they do every day. These are practices like the East Gosford Medical Centre in the member's electorate on the Central Coast of New South Wales—a practice that services more than 3,000 patients. Before our budget, that practice was preparing to close, but now they say they can keep open. With the injection of confidence and the injection of investment, particularly into bulk billing, this practice will continue to service the needs of thousands of patients on the Central Coast. That is a Strengthening Medicare package from our budget, which is already making a difference.