Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. On 28 February, the Prime Minister told Australians, 'Under Labor all you'll need to see a GP is your Medicare card, not your credit card,' but on TV this morning, the health minister said, 'We never said there would be 100 per cent bulk-billing.' Prime Minister, how many Australians have had to use their credit card to see a GP since the day you promised they wouldn't need to?

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

I am absolutely delighted to talk about Medicare, because what the member opposite has said is to quote us at the Launceston launch in the electorate of Bass when we launched our tripling of the bulk-billing incentive for all Australians. That followed our previous budget, where we tripled the bulk-billing incentive for concession cardholders. That has resulted in 90 per cent of those concession cardholders seeing a doctor for free with bulk-billing.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Order, members on my left! We are just going to pause for a second. We are not just going to have this free-for-all at the beginning of question time. We are going to allow people to ask questions in silence and then give respect to the person answering the question as well. We are not going to continue this way. We are getting into good habits early.

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

This $8.5 billion investment in Medicare we said at the time would lift bulk-billing rates for every patient to 90 per cent by 2030, cutting costs for Australians, improving care and supporting GPs. That is the policy that we announced. You might remember, Mr Speaker, that before I finished that speech in the electorate of Bass with the now member for Bass—

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

The Prime Minister will pause and I will hear from the Leader of the Opposition.

Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, the point of order is on relevance. I know the Prime Minister is now saying his promise had terms and conditions, but the question is: how many Australians had to use their credit card to see a doctor?

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

Resume your seat. I am just going to remind the Leader of the Opposition that she can raise points of order but it has to be pretty clear what the point of order is, not adding extra material to her statements. The Prime Minister was asked about his comments. He is talking about the announcement, about what the question was and he is giving context to the House—and I am listening carefully—about the electorate he was in and what he said about this announcement. So he couldn't be more directly relevant. I am sure he will continue to make sure he is.

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

I certainly will, Mr Speaker. You may well recall that policy being matched almost before I finished my speech. At the time we put out written documentation. We had costed policies. I'm not surprised that the opposition don't recognise this territory, but we had costed policies of $8.5 billion to lift bulk-billing rates to 90 per cent by 2030. The timeline hasn't changed, the investment hasn't changed and the modelling is the same. The question is: have the coalition changed their position? When I made the announcement on the date that the member suggested, they said they would back it—and now it appears that they don't back it. Now it appears they don't support it, which isn't surprising given that when they came into office last time, as we reminded people once or twice during the election campaign, they tried to abolish bulk-billing altogether by introducing a Medicare co-payment. One of the big differences in this chamber is that we on this side value Medicare; those on that side are led by someone who said, 'If you don't pay for it, you don't value it.' Well, we value Medicare. We will defend Medicare, and they will always undermine it.