Melissa McIntosh (Lindsay, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Women) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. On 28 February—

Hon. Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

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

Order!

The member for Chisholm is warned. We're going to start the question again. The member for Lindsay is going to be heard in silence. She's going to be given that respect. And we're not going to have any comments, because I'd like—

The member for Spence! Order! We're going to hear from the member for Lindsay. She'll begin her question.

Melissa McIntosh (Lindsay, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Women) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. On 28 February, the Prime Minister promised Australians that, to see a GP, all they would need is their Medicare card, not their credit card. Is that still the Prime Minister's position?

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

I thank the member for her question, and I encourage the opposition, over the next three years, to double down and keep digging when it comes to Medicare and to keep criticising the policy that they themselves adopted on that very day—on that very day! We were somewhat surprised, I must say, in Launceston, that, when we came off stage and before I even did any discussion with the journalists after we launched the policy and gave them the documentation, the opposition had already agreed to that policy and matched it. If they read the documents that we released on that day, what they would see is it was fully costed—$8.5 billion over the forwards—that it was due to come into operation later this year, that it would provide for bulk-billing rates to rise to 90 per cent by 2030 and that it was based upon the experience that we'd had at the previous budget, where we introduced the bulk-billing incentive, tripling it. The largest investment at the time.

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

Well, there can only be one point of order that the member's going to take: on relevance. She asked the question about the Prime Minister's statement that he made on 28 February. He's talking exactly about that statement and about what he announced. I fail to see how there could possibly be a question on relevance. You want a yes/no answer; I can't give you that. I'll give you one more chance, given that I've said the Prime Minister is being directly relevant.

Melissa McIntosh (Lindsay, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Women) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am still going to say on relevance, because I asked him specifically if his position was that Australians would still only need their Medicare card, not their—

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

Resume your seat.

Opposition members interjecting—

I know, but this is—you would like a direct answer to that, Member for Lindsay. You'd like a yes/no to that, right? Well, I can't—

Honourable members interjecting—

Order! It's the same thing. I can't help you with that, because the standing orders don't allow me to direct the Prime Minister to answer the question how you'd like it to be answered. But, if you're asking a question about a statement and the Prime Minister's reading the statement about that and he's not talking about anything else, he's being very directly relevant. I've got a list here, Leader of the Opposition, of all Speakers that have refused to take points of order. We can go through that list, but, at this stage, I'm just giving everyone fair warning: unless it's about the person not being on topic—not because you don't like the answer—I'll start to not take the points of order. While the Prime Minister is giving direct conference, I want everyone to be crystal clear moving forward.

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

I did show my Medicare card quite a bit during the election campaign. You might have noticed. For those opposite who wanted a yes-or-no answer, you know what the people of Australia answered on 3 May? They answered yes. They answered yes to saving Medicare. They answered yes to increasing bulk-billing. They answered yes to another 50 urgent care clinics on Medicare. They answered yes to increased mental health care. They answered yes to increased youth mental health facilities as well. They answered yes to the idea that we value Medicare, and they said no to the idea that, if you don't pay for it, you don't value it. They said a direct no to the ideology put forward by those opposite, and they said, 'Yes, we do judge a society by how it looks after the most vulnerable.' At Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, whether it was Kerry Packer after he had a heart attack, myself after I had a serious car accident or my mum, an invalid pensioner, we got the same treatment because of Medicare.