Claire Clutterham (Sturt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. How is the Albanese Labor government strengthening Medicare by opening more urgent care clinics?

Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you to the member for Sturt, the first Labor candidate to win the seat of Sturt since the 1960s. As a candidate, the now member for Sturt was one of the most passionate advocates for our women's health policies, joining me at a number of key policy announcements. She was also a campaigner for a stronger Medicare more broadly and, in particular, had her commitment for an urgent care clinic in Adelaide's east.

Last term we promised to deliver 50 urgent care clinics, and we delivered 87 of them. All of them are open seven days a week for extended hours and, importantly, fully bulk-billed. So, all you needed to take was your Medicare card. Already, almost 1.9 million Australians have been seen in an urgent care clinic, a third of them kids under the age of 15 who've fallen off their skateboard or their bike or injured themselves at Saturday afternoon sport. A third of all consultations have been on the weekend. Importantly, the majority of participants—

Alison Penfold (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What about Taree?

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

Order! The member for Lyne is now warned. I'm going to ask you to cease interjecting for the remainder of this answer and question time. Someone left for that precise moment. We're going to hear from the minister in silence.

Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A majority of people going to these clinics say, otherwise, they'd have had to go to the local ED. These clinics are particularly making a huge difference to parents, when their kids have suddenly fallen ill or got injured. Last fortnight I visited the Elizabeth Medicare urgent care clinic with the member for Spence yet again; I've been there a number of times. You just have to look at Google reviews to see it's full of stories of parents doing exactly that—

David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Go to Taree!

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

The Leader of the Nationals is not helping.

Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

like Felicity, who has had to take her daughter, who has a disability, to that clinic three times already, or Kelly, who took her son to the clinic when he split his head open, or Jessica, who'd recently taken her two-year-old whose hand was swelling dangerously after a particularly nasty bite. All of those parents would otherwise have ended up at the Lyell McEwin Hospital emergency department, waiting for hours and hours and hours. Our 87 clinics, there's no doubt, no matter what they say opposite, are making a real difference.

But we said to the Australian people at the last election we want to do more, and that's why we promised another 50 urgent care clinics on top of that. Three of them are already open, 44 of them are already subject to an open-tender process and the remaining three, just a small number, will have their tender process open very soon. I'm delighted to say that one of those 44 currently open for tender will be in eastern Adelaide, in the electorate of Sturt. That's another example of candidates like the member for Sturt and this government delivering on the commitments we gave to the Australian people.