Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Australia's hospital system is in crisis. State budgets aren't big enough to properly fund public hospitals, and health insurance isn't working for the private sector. People are suffering needlessly and, far too often, dying prematurely. Only the Commonwealth has the financial and policy heft to turn things around. When will the federal government finally act to fix things? Let's face it; just negotiating another funding agreement is hardly bold reform.

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

I thank the member for his question and recognise his passion over many years in this place for better services in his part of Tasmania in particular but the country more broadly. He knows there is a lot of pressure on our health and aged-care systems after a decade of cuts and neglect, after a once-in-a-century pandemic and with very significant demographic pressures. Like the member's state, my state is slightly older than the rest of the country. We're feeling those pressures more than most, but we are seeing it right across the system.

I respect the member's passion for this area, but I don't agree with a lot of the suggestions in his question. I have to say that this week is a particularly weird week for the member to suggest this is not a government focused on bold reform. This is the week when we are debating a bill to introduce a centre for disease control. This is the week when the Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care is rolling out a whole range of new measures to deal with the neglect that has been there for so long around women's health. This is the week when we are introducing an entirely new aged-care system under the leadership of the Minister for Aged Care and Seniors, and, at the end of this week, we will be introducing and rolling out the biggest-ever investment in bulk-billing in the history of Medicare.

The member for Clark knows more than anyone else in this chamber the benefit of investment in bulk-billing. Since we first tripled the bulk-billing incentive two years ago, the member for Clark's electorate has seen the biggest increase in bulk-billing of any electorate in the chamber, a 14 per cent increase, and more will come after Saturday. In Tasmania, we have seen the benefit of our policies to get more doctors and nurses into the system. The member for Clark has two urgent care clinics in his electorate, taking pressure off the hospitals that his question talks about.

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

The minister will pause. The minister was asked about what bold reform is, and he is going through it, but I will hear from the member for Clark.

Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On relevance, the question went very specifically to the crisis in our hospital sector, not urgent care clinics, not GPs, not the other things that the minister has listed.

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

But the question also contained, 'What is happening with funding?' and went to the position about being bold. I know what your angle is; that's the question at the end. It is pretty relevant for the minister to outline those, but I will ask him to be directly relevant. He may perhaps have more information about the funding agreement.

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

I do. I think in his heart of hearts the member for Clark knows our health and aged-care system is an integrated ecosystem. When bulk-billing is not working and when people are paying too much for medicines, they don't fill the scripts their doctors have said are important and they don't go to the GP when they need to, and the member for Clark knows that means they end up in hospital far more regularly than they should. That's why addressing pressure in primary care—making medicines cheaper—is not just good for the hip pocket; it's good for the health of millions of Australians who get the health care when and where they need it in the community.

There is no better example of our reform and its connection to the hospital system than our 90 urgent care clinics—two of which are located in the member for Clark's electorate—which have already seen more than two million Australians, most of whom say that if they weren't able to go to that clinic they would end up at the emergency department. I know the member for Clark is passionate about this. I agree there are pressures. I entirely reject the idea that we're not a government of bold reform. (Time expired)