Rowan Holzberger (Forde, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I remember some advice that Peter Duncan, the former member for Makin, gave me ages ago: with politics, you come into it and you think you're going to change the world, but it's actually really about the changes you make for individuals at a constituent level. But every now and then a policy comes along and it's such a great honour to be a part of it that actually really does change the world—that's the incentives that the government has introduced for bulk-billing. I have never in my time in politics as an observer or as a participant witnessed a policy have such an immediate and positive impact as this one.

I had the great pleasure of being able to ring around the clinics in Forde the other day. Out of 45 clinics, we started off with nine bulk-billing on Friday, but on Saturday that number had gone to 20. That was an increase from about 19 per cent to 43 per cent overnight in the clinics that now bulk-bill. That's more than doubling the number of clinics that bulk-bill in Forde. I'd like to say thank you to Dr Danish and Dr Murtaza at the Holmview Doctors and Skin Cancer Clinic, who showed me around and told me that they were just waiting for something like this to come in to be able to fully bulk-bill. They know that, in our community, people need full bulk-billing. They know that, in our community, working families won't go and see the doctor if it means that they have to pay for it, because it's either that or feed your kids. This is a measure that not only relieves the cost-of-living pressures but improves the health of our community.