Emma Comer (Petrie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Deputy Speaker, I acknowledge your great work on the Speaker's panel so far.

Mary Aldred (Monash, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Very kind.

Emma Comer (Petrie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Regardless of your income, your postcode or your circumstances, you should be able to see a doctor when you need it. Labor is making this a reality with the largest-ever investment into Medicare. When we came to government, Australians were facing the toughest health system pressures in decades. Too many families were being forced to choose between paying for groceries and paying to see a doctor. Our latest and largest Medicare investment is supporting doctors in the community to treat their patients for free.

The Deception Bay doctors are the latest to become fully bulk-billed. They join many other 100 per cent bulk-billed practices in my community—Our Medical Home North Lakes, Woody Point Medical Centre, Clontarf Bridge Medical Centre, Best Health Medical Centre, Medical Zone Family Practice, Griffin Medical Centre and Deception Bay Family Medical Centre. These wonderful clinics are dedicated to providing affordable health care for their patients. But I know we need more. Our government is committed to making nine out of 10 GP visits bulk-billed by 2030. Our Medicare urgent care clinics are taking the pressure off hospitals and emergency departments. The clinic at Murrumba Downs has just reached 26,000 visits. Each one of those visits was 100 per cent free.

We are also delivering on mental health, with 50 Medicare mental health facilities now open across the country. The Redcliffe Medicare Mental Health Centre is officially open and delivering locals free, confidential, walk-in mental health support. The Staying Deadly headspace will be opening its doors December this year. This will be the first headspace service in Australia designed by First Nations people for First Nations people, their families and their friends. Operated by the Institute for Urban Indigenous Health, the centre will offer culturally appropriate, community led support. I thank the assistant minister, Emma McBride, for her work on getting this essential facility into my community.

Medicare is one of the proudest achievements in our nation's history. It's a Labor legacy that we are working hard to strengthen. Labor built Medicare, and Labor are strengthening Medicare. We are doing the work, but we can't do it alone. To meet the needs of our growing community, we need the Queensland state government to get on with the Redcliffe Hospital expansion. This project was well underway under the previous Queensland government. The groundwork was done, the plans were in motion and the community was ready. But now the site sits idle. The work has stalled, and my community is crying out for progress. It has been paused for so long that the pilings are weathering in the sun and the rain. If we wait much longer, we risk having to redo the groundwork altogether, wasting time and taxpayer money. Every day this project is delayed our doctors, nurses and patients are forced to make do in a hospital that's already stretched beyond its limits. Redcliffe deserves better. The delays must stop. So I'm calling on the Queensland government to restart the work. Pick up the tools. Let's finish the job.