Joanne Ryan (Lalor, 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 making it easier for Australians to see a bulk-billing GP after a decade of cuts and neglect? What information is available about alternative policies?

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

Thank you to the member for Lalor. She is such a powerful advocate for a stronger Medicare, in part because she's such a true believer in universal health care but also in part because she's seen what a difference this is making to her community. Already, more than 33,000 people have gone through the Werribee Medicare Urgent Care Clinic. Every single one of them was fully bulk-billed. Today, more than 80 per cent of general practices in the member's electorate are bulk-billing all of their patients all of the time. We're seeing more bulk-billing right across the country. Before our investments on 1 November took place, only about 2,000 general practices in Australia were 100 per cent bulk-billing. We expected that number to get to 3,600 by 2028 on our way to our target of 90 per cent bulk-billing by the end of the decade. I can report that today that number is 3,581, up from 2,000 and just 19 short of our 2028 target, and it's increasing every single week. That's our plan. That's our approach.

But the member asked me about alternative approaches. As I said last week, the Leader of the Opposition is a little hard to pin down here because he's been just so busy wiping the historical slate clean. I went back to his personal website, and, still, there is not a single report of the media statements he made supporting Peter Dutton's GP tax and supporting the Medicare freeze. Indeed, if you type into the search engine of angustaylor.gov 'Medicare' or 'health', all you get, of course, is no response. I'm obsessed. I have to admit I'm obsessed with trying to find some record. It's hard. You've got to go back to the Wayback Machine, as I said to the new deputy leader of the Nationals. It's much like the Liberal Party election review, which—surprise, surprise—in 52 long, painful pages mentioned Medicare and health exactly not a single time. Apparently there was nothing to learn and no insights at all.

There is someone over there who is always overflowing with insights, and that is the shadow Treasurer—the man who wants to privatise Medicare. I wondered why. He gave an explanation about why he dislikes the current Medicare arrangements just last month. At this dispatch box, the shadow Treasurer described our healthcare system as 'a system designed to keep people ill to feed the benefits of the unions'. That's the insult the shadow Treasurer makes to Australia's doctors, to Australia's nurses and to Australia's hardworking health professionals. That's the different approach from those opposite.