Maria Kovacic (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I might repeat it because I can't remember where I got to. That's more than $2 billion charged to Australians' credit cards over the past year. That's $2 billion that people had to pay out of their pockets over the past year because their Medicare card was not sufficient to pay for their visit to the doctor. I think any type of falsehood is egregious, but I think when it comes to falsehoods in relation to medical treatment, where it's something that people don't choose to do but something they have to do, is actually even more egregious.

Australians aren't stupid. They know that they need to have their credit card or debit card or some cash when they go to the GP because the Medicare card is not enough. But what the Prime Minister has done here is create false expectations in the minds of Australian families at a time when they are already struggling under a cost-of-living crisis. That is quite appalling because he's giving them false messaging at a time when they can least afford it. It's not on something they may like to buy or something they may like to spend their money on but on their health care, which is something that they need to spend their money on. But now they're having to make decisions on whether they can actually afford it or not. What he has proven by doing this is that he really does not understand the cost-of-living pressures that everyday Australians are under. That in itself is a very, very sad thing.

I finish by saying that the coalition's record on Medicare is something that we are very proud of. Medicare bulk-billing was higher under the coalition. Regardless of what those opposite want to say, the numbers don't lie—88 per cent is more than 77 per cent, whichever way you want to cut it. In the coalition's last year, 167.2 million free GP services were delivered. This is 61 million more than under the previous Labor government.