Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much for the question, Senator Ananda-Rajah. Our commitment to the Australian people is very clear, and you are part of that, Senator, as a key advocate for public health in our caucus. We are a government that seeks to strengthen Medicare. We are a government that seeks to rebuild our system of universal health care, and there are now 130 Medicare urgent care clinics open across Australia.

Australians have made 2.6 million visits to urgent care clinics, and they are game changers for families. One-third of patients are under the age of 15, and the clinics are giving more and more working families across our suburbs access to the urgent care that they need. Once we open the full range of urgent care clinics, four out of five Australians will live within a 20-minute drive of one of these clinics. These services are making and will make a material difference to people's lives. But it turns out that what some people see as commonsense, practical policy draws out some pretty notable distinctions across the chamber.

We say that urgent care clinics help free up space in our hospital emergency rooms and local general practices for the people who need help most. Those opposite and the new leader of the opposition say that funding for urgent care clinics is wasteful spending. We say that the only card you should need to access the care that you need is your Medicare card, and those opposite and the new shadow treasurer say that we ought to see—

Opposition senators interjecting —

You might want to listen to what your shadow Treasurer has said. He said that we ought to see the transfer of healthcare funding from government to individuals. It's an interesting idea because, if the shadow Treasurer gets his way, the only card that will get you health care might be a platinum Amex. That might work well for the shadow Treasurer, but it won't work for the vast majority of the Australian people.