Mrs PHILLIPS (Gilmore) (15:12): My question is to the minister for health. What action is the Albanese Labor government taking to strengthen Medicare? Why is urgent action needed after a decade of cuts and neglect?
Mr BUTLER (Hindmarsh—Minister for Health and Aged Care and Deputy Leader of the House) (15:13): As the Treasurer said, we're so delighted to have the member for Gilmore back with us in the parliament. She has been a huge advocate for better health care on the South Coast. At the last election she argued very strongly for an urgent care clinic in her region, and already the Batemans Bay Medicare urgent care clinic has seen almost 5,000 patients—every single one of them fully bulk-billed for their service.
In the lead-up to the election, she was also one of many members now on this side of the parliament reporting growing concern in their community about the falling rates of bulk-billing for GP visits. Indeed, while the former government refused to publish the bulk-billing rates for GP visits in particular, when we came to government it became clear bulk-billing was in freefall. The reason why was just as clear, frankly: a decade of cuts to and neglect of Medicare—a deliberate program from the Liberal Party to undermine bulk-billing. Remember, the father of the modern Liberal Party, John Howard, described bulk-billing as 'an absolute rort'.
The former health minister, now the Leader of the Opposition, tried to abolish bulk-billing altogether. He said there were 'too many free Medicare services'. It's no wonder why doctors voted him the worst health minister in the 40-year history of Medicare. That's not our approach. For Labor, bulk-billing is literally the beating heart of Medicare. That's why we tripled the bulk-billing incentive in last year's budget—the biggest investment in bulk-billing in the 40-year history of Medicare. In the member for Gilmore's electorate, that lifted the payment for a standard bulk-billed GP consult by 50 per cent—something the college of GPs described as a 'game changer'.
On top of all that, the government has delivered the two biggest across-the-board increases to the Medicare rebate in 30 years, since Paul Keating was the Prime Minister—the biggest and the second-biggest increase in the Medicare rebate. We have increased the Medicare rebate in just two years by more than those opposite managed in nine long years. As a result of all this, in Gilmore the bulk-billing rate for GP visits in the last seven months has gone up by almost six per cent. And across the nation in May there were more than 900,000 additional free visits to the doctor—in just one month. That's what you get under this government. You get more bulk-billing and you get cheaper medicines. That is how you help with the cost of living, not by pushing up power prices with risky nuclear reactors.
