We continue the death to dixers campaign.

Sussan Ley moves on to Medicare. It’s almost as if the Coalition has remembered there are public services they could be advocating for!

On 28 February the Prime Minister told Australians, “Under Labor all you’ll need to see a GP is your Medicare card, not your credit card.” But on TV this morning the Health Minister said, “We never said there would be 100% bowl willing.” Prime Minister, how many Australians have had to use their credit card to see a GP since the day you promised they wouldn’t need to.

Albanese:

I’m absolutely delighted to talk about Medicare, Mr Speaker. Because what the member opposite has said is to quote us at the Launceston launch in the electorate of Bass when we launched our tripling of the bolt billing incentive for all, for all Australians. Now, that followed our previous budget where we tripled the bulk billing incentive for concession cardholders that has resulted in 90% of those concession cardholders seeing a doctor for free with bulk billing.

There are many interjections from the Coalition. Milton Dick is still trying to pretend he can wrangle the chamber into some sort of decorum and tells everyone to shut it.

Albanese:

So, this a .5 billion-dollar investment in Medicare, which we said at the time would lift bulk billing rates for every patient to 90% by 2030, cutting costs for Australians, improving care, and supporting GPs. That’s the policy that we announced. And you might remember, Mr Speaker, that before I’d finished that speech in the electorate of Bass, within our member of us introducing us there

Ley has a point of order that is not a point of order and Dick reminds here again to stop abusing the point of orders. Honestly you can set a clock to this stuff.

Albanese continues:

You may well recall, Mr Speaker, the policy being matched almost before I’d finished my speech. And at the time, at the time we put our written documentation, we had costed policies, Mr Speaker, I’m not surprised that the Opposition don’t recognise this territory, but we had costed policies of a $.5 billion to deliver, to lift bulk billing rates to 90% by 2030.

The timeline hasn’t changed, the investment is unchanged, the modelling is the same. The question is has the Coalition change their position? Because when I made the announcement on the dates that the member suggested of course they said that they would back it and now it appears that they don’t back it.

Now it appears they don’t support it, which isn’t surprising given that when they came into office last time, as we reminded people once or twice during the election campaign, they tried to abolish bulk billing altogether by introducing a Medicare co-payments. In one of the big differences in this chamber is that we on the side value Medicare, those on that side are led by someone who said if you don’t pay for it you don’t value it.

If you don’t pay for it, you don’t value it. Well, we value Medicare, we will defend Medicare, and they will always undermine it.