Press conference with Minister Butler, Adelaide – 29 July 2026

Media event date: 29 July 2026 Date published: 29 July 2026 Media type: General public CLAIRE CLUTTERHAM, MEMBER FOR STURT: Good morning everyone, my name is Claire Clutterham, I'm the Federal Member for Sturt in the Australian Parliament, and we're here this morning at Erindale Health and Medical Centre in beautiful Erindale in the eastern part of Sturt. Now, this medical centre was previously a mixed billing clinic, and now thanks to the Federal Government's record investment in Medicare, it is a fully bulk billed practice and it becomes one of 25 fully bulk billed practices across the electorate of Sturt.

I'm here this morning with the Federal Health Minister Mark Butler, and also the senior general practitioner here at the clinic, Dr John Oloo, who is going to tell us why the Government's record investment in Medicare, supporting bulk billed GP practices are so important. And it's not just bulk billed clinics, it's cheaper medicines, it's women's health, it's urgent care clinics.

Dr Oloo and Minister Butler, would you like to tell us more about the success of the government's bulk billing initiative? MARK BUTLER, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING, MINISTER FOR DISABILITY AND THE NDIS: Thanks Claire. It's so good to be back in your beautiful electorate, coming from the western suburbs of Adelaide into the eastern suburbs of Adelaide.

Claire has been a terrific advocate for our Strengthening Medicare agenda. We wanted more bulk billing, we want more doctors. We're rolling out urgent care clinics including here in Sturt and of course, making medicines cheaper, getting those medicine prices down to levels we haven't seen since 2004.

Here is a terrific success story of our bulk billing investments. As Claire knows, when we came to government in 2022, bulk billing was falling off a cliff. It reduced by more than 10 per cent in just one year because of a Medicare rebate freeze that had been in place for six years.

Our record investments are seeing that turn around, and that includes here in Sturt. Across South Australia since October last year, we've seen a number of practices that bulk bill all of their patients, all of the time double in just several months. We’ve seen the bulk billing rate increase to over 80 per cent again in South Australia generally.

In Sturt, the bulk billing rate is up by more than 10 per cent because of our investments. That means more patients are able to go to the doctor whenever they feel they need to rather than checking their bank account or their credit card and seeing whether they can afford to. I want to thank Dr Oloo and his associates at this practice.

This is one of the practices that took up our offer through our record investment to become a fully bulk billing practice. I'm sure Dr Oloo has a few things to say about what that’s meant for the practice. Thank you, Doctor.

DR JOHN OLOO, DOCTOR AT ERINDALE MEDICAL AND HEALTH: Thank you, Minister, the Honourable Mark Butler, and the Federal Member, Claire. Thanks for visiting us this morning. We are so grateful to host you here.

And just to say briefly about running a medical practice where we are at the moment. Over the years the cost for running the business got higher and higher and became unsustainable with bulk billing. And just after COVID, we were actually forced to transition to a mixed billing practice.

Since the Government investment into increasing the incentives, we fully took up the offer and the challenge to bulk bill all our clients, because at the end of the day, we really want to serve the local community and give back to the community. And one of the best ways is to make sure that healthcare is accessible to our clients. With mixed billing, our clients had to think about whether they are able to afford on that day and all that.

It became harder and harder on our patients. We have some of the most vulnerable patients around as well who are struggling, and with the increasing cost health services get pushed to the back, and then you see people wait, so I'm glad that the government has invested more in this. We are able to service our clients and not ask them to pay anything.

And I’m hoping that both the state and federal governments are going to continue to invest more in primary care, so that we get more and more doctors joining, and more and more people enjoying the service. Thank you. The Hon Mark Butler MP Primary care Accessibility We acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians of Country throughout Australia, and their continuing connection to land, sea and community.

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