CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS

Ms COLLINS (Franklin—Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) (16:33): During the election, health care—and indeed Medicare—was a really big issue in my electorate of Franklin, and it continues to be. That's why I'm so pleased that on 1 November this year the Albanese Labor government will be delivering the single biggest investment in Medicare since Labor created Medicare, a history of more than 40 years—$8.5 billion to strengthen bulk-billing.

I've already heard how difficult it is to access bulk-billing in Tasmania and in my own electorate of Franklin, and it has been getting tougher and tougher. It's always been difficult. What this means—and I'm hearing from some practices already that they will implement this—is that more Tasmanians will get to see a bulk-billing GP.

We want more Australians to access bulk-billing. We want more people to be able to walk into their GP clinic and get bulk-billed, thanks to the government tripling the incentive payments. We also know that, from 1 January, Tasmanians will be paying less for their medicines, thanks to our cheaper medicines policy.

We are cutting the cost of PBS general prescriptions again, down to just $25 from their current cost of $32, and we have capped the maximum cost of scripts for concession card holders at $7.70 because what we want is no-one having to make difficult decisions about which prescription to fill. Unfortunately, I know from talking to the pharmacists in my electorate that that has been the case over the last decade or so.

Our cheaper medicines policy is already working. We know that in Tasmania it has saved Tasmanians over $40 million to date and more than $7.6 million in my electorate of Franklin. Also, on 1 January next year 1800MEDICARE, free, nationwide, 24/7 health advice, will come into effect.

That will be connected to after-hours GP telehealth for people across the country because we know that these accidents don't always happen between nine and five. It's also why, from 1 July next year, we'll have a Medicare urgent care clinic in Kingborough in my electorate. This means that people living in Kingborough and the Huon Valley will soon have access to bulk-billed urgent care seven days a week without having to drive to Hobart to go to the Royal Hobart Hospital.

We've recently seen some data in Tasmania, particularly around the Launceston urgent care clinic, that says that around 50 per cent of those people would have gone to the emergency department if they couldn't access the Medicare urgent care clinics, so we know that they're working. Already more than 100,000 visits to Medicare urgent care clinics have happened for over 100,000 Tasmanians.

Everybody in my home state of Tasmania at the moment knows somebody who's had to use the urgent care clinics, and every single one of them has said what a great concept they are and how much they benefited from it. By the end of this year, we'll also have a new mental health headspace open in Bellerive in my electorate, funded by the Albanese Labor government.

This new headspace will make sure young people get the support that they need in terms of their mental health.