QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
Mr MARLES (Corio—Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence) (14:05): I thank the member for his question. On this Saturday 1 November, Labor's Bulk Billing Practice Incentive Program begins. This is an $8½ billion commitment, which will lead to nine out of 10 GP consults being bulk-billed.
Over the next four years, we will see around 4,800 GP clinics become bulk-billing practices. That represents more than 30 in each of our electorates. I can tell you that, as of the beginning of this week in my electorate, 13 practices—almost half the required number—have already expressed an interest before the program has started.
This will restore every dollar to Medicare that the Liberals cut. We will never forget that, in the first budget of the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government, they ripped $50 billion out of health. We'll never forget that the Liberals froze the Medicare rebate for six years, sending bulk-billing rates plummeting, and we will never forget that they tried to completely abolish bulk-billing through the introduction of a GP tax—a tax that the Leader of the Opposition, when she was the health minister, completely supported saying that its price signal was vital.
That is entirely consistent with her world view, because last year she said that, if you don't pay for something, you don't value it, and last week the Leader of the Opposition said that she was standing up against a 'culture of dependency'. This is actually a really clear view that the Leader of the Opposition is obviously deeply uncomfortable with the idea of Australians going to the GP for free.
The Liberals are now and have always been a material risk to Medicare. The Labor government has a very different view, because we believe that access to essential health care should be a basic right, and that's why we're doing even more. From 1 January, in just a couple of months, we're going to cap PBS scripts at just $25.
They haven't been that low since 2004. And we will continue the rollout of our urgent care clinics. We did 87 in our first term; we'll do 50 in this term—meaning that Australians in need of non-life-threatening urgent care can get it hours quicker, much more conveniently and completely for free.
Our government will defend public health. We will advance public health very much in the interests of every Australian.