STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator ANANDA-RAJAH (Victoria) (13:38): Labor is putting the paddles on Medicare. We are charging up the machine, and on 1 November we will be delivering its first shock. When we came to government, Medicare was on its deathbed.

It had a pulse, but it was thready. So we are injecting some life-saving drugs, to the tune of $8½ billion. This is the largest investment in Medicare in its 41-year history.

And what is it designed to do? It's designed to lift bulk-billing rates again. This is the Holy Grail that we have been seeking for a long, long time—for years, since we came to government in May 2022.

We knew that bulk-billing was in freefall. And those weren't our words; those were the words of the head of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. Bulk-billing was in freefall.

It was on its knees. So, in November 2023, we introduced a tripling of the bulk-billing incentive for a targeted group of people—for kids, for pensioners, for concession card holders—and what we saw was an uplift in bulk-billing for this group of patients. Nine out of 10 Australians in this cohort are now receiving bulk-billed care.

To those naysayers who don't believe this is going to work, remember this: we've already run the pilot; it did work. Even before the kick-off date—when we shock the system back to life on Saturday—we have at least 1,000 general practices already signed up, who have said hand on heart that they are going to be bulk-billing again. I say to the Australian people: go to the Healthdirect website and have a look at whether those practices live near you.

I also urge you, when you go and see your GP next, to ask the question of either your GP or your practice manager: 'Are you bulk-billing? If not, why not?'