QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Senator McALLISTER (New South Wales—Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) (14:29): Medicare billing data shows that our record investment in Medicare saw an additional six million bulk-billed GP visits in the year to December 2024. It stands in stark contrast—doesn't it, colleagues?—to the record of those opposite. The truth is that there's a reason that bulk-billing rates were in freefall; it was the coalition's six-year freeze on the Medicare rebate, which ripped billions out of Medicare.

The AMA estimated that the coalition would've taken $8.3 billion out of Medicare by 2027-28 if they'd been allowed to go on. They then tried to hide it. They tried to hide their bulk-billing records—inflating the figures by relying on massive numbers of COVID related bulk-billing during the pandemic.

But Australians knew the truth. It had never been harder to see a doctor than under the governance of those opposite.