QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
Mr ALBANESE (Grayndler—Prime Minister) (14:51): I thank the member for Dickson for her question, as someone who we welcome back to the parliament. The last time we spoke the member for Dickson was still in hospital receiving the sort of care that comes through our public health system and makes an enormous difference in order for people to fully contribute to society.
The member for Dickson will be contributing for a long time—I have no doubt about that—as a member of this place and as a champion of that community in the northern suburbs of Brisbane. On Saturday we deliver the biggest investment in Medicare since Labor created it 40 years ago, tripling the bulk-billing incentive for every Australian. It was a commitment we made in the electorate of Bass in January or February at the beginning of this year, but we are now delivering, creating a new incentive payment for GP clinics to bulk-bill every patient.
The good news is that more than 1,000 clinics have already signed up to become fully bulk-billed because of our investment. Today I was with the minister and senator for the ACT, Senator Gallagher, Dr Conrad and a couple of his patients, John and Lucio. Lucio had been going to that clinic for 40 years; John, for over a decade.
We heard firsthand the difference that bulk-billing of Medicare will make. Dr Conrad, at that clinic, specialises in sun checks for people's skin, something that we know is an example of where early intervention and identification is not only good for patients but also saves money for the system. If you get health care right, if you intervene early, if a GP has a relationship with the patients they look after—and many of us have had the same GP for a long time—from that understanding and the care and trust which has built up, you get better health care, which benefits the individual.
It also will stop what might be a small problem from becoming an acute healthcare issue. That is why that community around Belconnen, where we were today, will benefit from this. It's one of the many clinics making this decision.
As they make that assessment about what is in the financial interest of the clinics—because some 18,000 of them will be better off—that will provide the incentive for us to deliver 90 per cent bulk-billing, which is the object of this policy.