PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS

Dr FREELANDER (Macarthur) (11:20): Medicare has been the backbone of my professional life as a paediatrician for over 40 years. Mr Wallace: Hear, hear! And a very good one you've been, too, I've heard.

Dr FREELANDER: I thank the honourable member. In fact, I opened my paediatric clinic in Macarthur the same day that Medicare was launched by the Hawke government in 1984. In that time, I've seen the transformational significance that Medicare—and bulk-billing, for that matter—has had on communities like mine in Campbelltown and Camden.

I've seen many efforts to downgrade Medicare, from the Fraser government destroying Gough Whitlam's Medibank to the Howard government attempting to destroy Bob Hawke's Medicare. We even saw attempts under the Abbott government to introduce a co-payment, a way of rationing health care, particularly to people who are disadvantaged. When we came into government in 2022, we saw firsthand what a decade of cuts and neglect had done to Medicare.

It had never been harder or more expensive to find a bulk-billing GP, and this was having a real effect on the health and wellbeing of people in my electorate. It was having an impact on our local hospitals, too; our emergency departments became overcrowded with patients who couldn't afford to get into bulk-billing GPs sooner. Fortunately, Labor understands Medicare.

It is a part of our DNA. No-one should forget that. We are the one party of government in Australia that supports our universal healthcare insurance system, known as Medicare.

So we've got on with addressing the serious shortfalls that were affecting bulk-billing rates across the country, particularly with general practitioners. This was led by our historic $8.5 billion investment into Medicare—the single largest investment in Medicare since its creation over 40 years ago—which has delivered more bulk-billing, and more doctors that bulk-bill, so that Australians can see a GP without added costs and get access to health care in an affordable and timely manner.

I know the member for Mackellar, who spoke prior to me, as a very highly respected general practitioner in her electorate, also understands the importance of Medicare. Australians know the importance of Medicare, and, to be honest, it was one of the reasons that we had such a resounding win by the Albanese government in the last federal election. I'm very proud that, after this historic investment in Medicare, bulk-billing rates in Macarthur have risen to an incredible 98 per cent of GP visits as of March this year.

Bolstering this is the number of Medicare bulk-billing practices in Macarthur, which has now grown to 45, an increase of 14 since our historic investment into our beloved Medicare system. Aiding our GP clinics and helping reduce pressure on our emergency departments are our innovative Medicare urgent care clinics, and I'm proud to have one which is working very well in my electorate of Macarthur.

It opened in December 2023 and, since then, has seen over 32,000 presentations. Around the country, we've opened all of the 137 urgent care clinics we promised to deliver during the last election, with more than three million presentations having been made to urgent care clinics across the country. Whether it's leaving a bulk-billing practice or the urgent care clinic with a script, patients are still benefitting from the strong investment into health care and historic improvements from our cheaper medicines policy, which is saving them money every time they go to the pharmacy and ensuring those needing medication can afford and access it.

In Macarthur, there have been over 2.3 million cheaper medicine scripts prescribed to individuals, resulting in over $14 million of savings to patients in the Macarthur electorate. Considering that we inherited a broken bulk-billing system and a neglected Medicare, I'm very proud of the tremendous work that our government has done during the four years that we have been in federal power.

There's more to be done, I agree—there certainly is more to be done. The college of GPs recently presented to the health committee the importance of more prolonged consultations for things like addiction medicine, for dealing with mental health challenges and for some of the chronic illnesses that many of our constituents suffer from. But I'm very proud of what we've done.

There's more to be done. It is part of our DNA. We will make sure that our health system is strengthened every time we can.

I'm very proud of the actions of this government in health care.