QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
Mr BUTLER (Hindmarsh—Minister for Disability and the National Disability Insurance Scheme, Minister for Health and Ageing and Deputy Leader of the House) (15:05): Thank you to the member for Robertson, who is affectionately known as Dr Gordon in his electorate, where he still pulls shifts as an emergency physician at the Wyong hospital. Through that work and his other work as a doctor he is a terrific source of advice to us about our program to strengthen Medicare, and I'm glad to say he's seeing the results in his own electorate.
Our record investment in bulk-billing in November last year has already seen the bulk-billing rate climb by more than 10 per cent for people who don't have that concession card—more than 10 per cent in just five months. At around the same time, we opened the urgent care clinic at Erina. That has already seen about 9,000 patients, and from tomorrow the Erina urgent care clinic will become a permanent feature of our healthcare system, along with the other 136 clinics that we have delivered.
As I said, last week, we opened the last of the 137 clinics we committed to delivering before 30 June. It was in Caloundra, in the electorate of Fisher, and, just like the urgent care clinic at Erina, the Liberal Party refused to match our commitment to the urgent care clinic at Caloundra in the member for Fisher's electorate. I say to the member for Fisher in his absence that at least we had his back on the Sunshine Coast.
More than 3.2 million Australians have now gone through these new clinics. They're staffed by high-quality doctors and nurses, they're open seven days a week and they're fully bulk-billed. That confidence to try something new comes from knowing that these clinics are backed by Medicare—that cornerstone of the world's best health system.
They're not just urgent care clinics; they're Medicare urgent care clinics. There's been a bit of chatter recently about older brands getting a bit stale—chatter that happened again this morning, for some reason—and older brands needing a bit of glitter and a bit of pizzazz. Well, I can tell you that the Medicare brand needs no pizzazz.
It doesn't need any glitter, because it hasn't changed in 40 years. People still get the same Medicare cards that Bob Hawke was posting out to people in 1984, and people still trust that brand more than ever before because it delivers for them. It delivers real change in their lives.
It builds a healthy Australia, and that, Mr Speaker, is how you build a strong brand.