Health Insurance Amendment (Incentive Payments and Other Measures) Bill 2026

Mr McCORMACK (Riverina) (18:02): The Health Insurance Amendment (Incentive Payments and Other Measures) Bill 2026 is important. Certainly, when it comes to health, I acknowledge that today, 1 July, we see, as we heard in question time today, five new drugs on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. As I said earlier, in the discussion on the matter of public importance, this is important because it actually saves lives.

Any time that any federal government—it doesn't matter what political persuasion they are—puts new drugs onto the PBS, that is going to make such a difference. It is going to make such a difference for those people who are on that medication. It's going to save them money.

But ultimately, in the long run, it saves people's lives. I know the number of medications that former minister for health Greg Hunt, the former member for Flinders, put on the PBS, and I acknowledge that the Minister for Health and Ageing has continued that tradition. Aren't we a lucky country?

People can afford their prescriptions, and I appreciate the work that has been done in that space, particularly in a cost-of-living crisis. I was at my friendly pharmacist only the other day, and the chemist was telling me about a particular drug that is used in IVF. A local woman availed herself of this particular medication, and it was costing a very small amount.

But a relative of hers who lives in the United States was paying somewhere in the order of more than $30,000 for the same drug. We often talk about the lucky country. But certainly, when it comes to health, we very much are because, whilst we can always have improvements in the health system, when it comes to making sure that people are looked after there is not only the safety net of Medicare and the safety net of bulk-billing, but we've got a medical system second to none in the world.

I will always say that. It doesn't matter who's in power; it's there, and it's to be commended. The coalition supports Commonwealth health incentive payment programs.

In fact, just like putting drugs on the PBS, we established several of these whilst in government. The coalition is not opposing the bill in the House, but we do believe earnestly that the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee needs to examine this and needs to give it further scrutiny because, often with Labor, the devil is in the detail. I know the member for Lindsay has moved an amendment, and I commend that to the House.

That particular amendment highlights the government's failings and actions in some areas of primary care. Certainly, we will continue to look at Labor's comments and statements around Medicare, and we'll continue to hold the government to account, as a good opposition should. We have to.

I noted in question time today that the Prime Minister, in describing how good the government is and what changes are going across the board from 1 July, mentioned that bulk-billing rates are on the rise. Let me tell you, if you are in regional Australia, then bulk-billing rates are not on the rise. In fact, the last time I looked, bulk-billing rates were at 77 per cent, whereas they were at 88 per cent when the coalition was in government.

That is a fall of 11 per cent. Labor cannot crow about having increased bulk-billing rates when, in fact, the recent statistics show quite the opposite. We talk often in this place about the urgent care clinics.

Well, they might be fine if you're in an electorate that is served by one. But let me tell you that there are many, many regional seats that do not have an urgent care clinic. I hear the member for Lyne talking about Taree often; she would love for her constituents to have one of those clinics, to have the after-hours care and to have that provision of particular health services.

But, right across regional Australia, there are so many areas where you just don't have bulk-billing doctors. I've given the health minister a bouquet; I'm now going to give him a brickbat. The health minister, in response to a question about bulk-billing services—I'm paraphrasing, but they were words to the effect of: 'If you can't get a bulk-billing doctor in the first instance, just ring another practice.

Just ring another doctor and use that one.' Well, that might be all well and good in the leafy suburbs of Adelaide, where the health minister resides, but it's not out in regional Australia, because the nearest bulk-billing doctor would probably be about 300 kilometres away. We just don't have the provision of bulk-billing services that you see in metropolitan Australia.

The other great concern I have—and I know the member for Wannon will share this view with me—is the distribution priority areas. That provision of services was one of the first things that Labor changed. One of the first things they did when they came to office in May 2022 was take away the DPAs, the distribution priority areas.

Well, they didn't take them away; they actually extended them to Newcastle and Wollongong and areas of the Gold Coast. Good luck to those doctors who wanted to practice in those sorts of areas. But, for really remote regional communities, what happened?

Don't just take my word for it; it was the Rural Doctors Association and other stakeholder groups in the medical field who complained bitterly about this because what the doctors in some of those areas did was take the shingle off the clinic and move to the seaside. They moved away from inland Australia, remote Australia. In some cases, some of those areas now do not enjoy the health services that they once did.

It's such a shame, and it's so wrong. It is just so wrong, because we do need to have more medical services. I'm very, very proud of the fact that, whilst I was the Deputy Prime Minister under Malcolm Turnbull, we, as the coalition, managed to fund the Murray-Darling Medical Schools Network.

What that does is provide training for young potential doctors from start to finish in Mildura, Bendigo, Shepparton, Orange, Dubbo and Wagga Wagga. A six-year course is begun and completed within one of those regional settings. We know from statistics provided that, in three-quarters of cases—and it's not just in the medical field; it's in so many areas of endeavours—when young people go to university in a regional setting, chances are they'll stay in that regional setting once they graduate and get their diploma.

They fall in love with the area. They realise they can make money in the area. They realise there's a need in the area.

Some of them even fall in love with someone in the area. It's a romantic way of getting people to stay, but, I tell you what, it's also a romantic way of getting more doctors in the bush—and our regional areas do need more doctors. When it comes to the distribution priority areas, it's going to take a while to make up that shortfall.

But make up that shortfall we will. The member for Macarthur, Dr Freelander, helped me open the Wagga Wagga facility. Even though Labor had nothing to do with the funding or the construction of it, I was pleased that the member for Macarthur was there.

He, like me, shares concerns over health. I'm not verballing or disparaging him; he is a good man. He understands the complexities and shortfalls in many regional areas.

I appreciate and acknowledge that there are regional members in the Labor caucus as well. But what we really need to do is make sure that we, at every step of the way, provide the funding where it is most needed. I have to say that I think we're eventually going to have to look at the Medicare provider numbers for some of those graduates—and for some of those people coming to Australia from overseas to practice, and even for some of the doctors who are graduating from the sandstone universities.

It's not right or fair and it's un-Australian that too many regional people are waiting weeks and weeks in pain for the absence of a doctor when some areas—the leafy eastern suburbs of Sydney and elsewhere—have a doctor just about every square kilometre. It is simply not right. We need to do better and we need to provide more services for country areas.

One of the provisions in the budget which I was most exercised about, as were many of my constituents, was the change for older Australians in their private health rebate. All that is going to do is push older Australians who are in more need of health care and should be actually using private health into the public state health system. It's cost shifting.

That's what it's doing. This Labor government is guilty of cost shifting not only in the space I just mentioned but certainly in the National Disability Insurance Scheme space. I hosted a forum in between the sitting weeks for service providers and families using the NDIS.

Listening to the stories from families whose little ones, whose vulnerable ones, have been able to get care and provision because they live in a major regional hub such as Wagga Wagga but now, because of changes to the NDIS and this crackdown on the dodgy, shonky and charlatan providers—and I'm not against it—are going to miss out was heart-wrenching. This is what happens.

It's not the ones who should be getting taken off the system and having their funds cut away from them. It's the ones who most need it, who most need the speech therapy, the physical care, the psychological care or the autism care, and they are not going to get it. Earlier this year—it was, I have to say, a blight on this Labor government—the government packaged the travel component into the service fee.

What that meant for towns such as Tumut, Gundagai, Cootamundra and Temora, in my electorate, which are about an hour away from the regional hub that is Wagga Wagga, where a lot of the service providers are—those good, professional, caring, loving service providers who've done the job for many, many years—was that all of a sudden they found that the travel component was packaged in with the total overall cost.

They can't run a business on the smell of an oily rag. Whilst they are still continuing to do it for many, if not all, of their clients, they can't keep doing it. We've lost 40,000 small businesses already because of some of the policies of this Labor government and the overall decline of the economy.

But these NDIS providers that were providing travel to those towns about an hour's drive of Wagga Wagga now simply can't keep up with the cost of fuel, the cost of staffing and the cost of service provision when their fees are being reduced in this way. Meanwhile, we've got the shonky providers still operating. There has to be a crackdown.

There has to be a proper audit in this space, and there has to be something done. I acknowledge that. But the vulnerable young people who need the care the most are now missing out, and the families are very upset.

They're very worried. It's going to end up, as it already currently is, in a bureaucratic nightmare.