QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Senator McALLISTER (New South Wales—Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) (14:27): I thank Senator Dolega for his advocacy for public health and, in particular, for the health of Tasmanians. The senator is right—Labor does believe that Australians should see a doctor when they're sick, not merely when they can afford to, and it is why we're delivering the biggest investment in Medicare in its history.

After a decade of neglect by the Liberals and the National Party, we are restoring every dollar that those opposite cut from bulk-billing, and we're seeing results. Since our bulk-billing investment kicked off on 1 November, over 3,800 GP practices are now fully bulk-billing. That is two years ahead of schedule.

In Tasmania, Senator Dolega will be interested to know, that means more than eight out of 10 visits to the GP are for free, and that is up 5½ percentage points from last year. But that is not all. We're also making sure that Australians have somewhere to turn when they need urgent care.

We've delivered 137 permanent Medicare urgent care clinics nationwide. In Senator Dolega's home state, enough Tasmanians have received care at Medicare urgent care clinics to sell out the UTAS stadium more than 10 times. But it is more than just the numbers, senators.

It means that, if your child wakes up with a high fever on a Sunday, if you get injured at a social sports game or if you need stitches, you do have somewhere to go without paying a bill. It also means you don't have to sit for hours in an emergency department for something that is not life-threatening, and it means that our hospitals can focus on the patients who genuinely need it.

So, when we talk about strengthening Medicare, it's not abstract for us. We are talking about sick children seeing a doctor. We are talking about a family getting urgent care without a bill.

Labor will always protect and strengthen Medicare. The PRESIDENT: Senator Dolega, first supplementary?