Portfolio — 24 March 2026
The Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention and Assistant Minister for Rural and Regional Health, Ms McBride, used the second reading debate on the Appropriation Bill (No.3) 2025–2026 to catalogue the government's layered health and cost-of-living investments, with sustained emphasis on services reaching regional Australians.
On urgent care, Ms McBride reported that Medicare urgent care clinics — fully bulk-billed, extended hours, no appointment required — have recorded more than 2.7 million presentations nationally since opening in mid-2023, with nearly 60,000 of those across the three clinics on the Central Coast of New South Wales [TA-260324-house-a9c2a02c99ed:s024]. The figure anchors the government's argument that the clinics are diverting pressure from emergency departments at scale.
On mental health infrastructure, the network of Medicare mental health centres is expanding from 53 currently open to 92, offering free walk-in wraparound support staffed by multidisciplinary teams — psychologists, social workers, counsellors, and peer workers — with no appointment, diagnosis, or referral required [TA-260324-house-a9c2a02c99ed:s024]. A new centre is expected to open on the Central Coast by mid-2026.
Ms McBride also announced that Gosford headspace will be uplifted to headspace Plus to address complex and ongoing youth mental health challenges, situated within a record $750 million election commitment to youth mental health services [TA-260324-house-a9c2a02c99ed:s024].
On medicines affordability, Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme general prescription costs have been cut from $42.50 to $25 — the lowest general copayment since 2004 — while concession prescriptions have been frozen at $7.70 through to the end of the decade [TA-260324-house-a9c2a02c99ed:s024]. Ms McBride presented this alongside the fee-free TAFE figures: more than 13,000 Central Coast residents have enrolled, saving the region a collective $12 million in course fees, with the strongest uptake in early childhood education and aged care.
The ministerial messaging frames these investments as a coherent affordability and access package rather than discrete portfolio items — urgent care clinics reduce the cost of seeking care, mental health centres reduce barriers to psychological support, PBS changes reduce medicine costs, and fee-free TAFE reduces the cost of retraining into care sector roles.
The recurrent Central Coast references signal that Ms McBride is also making an electorate-level case within the broader appropriations debate.
The official records this note draws on — the raw primary documents themselves, as published.