SAM RAE, MEMBER FOR HAWKE: Good morning. My name’s Sam Rae. We’re here at the Medicare Urgent Care Clinic in Sunbury. We announced this urgent care centre as part of the 2022 election campaign. It was a priority in our plan to fix Medicare and we opened it just twelve months later. Since then it’s seen 19,000 patients and become a critical component of the primary healthcare system here in Sunbury. You might ask why we needed to fix Medicare in the first place and the answer is Peter Dutton – he was voted the worst Health Minister in Australia’s history – of course tried to implement a GP tax, froze the Medicare rebate for six long years which starved GP practices in our community of the much-needed public funding that they need. Now on the weekend, the Prime Minister announced $8.5 billion to ensure that everyone in our community can get to see the GP – a bulk billed GP – when they need to. That’s a huge announcement for my community and it’s a huge announcement for every Australian. This election is going to be about Medicare. It’s going to be about who the Australian people trust to look after Medicare. Whether they’re going to trust Peter Dutton – the worst Health Minister in Australia’s history – or Anthony Albanese and Labor – Labor who invented Medicare – to stand up, to deliver the $8.5 billion investment we require to get Medicare back on track as we have done over the last term of government. So I’m very proud to be here today with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much Sam, and it’s great to be back in the electorate of Hawke. All of us in the Labor Party are jealous of anyone being the Member for 'Hawke' I’ve got to say. A great Australian who of course – one of his legacies is the creation of Medicare, some 41 years ago. It took a Labor government to introduce Medicare. After the Whitlam Government introduced Medibank, the Liberals came in under Fraser and got rid of it. Labor got re-elected, committed to re-establishing health care through Medicare and then of course John Howard went to election after election saying that he would get rid of Medicare. They then, of course, changed their tune a little bit. But what they continued to do was undermine Medicare. But no one undermined Medicare more than Peter Dutton. When he became Health Minister and he tried to introduce a tax every time people visited the GP, to abolish bulk billing. He tried to introduce a tax every time people visited an emergency department and a tax on pharmaceuticals. But he also ripped $50 billion out of funding from the Commonwealth to the hospital system in 2014. When he couldn’t get his way on the GP tax and other tax measures, he froze the Medicare rebate for six years which led to a freefall in the number of free services. And he said very clearly and explicitly that there were too many free health services through Medicare in this country. This wasn’t something that someone said early in their career as a thought bubble as a backbencher, this is what he said as Health Minister. So, you don’t need an x-ray to see right through Peter Dutton’s commitment to undermining Medicare because that is what he has done at every single opportunity and Australians simply can’t afford the bill that Peter Dutton will force them to pay. Here in this Medicare Urgent Care Clinic is just one of 87 around the country. At the last election we promised to build and open 50 during this term. The fact is we’ve exceeded that substantially. And the great benefit of the 19,000 Australians who’ve been through this Medicare Urgent Care Clinic at Sunbury is that all that they have needed is their Medicare card. They don’t need their credit card. All they have needed is this little green and gold piece of plastic that is a source of pride for Australia. And already we've seen doctors here this morning, one of whom has seen three young ones who have had accidents running around as kids do and have been able to provide the care that they need when they needed it for free. Now, our commitment on Sunday to build on the success of what we did in our last Budget, which was to triple the bulk billing incentive for 11 million Australians, such as people who were concession card holders or families with children, to extend that to all Australians. We know it will be successful because the decision that we made to triple the bulk billing incentive for those 11 million Australians has meant that 90 per cent of them have been bulk billed, have seen a doctor for free. So, we have the target of delivering 90 per cent for the entire Australian population by 2030. This is the biggest investment in Medicare by any government since Medicare was created. By the way, the second biggest was the one we did in last year's Budget. It is only Labor governments that will prioritise health care, prioritise education, dealing with cost of living pressures whilst Peter Dutton continues to be negative and wage an ideological contest, which is what he would do when it comes to healthcare. Happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the Coalition says now that the average Australian is paying 45 per cent more because bulk billing rates have fallen from 88 per cent to 77 per cent under your Government. Why has there been a decline in this and do you think that's a fair criticism from the Coalition?
PRIME MINISTER:Well, it's complete nonsense, of course. The fact is that one of the things that they did was to change figures so that during the COVID pandemic, when people went and got their jabs, they counted them as if that was part of the normal process of going to a doctor. So, look, the fact is that they presided over a decline in bulk billing. They did it not because it was an accident, they did it because that was their position. You know, you need to look at what – sometimes you need to look at what people do, not just what they say. In this case, Peter Dutton did what he said he wanted to do. He said there were too many free medical services through Medicare. You don't need an x-ray to see through what he's about when it comes to health policy, because it's front and centre, in his own words, in his own words as Health Minister.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what's wrong with Dutton making money out of property? Haven't you as well?
PRIME MINISTER: I make no comment about Peter Dutton's matters. That's a matter for him.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, in the paper today, it did seem Dutton had quite an extensive property and investment portfolio. Does his use of the trust fund pass the pub test?
PRIME MINISTER: It's a matter for Peter Dutton.
JOURNALIST: Going back to the Chinese ships and the live fire exercises. When was the government notified? Is it true that commercial passenger flights saw it first?
PRIME MINISTER: What has occurred there – and Defence will make some more comments about this today – but we have been conscious about the presence of Chinese ships and the expectation that we had through the Australian Defence Force. That's why we had monitoring between Australia and New Zealand –
JOURNALIST: But specifically –
PRIME MINISTER: Now in – well, if you wait, you'll get the answer. We had been monitoring along with New Zealand and the New Zealand vessel, of course, was tailing the task group as well. And so they were conscious and notified Defence as well. We've been working with our New Zealand colleagues, as I've said. I've been in contact by phone, of course, and have been discussing these issues with Prime Minister Luxon.
JOURNALIST: Specifically on the timing of it. I understand it's come out of estimates this morning that there was no notification from China until planes were flying over. Air Services was told first, is that correct?
PRIME MINISTER: The New Zealand task force was aware at the same time. There are two means.
JOURNALIST: When were Australians - ?
PRIME MINISTER:There were two means. New Zealand notified the Australian Defence Force, which is what we were cooperating on.
JOURNALIST: But was Air Services telling Defence before the New Zealand task force was?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I've just answered the question, which is that the, at around the same time there were two areas of notification. One was from the New Zealand vessels that were tailing. We were cooperating. We've been monitoring the vessels in the area by both sea and by air. So, that occurred, and at the same time, through the channels that occur when something like this is occurring, Air Services got notified as well.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Sky News last night revealed that Australians had attended the funeral of Hezbollah leader –
PRIME MINISTER: Sorry?
JOURNALIST: Sky News revealed last night that Australians had attended the funeral of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrullah. Should they come under scrutiny of ASIO as it is a terrorist organisation? Should they have been allowed to attend?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, ASIO does its job and scrutinises intelligence issues on behalf of Australia.
JOURNALIST: You're going to make a funding announcement a bit later today -
PRIME MINISTER: I am. Be patient!
JOURNALIST: Has the state been stalling on federal funding in a bid to, I guess, force your hand over SRL?
PRIME MINISTER: Not at all. The Victorian Government has, for the first time in a while, had a government that actually supports infrastructure investment here in Victoria. The Coalition Government, formerly, essentially reduced infrastructure investment here in Victoria to under 10 per cent. It fell as low as 7 per cent of the national budget even though Victoria is a growing state, even though one in four of Australians lives in this great state of Victoria. We have turned that around.
JOURNALIST: Is the announcement today a cash splash to woo Victorians because they were losing favourability with Labor?
PRIME MINISTER: No, this is Victoria getting its fair share of infrastructure spending, which is precisely what I promised to do. When we left office I was the Infrastructure Minister, as well as a few other jobs, and they ripped $3 billion, that had been allocated, out of the Melbourne Metro project. Melbourne Metro would be up and running right now. People would be riding on it if Tony Abbott hadn't have come in and they hadn't ripped that money out. We had a board that had an Australian Government representative on it. This was an important project and Victoria had to do it alone. Victoria has been, was left abandoned by the Federal Government for a long period of time. My Government is investing in Victorian infrastructure like we are right around the country.
JOURNALIST: Peter Dutton making money out of property – what's the next bit of dirt you're planning to throw it in? –
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, on the subject of infrastructure in Victoria, what are your backbenchers telling you about SRL?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Victorians want infrastructure.
JOURNALIST: Do all of your backbenchers want the SRL specifically?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes, yes. Victorians want infrastructure. That's what they want. That's what they want.
JOURNALIST: I’m asking you a different question. Do backbenchers want SRL? Not infrastructure, SRL.
PRIME MINISTER: Victorians want infrastructure. They want rail and they want roads. They want both. And I'll have more to say about that. I'll have more to say about that in a short period of time.
JOURNALIST: Are you prioritising the airport rail instead of the SRL?
PRIME MINISTER: I'll have more to say about that in a short period of time. Is anyone here from the Herald Sun? It's a serious question. The Herald Sun? I am a guest of the Herald Sun at lunchtime and I will do the right thing by the Herald Sun and give a speech to them, as I would if I was invited and a guest of any of your particular outlets. What outlet are you from?
JOURNALIST: Channel 10.
PRIME MINISTER: Channel 10. Well, if Channel 10 has a forum, what I won't do is come and tell Channel 7 and Channel 9, before I tell Channel 10, what I'm going to do.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, just on the Coalition lunch tax rate policy, your Treasurer was saying it would cost – blow out to about $10 billion. Treasury emails today said it's probably closer to $500 million to $1.6 billion. Did the Treasurer overshoot the mark there?
PRIME MINISTER: Not at all – what the Treasurer's done and I've done it too, if everyone uses it - If I say to you "Here you go", let's do a test here. Who here, if I say to them, "I'll give you $20,000 next year – you can have lunch with anyone who's a client, or a potential client, that is – could be anybody, really". Will you spend that $20,000 or will you go "oh no, I won't"? So, that's where the $10 billion figure comes from. I don't know about you, but I reckon if you go out there into the audience here at this Urgent Care Clinic, I reckon people, if they had the capacity, they'd say, yeah, I'll go and spend $20,000 if someone else is paying for that lunch. You know what, though? The difference is, the people out here waiting at the Urgent Care Clinic won't get the lunch, they'll just have to pay for it. And that's why this is such bad policy. Thanks very much.