KRISTY MCBAIN, MINISTER FOR REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT, LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND TERRITORIES: Well, good morning. It's a real pleasure to welcome you to Queanbeyan, the heart of the nation's capital. I'm just kidding. We're obviously over the border in New South Wales. But we're very excited to have the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, here and the Minister for Health, Mark Butler, to make this announcement in Queanbeyan today. Urgent care clinics are required right across this country, and it's no different here in Queanbeyan. Over 70 per cent of presentations to Queanbeyan District Hospital's emergency department in 22-23 were for non-urgent or semi-urgent matters. As a mum of three, I know sometimes things can go wrong. When they go wrong, they go wrong in a hurry. I've had to rush my child to hospital a number of times because he, as an asthmatic, has gone downhill really quickly. Sometimes it could be controlled pretty easily. Other times not so much. But if we had an urgent care clinic, I would have been able to go more locally to somewhere and get some advice straight away. Things like this happen to parents every day of the week, sometimes outside of our normal business hours, sometimes on weekends. And it's incredibly important that we as a Labor Government continue to invest in Medicare, to strengthen the system that has helped so many Australians for 40 years now, to do that in every town, every village and every city across the country. And I'm incredibly proud to be part of a team that will continue to invest in Medicare, will continue to roll out urgent care clinics like the one that will be right here in Queanbeyan at the Brindabella Medical Practice.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Well, thanks so much, Kristy. At the last election campaign, we promised Medicare urgent care clinics in order to bridge that divide, create a mid-tier if you like, between the emergency departments of hospitals and the local GPs so that if young Johnny or Mary fell off the skateboard or the bike, they had somewhere to go to get it fixed, so that someone who needed urgent care, but one that wasn't life threatening, had somewhere to go, rather than sitting in the emergency department waiting room for hour after hour while more urgent cases jumped the queue, understandably. This is about taking pressure off our public hospital system, but also delivering a different form of primary healthcare. We promised 50 urgent care clinics. We delivered 58 by the end of last year. And in our recent Budget, we promised 29 more, because this has been so effective. And I'm so proud that today I can announce that there are now 500,000 Australians have received urgent healthcare at our urgent care clinics right around the country. Right around the country, in our cities and regional towns, in our outer suburbs as well - making a difference for people's health. It's a part of our strengthening of Medicare. It's why we tripled the bulk billing incentive to make a difference and to encourage the use of GPs for free. The great thing about these urgent care clinics is you don't need a credit card. You just need your Medicare card. It's free. Making an enormous difference. And it is having an impact. And it's like the other measures that we put in place this week.
This week, on July 1, we had tax cuts for 13.6 million Australians. That's made an enormous difference. As people are receiving their pay packets this week, and in coming weeks, there is more cash going into their pockets. In addition to that, 2.6 million workers on award wages received a wage increase this week. So, we want Australians to earn more and keep more of what they earn. In addition to that, the freezing of PBS payments means that for one year, across the board, for people getting those essential pharmaceuticals, but for five years if you're a pensioner or a health card recipient as well, that freezing will make an enormous difference. In addition to that, on Monday, we began the additional two weeks paid parental leave. And people got more super as well. All of these measures to address cost of living whilst continuing to put that downward pressure on inflation, which is why we designed the $300 that will go for everyone's household bills in a way, rather than a cash payment, in a way, that will assist by reducing people's bills, $300 for every household and $325 for every small business. All of these measures are a part of a Government that is making sure that we deliver for people. We understand so many people are doing it tough. And we want to make a substantial difference to them.
And all of these measures, including today, the announcement of an urgent care clinic here in Queanbeyan will make a difference as well. In addition to all of that, dealing with the short-term, this week, we introduced our Future Made in Australia legislation. This is about how the economy grows in the future, how we seize the opportunities from clean energy for Australia to be a renewable energy superpower, how we work with the critical minerals industry, how we give support to advanced manufacturing and make more things here, make our economy more resilient. And that stands in stark contrast to what we've seen from our opponents this week. A nuclear thought bubble, still uncosted. Don't know how many reactors there'll be. Don't know how many gigs of energy will be produced. Don't know how they'll overcome the planning issues. Don't know how they'll connect up with the grid, given six of the seven sites have said, ‘No, thanks. We've got other things planned for those sites, some of which are well underway’. Port Augusta’s done. Liddell in the Hunter Valley is going to be the focus of SunDrive, producing the most efficient solar panels in the world, creating more jobs there than were in the old Liddell Power Station. In addition to that, of course, we had the bizarre, I guess, consistent with state ownership of the means of energy production, we're now going to have an intervention where one would assume in the town here, if Woolies will be forced to sell, guess who's going to buy? Coles? Or will we have a nationalised supermarket chain? This isn't a supermarket policy. It's a super-Marxist policy. It's bizarre that the party that used to once believe in free markets and supporting business have gone down this populist nonsense road that they have in so many areas, rather than practical plans. Our plan is for significant fines for supermarkets that engage in non-competitive conduct and that don't do the right thing by farmers or consumers. Our plans for a mandating of the consumer code of conduct, as opposed to what used to be there a voluntary code.
Now, they were in Government for almost a decade. Didn't bother to even make the code of conduct mandatory, but now they're going to force divestment for sales, as if somehow there'll be this new entry and that people will decide, ‘I want to own and run a supermarket, and that's the way you'll get more competition’. It's nonsense, just as their plan for nuclear power is nonsense as well. When coal-fired power stations exit the system, we actually need energy security, which is why business are saying they want the investment certainty, which is why they support our coherent plan that is fully costed, that is delivering in jobs and in the transition to cleaner energy, creating those opportunities.
And finally, on Monday, we had the swearing in of a new Governor-General. And Her Excellency, Sam Mostyn, will be an outstanding Governor-General. I heard last night at the Australian Council of Local Government dinner, and again this morning, I had mayors and shire presidents coming out to me who hadn't seen Her Excellency before, just saying how wonderfully warm and engaging and empathetic and what a great choice she was as Governor-General. And I have no doubt that that's the case. We'll hear from Mark as the Health Minister, and then we're happy to take questions, and also happy to welcome Steve Whan, who's an old mate of mine from a long time. And it's fantastic to be back here. I think last time I was here, you were the candidate for Monaro rather than the local Member and a Minister in the New South Wales Minns Government.
MARK BUTLER, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE: Thank you, Prime Minister, and thank you to the Brindabella Family Practice for allowing us to interrupt your very busy morning to talk about this incredibly exciting announcement for the community around Queanbeyan. The Prime Minister and I, at the last election, promised Australians we would strengthen Medicare. And over the last two years, we've been busy delivering on that promise through three major initiatives. But it made a real difference to local communities like the one that Kristy McBain represents here.
The first was to triple the bulk billing incentive. The bulk billing was in free fall when we came to government, so we injected $3.5 billion dollars last year, the biggest ever investment, into reversing that decline in bulk billing, particularly for GP visits. In May alone, that delivered more than 900,000 additional free visits to the doctor across Australia. And here in Kristy’s electorate of Eden-Monaro, the bulk billing rate since November for GP visits has climbed by 7.5 per cent, one of the biggest increases you'll see anywhere in the country.
The second initiative was to make medicines cheaper. We know that's not just good for the hip pocket, it's also good for your health. Because too many Australians simply aren't able to afford the medicines their doctors have said are important for their health because of the cost of living pressures we know households are facing. Already, patients have saved more than $400 million through our cheaper medicines initiatives, and those savings are growing every single month. But as the Prime Minister said, our decision in the May Budget to freeze the price of medicines for up to five years will save Australians another almost half a billion dollars, and literally tens of thousands of Kristy’s constituents are already making savings and are already making much easier decisions to fill the scripts that their doctors have said are important for their health.
And the third pillar of our strengthening Medicare program has been these urgent care clinics. They do fill that gap the Prime Minister talked about. They do ensure that parents, particularly with kids who are injured on the sporting field or fall off the skateboard, don't have to spend eight to ten hours in an emergency department to be seen. The Brindabella Family Practice was identified by Steve's Government, the New South Wales Government, a little while ago, as the obvious location for an urgent care clinic in Queanbeyan. We're delighted that we're able, through our additional initiatives in the May Budget, to fund that identification by the New South Wales Government and add this Medicare urgent care clinic to our network, really within a matter of weeks. It's going to make a real difference to this community. Already, as the Prime Minister said, over half a million Australians have gone through our network of urgent care clinics. That's just since last July. One in three of those patients have been under the age of 15, kids who otherwise would have been spending hours and hours in emergency departments with their parents. One in three of the patients are seen on the weekend, when we know it's almost impossible to get in to see your usual GP. And importantly, every single one of those half a million patients has been fully bulk filled. Fully bulk filled, free of charge, taking that pressure off the emergency departments and delivering this incredibly high-quality care to people in their community, when and where they need it. So, this is going to make a real difference to Kristy’s community. And I'm delighted to be here with the Prime Minister to announce another addition to our growing urgent care clinic network.
PRIME MINISTER: Happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, are there eligibility concerns regarding Fatima Payman’s citizenship, and would you support a referral?
PRIME MINISTER: No, in terms of my job. That's a matter for Ms Payman.
JOURNALIST: Why have Labor Ministers then reportedly questioned her citizenship now that she's no longer a member of the Labor Party?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I haven't.
JOURNALIST: If others have though.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I haven't.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, have you spoken with Fatima Payman since 2pm yesterday? She says she now is able to be a voice for WA without boundaries. Is that a concession that your Government hasn't properly been hearing WA's concerns, and are there a broader range of issues that perhaps the Caucus should consider allowing conscience votes on?
PRIME MINISTER: If you want an answer, you should ask a question rather than five.
JOURNALIST: You only give us one question. I'm asking all of them and you won't come back to me.
PRIME MINISTER: Okay, I'll answer the one I like then. I think that people will look at Fatima Payman, she's made a decision. Fatima Payman received around about 1,600 votes in the WA election. The ALP box above the line received 511,000 votes. It's very clear that Fatima Payman is in the Senate because people in WA wanted to elect a Labor Government. And that's why they put a number one in the box above the line, next to Australian Labor Party, rather than voted below the line for any individual.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister on this issue of Muslims in Western Sydney mobilising a grassroots campaign. Are you concerned about the campaign against Labor MPs in the seats, and also are you concerned about the potential injection of sectarianism into Australian politics that might come from it?
PRIME MINISTER: I note the Fin Review’s editorial today that I read that I think was spot on about the secular system that we have in Australia of politics. I don't think, and don't want, Australia to go down the road of faith-based political parties, because what that will do is undermine social cohesion. My Party has in around the Cabinet and ministerial tables, people who are Catholic, people who are Uniting Church, people who are Muslim, people who are Jewish. That is the way that we've conducted politics in Australia. That's the way you bring cohesion. And it seems to me as well, beyond obvious that it is not in the interest of smaller minority groups to isolate themselves, which is what a faith-based party system would do. I note as well that many people who are refugees in Australia have fled theocracies, have fled regimes that have been based upon so-called religion that has resulted in the oppression of people who do not subscribe to what is often extreme forms. Hamas is an extremist organisation that does nothing to look after Palestinians who don't fit their view of the world. Hamas engaged in violent actions against those people who opposed them in Gaza, which is why you have a split between Gaza and the West Bank, with Fatah and the more mainstream organisations being excluded and indeed being oppressed by Hamas.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Senator Payman says backgrounding from former colleagues about her praying before she decided to cross the floor, was condescending and ridiculed. So, is that conducive to bringing cohesion, like you said?
PRIME MINISTER: I am not commenting. Senator Payman, she can speak for herself, and does. She's accountable for what she says. And if people have a look at, I have seen a range of comments that have been made, including Senator Payman, saying that somehow my comments, which just called out what she had said to people. And you know, I heard a month ago, a month ago, where this was going to go. And if you look at some of the meticulous timing of events, including Senator Payman choosing Question Time yesterday to make the statements that she did, I just thought the press gallery were, you know, sleeping in after a big night at the press gallery ball when there were so few in the gallery yesterday at two o'clock. But if you look at that, look at the timing of, she wasn't walking past the Insiders studio and decided, yelled at Dave Speers, didn't yell out, ‘Hey, Fatima, how about you come and have a chat?’ The Budget week statements, the opinion piece that was put in in the lead-up to the crossing of the floor. People can draw their own conclusions, like I think, you know, I have mine. People will draw their own. But people should be upfront about their actions and should be accountable and responsible for them.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Minister Rowland's launched a code of conduct for dating apps. This falls short of what some victims’ families have asked for in terms of pure legislation. Why code of conduct and not mandatory legislation?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, code of conducts, of course, are often first steps to see if they could work. Legislation, the problem with the issue of use of technologies is that it is often easy to get around them. So, a code of conduct is, I think, a very positive step forward. Minister Rowland is very conscious of this. This is an issue that governments just aren't grappling with. Parents are grappling with, and our whole society is grappling with, as well. Of how to get this right, of how to make sure we benefit from what new technology brings without posing risks to our safety online. We're working with the eSafety Commissioner. That's why we had such a substantial increase in the funding for the eSafety Commissioner.
JOURNALIST: Do you think there are questions to be answered following revelations that Fatima Payman met with the protesters that stormed the Parliament House yesterday?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I don't know that that's the case. Again, I don't comment on hypotheticals or things that are put to me that I don't know are facts. It is certainly my view that, one I make this point, I condemn what happened at Parliament House yesterday. Parliament House is an institution that reflects our democracy. It's one in which people have their say on the floor of the House of Reps and the Senate, and it's one where peaceful demonstrations, that aren't disruptive, that don't put people at risk, are welcome to occur, and they occur regularly in an orderly way. What we saw yesterday is actions that actually undermine the cause of those who pretend or purport to provide advancing of that cause. I think it alienates people, quite rightly, and overwhelmingly to be very clear, the Middle East conflict is causing a great deal of distress, particularly for Jewish communities, for Palestinian communities, for Islamic communities. But Australians overwhelmingly do not want conflict that occurs overseas brought here. What they want is the capacity for our country to have peaceful and respectful debate, whether it's the firebombing outside electorate offices, whether it be the 24 hour blockades of electorate offices, whether it be the desecration of war memorials, or whether it be yesterday's actions, they undermine the cause of those who purport to be advancing it. They alienate the public. Now our position is very clear - we support President Biden's peace proposal. We want a ceasefire, we want the hostages released, we want increased humanitarian aid for Gaza, and we want a solution, which must be a two-state solution, with Israelis and Palestinians being able to live in peace and security in states side by side, that is what we want. We don't want a one state solution, whether it be Israel or Palestine, which is why the slogans of whether it be, from the river to the sea or from the Jordan to the sea, which means exactly the same thing, because it's the Jordan River, that are used from time to time by people who oppose a settlement in the Middle East that is peaceful. My government's position is clear. We advocate it seriously. We don't engage in political stunts in order to try to gain advantage domestically. We organise in a serious way, and we'll continue to advocate that in international forums like the UN. We’ll continue to make statements like I have with the New Zealand and Canadian Prime Minister, which advances peace and security.
JOURNALIST: On that point, it seems the Greens posted on social media promoting yesterday's protest, what do you think of that? But I also just want to pick up on something you said earlier about it not being in the interest of minorities to isolate themselves. If we want to get more diverse politicians in the major parties there, do you think there needs to be some re-evaluation of the rules or expectations around voting, you know, within party lines, and crossing the floor on matters such as these?
PRIME MINISTER: No, we're doing it. There's 103 people who are members of my caucus who have a common position. When positions are put to caucus, and one of the things I find disappointing about Senator Payman, is that the decision that she's taken, she has a right to take that decision. At no stage, no stage did Senator Payman stand in the caucus and make any comments about the Middle East or about anything else, about West Australians or about anything else. No comments in the time in which Senator Payman has had the privilege of serving in the Senate as a Labor Senator. The Greens, I think I find it incomprehensible how anyone in mainstream politics could regard that action as something that is legitimate and should be encouraged. I think the Greens show that increasingly, they are outside mainstream political opinion. And the engagement I’ve had, Greens Senators do post videos outside my electorate office. You know what that's achieving? I don't think Prime Minister Netanyahu is thinking, ‘I wonder what's happening outside an electorate office in Marrickville Road before I make decisions’. It's just completely self-indulgent. And what is occurring though, is the people in my electorate, who are vulnerable people, people who turn up to electorate offices need help with health, with social security, with migration, with issues with Centrelink, with the NDIS, and they are currently stopped from doing that, and that has been the case for many months.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, just to follow up on Chloe's question, do you think that it would help attract younger people, more younger people to Labor if there were a wider range of views where they could express conscience votes in Parliament, provided they'd gone through the process and stood up in caucus?
PRIME MINISTER: There is a wide range of, we're a broad-based party, and if you look at our Cabinet, we're the most diverse caucus that there has ever been. My government has more than 50 per cent women. That stands in stark contrast to those opposite, who essentially have gone backwards. It is unbelievable that they have gone backwards. And the Queensland LNP seem incapable of selecting a woman. They've gone, with so many seats that they dominate, they're incapable of doing so. We are a party that is inclusive. Kristy McBain wasn't a member of the Labor Party when we had a cup of coffee and said, how about you have a crack? She was a local community activist and Mayor of Bega Shire. We have Mark Dreyfus as our Attorney General, and Ed Husic as our Industry Minister and Anne Aly, the first two members, first and second, sworn in this term on the Qur'an. We have people of diverse backgrounds. We have a government led in the Senate by someone called Wong, and in the House of Representatives by someone called Albanese. That is what we have. That is what Australia looks like. We are open, our branch membership is open. One of the tragedies is that one of my local electorate officers has been abused by, frankly, people who wouldn't know the Jordan River from the Cooks River, going into the electorate office is a Muslim Alawite. We have diversity. We're an open party. We're an inclusive party across people of gender, faith, ethnicity, sexuality. We are a mainstream, broad based political organisation, and we seek to do that. But part of being part of the team is just that, being part of the team. And I think people, you've all been around a long time, if someone wants to ask me a question over whether they've been a team player, or whether you know this was decided just yesterday morning, Senator Payman’s decision, then if you think that you're entitled to. But you know when the worst kept secret in Parliament House is that you're all prepping for, when did you start prepping for a Thursday Question Time press conference? I know that there'll be people here who didn't prep yesterday morning because it was out there for all to see that it was going to happen, and that's fine, but just be up front about it.
JOURNALIST: On the UK election. Sir Keir Starmer is set to be elected. You're a lifelong Labor man. Is this something you welcome? You look forward to working with him?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the exit polls are very strong for Sir Keir Starmer, and if they are correct, and historically they have been correct, then Labour is likely to have over 400 seats in the new Parliament and to form a very strong government. And Sir Keir Starmer, I know well. I've met with him on a number of occasions, and we've also engaged on the phone. And we have had a group of leaders engaged in video links and phone calls with each other over a long period of time since I've been the Labor leader in which sir Keir Starmer has played a role in that the British Labour Party is a sister party to the Australian Labor Party. And of course, we played, I played no role, and I do want to say that I work constructively with Rishi Sunak, and I wish him well as well. We have an important relationship, and I hosted David Cameron at The Lodge just a short time ago. We have a strong relationship between our two countries, but in Sir Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner and so many others who I am very familiar with in the British Labour Party, I look forward very much to working with them. They have very similar views to us on a range of issues. I'm sure we'll work closely on AUKUS, where we worked very closely as well with the former government. I went through in my first six months of being the Prime Minister of Australia, I met three different British Prime Ministers and had constructive engagement with all of them. But I do look forward, Sir Keir Starmer and I have had discussions about the potential, obviously, for him to visit this part of the world as part of CHOGM, and I would expect that that will occur in coming months. And it's been a very disciplined, significant campaign by the British Labour Party, and certainly without pre-empting, the polls have closed now so I think I can comment, that I congratulate all those who have been successful.
JOURNALIST: On the Urgent Care Clinics, Prime Minister, a double header. And I certainly welcome any comments from Mark or Kristy or perhaps even Steve. Just with the Urgent Care Clinics, the Medicare model, how confident is the federal government that this model and the amount of care clinics are keeping up with the growing demand that we're seeing in Queanbeyan the surrounding regions here in the ACT? And secondly, has the ACT been short changed with its Urgent Care Clinics, given that they're just nurse led walk-in centres and they don't have any GPs staffed in them?
PRIME MINISTER: On the first question, we're very confident that this model will certainly work and is working, and the fact of 500,000 visits is extraordinary, and it stands in stark contrast. There's a bloke running for my job who introduced a GP tax or tried to on every visit to the doctor. That stands in stark contrast with being able to visit an Urgent Care Clinic for free. That same person wanted increased costs of medicines. We've reduced the costs of medicines. Peter Dutton also ripped tens of billions of dollars out of the health system. We have provided increased support for the health system. Medicare is something that is in Labor's DNA. It's one of our most proud creations We, of course, created Medibank. The Liberals tore it down after 1975. We then needed the Hawke government to build it up, and we had to win four governments in a row in order to entrench Medicare so it couldn't be abolished. John Howard went to elections saying he would tear it down. They never believed in it, and they've tried to undermine it, which is why they froze GP payments, which is why they engaged in their destruction of Medicare by stealth when Peter Dutton and others were Health Ministers. I've got a bloke as Health Minister who's doing an amazing job putting Medicare at the centre of healthcare and who might want to say some comments.
MINISTER BUTLER: Thank you, Prime Minister. This, I understand this is a porous border between New South Wales and ACT. I think I can say that as a South Australian. But this is very much a New South Wales initiative that we have negotiated with the New South Wales Government, particularly Minister Ryan Park, who's whose government has identified this as an area of need to take pressure, particularly off the Queanbeyan hospital. As to the ACT clinics though, this is quite a unique model in the country, one actually initiated by Katy Gallagher when she was the Health Minister of the ACT. We wanted to see that expand, and so we had discussions in the first round of Urgent Care Clinic funding to provide additional resources to the walk-in, the nurse led walk-in clinics in and around Canberra. And in the 24-25 budget we delivered in May, there was again additional funding we've provided to bolster their imaging and radiology services, but also to allow them to employ more nurse practitioners and advanced practice nurses as well. We wanted to see a range of different types of Urgent Care Clinic. This is a new model of care, as the Prime Minister said, for Australia. It's a model that will be formally evaluated as we roll it out over coming years, but already we see the enormous benefit for Australian communities. And we have delivered more than 500,000 services in the first 12 months, but that's the 12 months that has seen the clinics ramp up. When the 87 clinics that are now funded are operating at maturity we're confident that more than a million Australians will go through those clinics every single year. That that is a million people who predominantly would have otherwise gone to hospital emergency departments. Not only is it delivering better care more quickly to people when and where they need it in their own community, it's going to relieve enormous pressure off local hospitals like the Queanbeyan Hospital.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much. I've just got to give the local journo a crack here. Kristy’s given me the nudge. Last one.
JOURNALIST: This Urgent Care Clinic's phenomenal for our local area.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you, I'll take that as a comment and an endorsement. I would have given you a question earlier.
JOURNALIST: I was trying, when do you see it fully operational?
PRIME MINISTER: Fully operational, I think it's –
SIMON TAYLOR-CROSS, DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL CENTRES: 24th of July.
PRIME MINISTER: There you go, how's that for accurate. 24th of July, it's up and running. We put this additional money for the 29 in the Budget in May. The Budget is one of the things that's been passed this week. Some are obsessed by some noise on the fringes. What we've been doing as a government this week is getting on with things that matter to the overwhelming majority of Australians. This is one of the things. So do the tax cuts, so do the wage increases, so does the Paid Parental Leave, so does all the measures that we’ve put in place to make an enormous difference. And I know that this is a community that is growing, and this service here will make an enormous difference. Thank you very much, have a great weekend, and we had a great win last night. So congratulations to South Sydney, disappointed I didn't get a question about it. Five in a row, just pointing that out. Thank you