Press Conference – Adelaide | Prime Minister of Australia
ANDREW COHEN, CEO OF FORHEALTH: Welcome everybody, my name is Andrew Cohen, I’m the CEO of ForHealth, which is the second largest general practice provider in the country. I’m standing with Dr. Carolyn Rosa, who’s the Medical Director here at Elizabeth. Before I introduce our guests I just want to talk about the impact that the recent budget has had for an area like this. Elizabeth is the lowest decile socio economic area and in here we have, you know, far more than 50 per cent of visits come from healthcare card holders and pensioners and the tripling in the bulk billing incentive is going to make a big difference. This centre was actually going to put in a $10 to $15 charge for healthcare card holders as a gap fee and that’s not going to happen anymore. Basically, it means more bulk billing doctors, more bulk billed patients, and we hope lower ED presentations at the hospital. But I’ll hand it now over to the Prime Minister, the local member Matt Burnell, and the Health Minister, Mark Butler.
MATT BURNELL, MEMBER FOR SPENCE: Thank you very much for that. My name is Matt Bunnell, I’m the Federal Member for Spence and it’s an absolute pleasure to have the Prime Minister here right in the heart of our electorate today. The Budget handed down last week went to the heart of addressing cost of living pressures that are really affected here in Spence. The health measures are significant and life-changing for so many people across the electorate. The tripling of the bulk billing incentive scheme, as you’ve just heard, is going to make a huge difference to people’s way of life and health care treatment. Along with the Prime Minister, we’ve got the Minister for Health, Mark Butler, and it’s always a good day when you’ve got ministers and the Prime Minister, right here in the centre of Elizabeth, in the centre of Spence. So without any more ado, I’m going to hand over to the Prime Minister to have a few words.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much, Matt. And it’s great to be here with yourself and Mark, and thank you to Andrew and the team here at the Elizabeth Medical and Dental Centre. This facility provides services for the northern suburbs of Adelaide here and as a direct result of our centrepiece of our budget, our three and a half billion dollar plan to triple the incentives for bulk billing will make an enormous difference to the way that this centre operates, but most importantly, make a difference for the local community. For those people who need to see a doctor, the facility here provides GP services, but it also provides imagery services, it provides pathology, it provides dental services, all in one stop. And that’s similar to our vision for Urgent Care Clinics that we are rolling out around the country and that we’ve provided additional funding for as well in Tuesday’s budget. I’ve been working with Peter Malinauskas, and with other Premiers and Chief Ministers, on how we take pressure off our public hospital systems by improving primary health care, and the key to that is strengthening Medicare. Labor is the party of Medicare. We’re the party that will strengthen Medicare, and last Tuesday’s budget did just that, front and centre, across the board, to make an enormous difference. And last week’s budget was a budget aimed at assisting vulnerable Australians, taking the pressure off families whilst not putting pressure on inflation. It was aimed squarely at middle Australia. Nothing says middle Australia like making it cheaper to see a doctor. Nothing says middle Australia like making it more accessible to see a local GP. Nothing says middle Australia like making child care cheaper – that will happen on July 1. Nothing says middle Australia like having fee-free TAFE – 300,000 additional places added to the 180,000 that were included in last October’s budget. And nothing says middle Australia like taking pressure off inflation by producing a budget forecast which is the first surplus forecast for 15 years. I’m very proud of the budget that we put together, and I’m very proud that health was front and centre of our budget last Tuesday night. And it’s great to see and to hear from people on the ground about the practical difference that will make for the doctors and for centres like this, but most importantly for the patients – because that’s what this is about, providing that practical assistance to people when they need it. Labor has always been the party of Medicare, and last Tuesday night’s budget will make an even stronger
MARK BUTLER, MINISTER FOR HEALTH: Thank you, Prime Minister. Thank you Andrew and Matt for hosting us in the northern suburbs. The Prime Minister said at the last election, we promised to strengthen Medicare and to make medicines cheaper for millions of Australians and the Budget last Tuesday night delivered on both of those promises. As I’ve been saying for a couple of years now, 10 years of cuts and neglect to Medicare under the former government had placed enormous pressure on general practice which is the backbone of our health care system. And it’s also placed enormous pressure on bulk billing rates. Bulk billing data, which is being published today confirms what I’ve been saying for a couple of years that GP attendances bulk billing rates continue to slide. And last week’s initiative to triple the bulk billing incentive will have an enormous impact right across Australia, in all communities in Australia, but particularly for a community like the northern suburbs of Adelaide. In Matt’s electorate, there are about 110,000 people who are covered by the bulk billing incentive – either children under 16, age pensioners, disability pensioners, or holders of a concession card. And as Andrew said, what we wanted out of last Tuesday night’s budget was to give the confidence to practices like this that they could continue to bulk bill and I’m delighted to hear Andrew’s announcement that bulk billing will remain in place for this practice. Not only is it good for patients to be able to get the care they need, when they need it in the community. As the Prime Minister said it takes much needed pressure off local hospital emergency departments. In this case, the Lyell McEwin, the key hospital in the northern suburbs. So this is a terrific initiative, I’m really glad to be out here talking to general practice, one of a number of general practices I’ve been able to talk to only in recent days, who’ve said that last Tuesday night’s announcement has reaffirmed their commitment to deliver bulk build services to their community.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, a new poll was out this morning suggesting that only 20 per cent of Australians feel like they are better off after the Budget. What do you make of that and how many more Australians are you hoping to convince this week?
PRIME MINISTER: I think that when you look at the poll this morning, I had a look at the 10 year figures and they’re pretty consistent across the board. What we’re going to be doing is explaining again to Australians why this budget is aimed squarely at fixing the mess that we inherited. We had to find space for all those programs that were dropping off a cliff. We also had to show our priorities and the Budget reflected that. It reflected that by prioritising bulk-billing, by prioritising strengthening Medicare, prioritising the skills crisis that we inherited, but also prioritising fixing budget repair. As a direct result of the decisions that we made to find $40 billion of savings over our two budgets to return to the bottom line 87 per cent of the revenue improvements and upgrades to the budget bottom line. We inherited almost a trillion dollars of debt as a direct result of our turnaround, going from a forecast under just a year ago under Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg of $78 billion deficit for this year, that’s been turned around to a forecast $4.2 billion surplus – that is the biggest fiscal turnaround that we’ve seen. And today’s backing up of the increased investment in primary healthcare, we were able to achieve whilst achieving that fiscal turnaround. That’s why it was a responsible budget beginning fiscal repair, but also one that delivers what was needed for Australia at this time.
JOURNALIST: It’s only 20 per cent, clearly that shows there’s going to be a lot more people that need convincing?
PRIME MINISTER: We’ll be out there talking about the difference that this budget makes to them. The people that we’ve spoken to this morning, here where it will make a difference. The fact that bulk billing will continue to be provided in this quite extraordinary medical centre here is a direct result of our policy. Had Labor not been elected we would have seen a further undermining of Medicare, a further undermining of bulk billing. We know that for a long period of time one of the great divides in Australian politics was John Howard promising to get rid of Medicare. Since then they decided that the Australian people had such support for Medicare they couldn’t promise that. Instead, we’ve seen it undermined over the previous decade. What we’ve been doing is repairing it, and that is a centrepiece of our budget along with our other measures, our measures for skills and training here in South Australia, the 4,000 additional STEM places that we’ll need for the submarine project that will, of course, occur in Mark Butler’s electorate there at Osborne. That will make an enormous difference as well. That number of jobs in construction and then ongoing – up to 5,500 jobs building submarines here in Adelaide. But what we need to do is make sure we have the skilled workforce to do that. That was another major priority in our budget of last week.
JOURNALIST: Another challenge for South Australian Health is attracting young doctors to become GPs themselves. How does this change in Medicare affect this?
PRIME MINISTER: One of the things that the Royal Australian College have said very clearly in their announcement of support of our initiatives in the Budget last Tuesday night, and I’ll ask Mark to supplement this, is they welcomed it because it was showing, as well as making a difference, it was showing GPs that they’re valued. There has been an issue with increasing numbers of medical graduates as a proportion going into specialisations rather than GPs. And that in part, I have no doubt, is because of the ongoing failure of support of our primary health system as the centre of our healthcare system. We can’t have our primary healthcare system continue to be in decline because of the pressure that that places on our public hospital system, it is so important as a way forward.
MINISTER BUTLER: The College of General Practice described last week’s Strengthening Medicare Package as a game-changer. It is a game-changer for millions of mums and dads who want the confidence that they can go to a bulk billed doctor when their kids are sick, but millions of pensioners and concession card holders as well. It is, as the Prime Minister says, a game-changer for tens of thousands of GPs who finally now see a government in Canberra that respects and values their work as the backbone of our healthcare system. We intend to continue building on our commitments that we made at the last election to strengthen Medicare and to rebuild general practice. That is the first foundation for convincing young medical graduates that general practice, as a speciality, is a meaningful career and one that is valued by their national government – we think that’s utterly critical. We’ve also, though, recognised that there is the need to free up the systems that allow practices like this and other practices across the country to recruit overseas-trained doctors. And so, the Prime Minister and his first minister colleagues commissioned a of review of the recruitment of overseas trained doctors and other health professionals which was delivered a few weeks ago. That is already starting to free up that system and for a practice like this in Elizabeth, the ability to recruit overseas-trained doctors from the UK is going to allow this practice to expand its capacity and see many, many more patients. We’re committed to doing that as well.
JOURNALIST: Being a South Australian and knowing this area, hearing that there could have been a $10 to $15 fee gap introduced here at this very clinic, what difference would have that made for this local community it should have been introduced?
MINISTER BUTLER: As Matt Burnell would say, it would have made an enormous difference. It would have meant that a whole lot of families here and pensioners would simply not have been able to afford to come and see the doctor. And either they would have stayed at home getting sicker and sicker, or have been forced to go to the Lyell McEwin emergency department. One of the things the Prime Minister said in his introduction is that this is about not only about being able to deliver affordable care in the community, near where people live, when they need it. It’s also about taking pressure off our hospital systems. We know increasingly so many presentations to emergency departments right around the country are what are classified as non-urgent or semi-urgent. That’s why we’re trying to rebuild general practice and reaffirm their ability to bulk bill. It’s why we’re building our network of Urgent Care services across the country, not only to deliver care to people where and when they need, it, but to take pressure off hospital systems that are deeply pressured and ensure that their best position to deal with the life-threatening emergencies, often once-in-a-lifetime emergencies, that they were built to deal with.
JOURNALIST: You have committed to some kind of enquiry into Australia’s handling of COVID, but there was nothing on this budget. When you plan on doing that?
PRIME MINISTER: COVID is still amongst us. What I’ve said is that when we are confident that we’re through those issues, then we’ll examine it.
JOURNALIST: I just have a question on public and affordable housing, you and the Greens both largely agree on the need for more public and affordable housing yet you can’t come to an agreement. Is this politicians failing the public?
PRIME MINISTER: This is the Greens failing the public. This is a gap that is there with the Greens political party between their rhetoric and their delivery. This is them putting politics before what is needed. You can’t say you support social housing, and then vote against it. There is a bill before the parliament for a $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund that will make 30,000 social and affordable homes built over a short period of time, including 4,000 reserved for women and children escaping domestic violence, including funding for veterans to get them out of homelessness, including funding for remote housing upgrades in Indigenous communities. That is before the parliament now and the Greens Party and the Coalition both combined last week not only to not vote for it, but to vote against even debating the legislation that was before the parliament. This is just one element on top of the $1.6 billion over just one year we put forward to extend the Commonwealth-State Housing Agreement so that those negotiations with state and territory governments could take place for the usual form of funding that occurs for social housing. This is on top of that and it is beyond my comprehension how they could vote against it. And I thank Jacqui Lambie and her team and David Pocock for expressing their support for the legislation which is there. We have, in addition to that, our Housing Accord that will see 1 million homes built over a period in partnership supported by the Housing Industry Association, the Master Builders Association, state and territory governments. It’s on top of the Rent Assistance that we’ve provided in the Budget – the largest increase in 30 years. And it’s on top of the incentives that we’ve put in the Budget for build-to-rent, that I see over the weekend one peak organisation, the Property Council, saying that that would lead to 250,000 additional dwellings being built-to-rent. We need to address supply and the truth is that the Greens political party would rather posture than vote for what is before the parliament. They need to explain that contradiction which is there. And I’ve seen some of their absurd comments speaking about gambling, if that is the case that setting up a fund that invests and you use the interests to achieve outcomes, then they must be horrified at the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and what it does. They must be terrified about superannuation, which is exactly how superannuation operates for individuals in this country. And I would have thought that compulsory superannuation was something that the Greens party supported, but if you look at their rhetoric it is just nonsense. It is just grandstanding and immaturity and it’s why you need a party of majority government to actually be in charge because we’re interested in outcomes and the Greens political party seem to be just interested in playing politics.
JOURNALIST: The Treasurer hasn’t ruled out Peter Dutton’s idea of allowing jobseekers to work without losing benefits, do you think this is a good idea?
PRIME MINISTER: It was thought bubble from Peter Dutton. We think that at the moment, if you look at what occurs, 75 per cent of people currently don’t earn anything who are on Jobseeker, and they could now. They don’t take advantage of the earning capacity which is there now to earn additional money, and then there’s a taper rate which is available. We, of course, look at anything that is proposed. We made changes that were foreshadowed in my ageing vision statement that I gave in Brisbane at the beginning of 2020 – I spoke about allowing pensioners to earn more money. The issue here is though, of more significance, how do we get people into work? Clearly, employment services aren’t working to the extent that they should when you have an unemployment rate of just 3.5 per cent – a historic low – but you still have people looking to work. Clearly, some of the system that’s been established by our predecessors is about ticking the boxes rather than providing that support so that we take individual, John or Mary, and do work to get them into full-time employment. To get them off Jobseeker is a far better outcome than them supplementing Jobseeker, which of course they’re able to do right now.
JOURNALIST: What’s your response to the Commonwealth settling 30,000 claimants in PFAS class action, paying out $132 million?
PRIME MINISTER: These are legal matters so the Attorney-General will respond. But PFAS has been an issue, and its use, around many communities, particularly those around airports. And the Commonwealth engages, of course, this action this pre-dates by a fair way, my election as Prime Minister. But the Attorney-General’s Department look after these issues. People have, across a range of communities, suffered from the use of this, it’s another example of where we have to get occupational health and safety right. We need to get it right in the first place that would avoid these sort of actions, which the biggest concern that I have with PFAS isn’t, of course, a financial one – it is the health outcomes of people who are affected by it.