6 hours ago
‘We don’t want our health system to be more American’, PM says
Finally, the prime minister pitches this year’s election as “so much more than a choice between two different parties or two different plans”.
On every different issue that matters, jobs and wages, education and skills, energy and housing, cost of living and the economy, the difference and the contrast between us and our opponents is night and day. When the Liberals left office, inflation was rising, wages were falling and interest rates were going up. Together, we have turned this around. Under the Liberals, inflation had a six in front of it and was rising. Under Labor, inflation has a two in front of it and is falling.
My fellow Australians, this election is a make or break moment for Medicare. A re-elected Labor government will make it easier for Australians to see a doctor for free. We will make Medicare stronger than it has ever been. But if the Liberals get their way, they will break bulk billing and break the promise that Medicare is built on. Through half a century of change, through everything the world has thrown at Australia, Labor’s commitment to universal healthcare has never, ever wavered.
Labor built Medicare for Australia and it was built on the Australian values of fairness and opportunity for all. We don’t want our health system to be more American. We don’t need to copy the ideologies of any nation. We only want our health system to be more Australian.
Only Labor is building stronger Medicare and only Labor is building Australia’s future. Thanks very much.
Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature
The General Practice Registrars Australia (GPRA) has welcomed Anthony Albanese’s announcement today as a “significant investment in general practice training and the broader GP system”.
GPRA president Dr Chris Dickie:
For GPRA and our members, today’s announcement is historic – a real game-changer for the future GP workforce.
The commitment to improve pay and leave entitlements for GP trainees – a reform GPRA and our members have been actively advocating for over many years – is a fantastic step forward in attracting doctors into general practice and increasing access to care for patients.
Labor's bulk billing announcement: what we learned
Here is a little recap of what we learned from the Anthony Albanese and Mark Butler’s campaign rally speech in Launceston.
The prime minister has described today’s healthcare announcement as “the biggest boost to Medicare in its history”, with an $8.5bn commitment to expand bulk billing from 11 million to 26 million people.
Albanese wants nine out of 10 GP visits to be fully bulk billed for all Australians by 2030, an “ambitious” goal but one “people deserve”.
Clear lines have also been drawn between Australia and the United States. Albanese said we “don’t want our health system to be more American” or “copy the ideologies of any nation”.
Labor has made a clear effort to market itself as the party of Medicare, with the Mark Butler accusing Peter Dutton of having a “bloody terrifying” record as health minister.
The Coalition, however, has been quick to back in Labor’s pitch, releasing a statement the same time as the prime minister was speaking that confirmed it would match the announcement “dollar for dollar”.
Josh Butler
Coalition pledges to match $8.5bn bulk billing investment ‘dollar for dollar’
Meanwhile, the Coalition says it will match “dollar for dollar” Labor’s Medicare announcement today, pledging to also invest $8.5bn into bulk billing in a commitment the government says will make 90% of GP visits free.
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, and shadow health minister, Anne Ruston, said “it has never been harder and more expensive to see a doctor”, pointing to figures about people avoiding GP visits due to cost concerns.
The Coalition announcement was made at the same time Anthony Albanese was standing up in Launceston in a campaign rally speech.
“The Coalition recognises the urgent need for better access to bulk billed services in the middle of Labor’s healthcare crisis,” Dutton and Ruston said in a statement.
That is why a Dutton Coalition Government will match the $8.5bn investment into Medicare dollar-for-dollar to fix Labor’s mess and restore bulk billing back up to Coalition levels.
This investment builds on the $500m commitment already announced by the Coalition to restore critical Medicare funding for mental health support, after it was slashed in half by the Albanese Government. We continue to call on Labor to match this funding and support vulnerable Australians with more complex or chronic mental health conditions.
The $8.5bn figure is likely to be one of the biggest single commitments of the election campaign, before the poll due by mid-May. Health is to be a major campaign point for Labor and the Coalition, as Albanese seeks to keep scrutiny on Dutton’s record as health minister, including his ill-fated 2014 plan for a $7 GP co-payment.
“The Coalition has a strong record on health,” Dutton and Ruston said.
Without sound and prudent economic management – something Labor is incapable of – investments like this cannot be delivered. Only the Coalition can guarantee a strong economy to deliver better healthcare.
‘We don’t want our health system to be more American’, PM says
Finally, the prime minister pitches this year’s election as “so much more than a choice between two different parties or two different plans”.
On every different issue that matters, jobs and wages, education and skills, energy and housing, cost of living and the economy, the difference and the contrast between us and our opponents is night and day. When the Liberals left office, inflation was rising, wages were falling and interest rates were going up. Together, we have turned this around. Under the Liberals, inflation had a six in front of it and was rising. Under Labor, inflation has a two in front of it and is falling.
My fellow Australians, this election is a make or break moment for Medicare. A re-elected Labor government will make it easier for Australians to see a doctor for free. We will make Medicare stronger than it has ever been. But if the Liberals get their way, they will break bulk billing and break the promise that Medicare is built on. Through half a century of change, through everything the world has thrown at Australia, Labor’s commitment to universal healthcare has never, ever wavered.
Labor built Medicare for Australia and it was built on the Australian values of fairness and opportunity for all. We don’t want our health system to be more American. We don’t need to copy the ideologies of any nation. We only want our health system to be more Australian.
Only Labor is building stronger Medicare and only Labor is building Australia’s future. Thanks very much.
Albanese turns to Labor’s broad election pitch – all about equity and access.
A tax cut for every taxpayer not just some. Energy bill relief for every household, not just some. We are cutting student debt for all 3 million students, not just some. And we will boost bulk billing for all Australians, not just some!
He turns to the Coalition, accusing Peter Dutton of only coming up with “three ideas over the last three years”.
One, $10bn for all taxpayer funded long lunches for just some people. Secondly, $600bn for seven nuclear reactors that won’t be ready until sometime in the 2040s. And, three, cutting everything else to pay for them … But they will let you know where the cuts are after the election.
… Australians know that every single time the Liberals have come to government with a plan for cuts, Medicare is the first place that they look … the Liberals will never stop trying to make Australians pay more for their healthcare. The only way to stop them, the only way to protect Medicare, strengthen it and secure it for all is to re-elect our Labor government.
Labor pledges bulk-billing incentives for doctors and new GP training program
Albanese describes the reform as “the biggest boost to Medicare in its history”.
From 11 million people to all 26 million of us, this is the biggest boost to Medicare in its history … an $8.5bn commitment to deliver stronger Medicare everywhere, saving people hundreds of dollars in out-of-pocket costs, getting bulk billing up to full strength and making it easier for Australians to see a GP for free wherever they live.
Today I announced we will offer every GP practice a new incentive payment to bulk bill. This payment will go to every doctor in every practice that commits to bulk billing every patient every time. This will mean three times as many GP practices fully bulk billing.
He says starting next year, Labor will also build the “biggest GP training program in Australian history”, encouraging junior doctors to become GPs and work in the regions and suburbs with the highest need, on top of 400 new scholarships for nurses and midwives.
Nine out of 10 GP visits will be free, Albanese says
Albanese says the government’s goal is for nine out of every 10 GP visits to be free.
That is an ambitious goal. But people deserve ambition from their government on Medicare because just as every Australian wants the best healthcare for their family, our government wants the best for every Australian.
He points to a $1.7bn funding boost for public hospitals in the coming year, and the opening of 87 Medicare urgent care clinics which are fully subsidised.
You should be able to see a doctor for free. That is the meaning of Medicare. It for too many people, that security has been slipping out of reach. When we came to government, doctors were warning that bulk billing was in freefall.
So we took action. We tripled above billing incentives for 11 million people. The people who need to see a GP most, pensioners, concession card holders and families with young children … today we go further. Today I announce that our government will expand the bulk-billing incentive to cover all Australians.
Albanese continues to critique the Coalition’s record on healthcare, accusing them of imposing successive cuts on the system.
Thirty and 40 years ago the Liberals were open and honest about trying to abolish Medicare. These days they approach it somewhat differently. Even Tony Abbott promised no cuts to health … The Liberals have changed what they say, but they will never change who they are. When they talk about “efficiencies”, they mean cuts. When they talk about “economic surgery”, they mean cutting bulk billing off at the knees.
When they talk about “contributions” or “copayments”, that means user pays. User pays means patients pay. It means family pays, and it means doctors and nurses and healthcare workers pay. That’s why in the Labor party we don’t call people who rely on Medicare and bulk billing in the PBS and public hospitals “users” – we call them Australians.
Albanese: ‘A strong economy depends on a healthy society’
The prime minister says Medicare is at the “heart of people’s lives” – fundamental to health and security, and front and centre to the cost of living.
He says Medicare also represents the Australian idea of a “fair go”.
That is why Medicare is much more than ordinary policy or program. Medicare is a promise that the government makes to every citizen. If something goes wrong, if you get hurt, if your child is sick and you need help, you are never on your own.
Medicare will be there for you. That’s a statement about who we are as a society, as a country, as Australians. We look after each other. We matter to each other. Medicare is a promise that no one will be left behind and it’s a platform that ensures no one is held back. Because a strong economy depends on a healthy society and reliable, affordable services are the foundation for aspiration. A starting point for so much else. Because if you don’t have your health, if you don’t have the security of knowing that a great doctor and the best medicine are always in reach, if you have to put off seeing a doctor because you can’t afford it – it’s not just the individual who suffers, our whole society pays a price.
That is the cold hard lesson of every Liberal government … it is why Peter Dutton’s number-one priority as health minister was a GP tax designed to destroy bulk billing altogether.
Albanese calls Medicare the 'beating heart' of Labor's election pitch
Anthony Albanese is up next. He says it’s “great to be back” in Tasmania.
My fellow Australians, building Australia’s future is about your future. It’s about your right to a great education. Your dream of home ownership, your hard work being rewarded with fair pay. Your aspiration to build a good life for yourself and your family. And building Australia’s future is about making Medicare stronger.
Stronger Medicare is at the heart of our government and it will be the beating heart of our election campaign.
Butler labels Dutton’s record on Medicare ‘bloody terrifying’
Butler says bulk billing was critiqued at the time by the Liberal party and the Australian Medical Association, “but Labor was prepared to fight”.
For 41 years since we’ve kept up the fight. Remember that the father of the modern Liberal party, John Howard … tried to kill it, election after election. But Labor kept fighting for Medicare and the Australian people kept voting for it.
And when the Liberals finally had to raise the white flag on their idea of completely abolishing Medicare, instead they tried to kill it with the death of 1,000 cuts … which Liberal health minister did more than any other to undermine bulk billing? … Of course it was the man who Australia’s doctors voted the worst health minister in the history of Medicare. You know him, Peter Dutton.
He started a six-year freeze on Medicare funding that stripped billions of dollars out of Medicare and froze the income of all general practice … when we came to the government almost three years ago, bulk billing was in freefall.
Friends, I’m told we are heading towards an election soon. We need to brace ourselves for some rubbish that will be coming our way. You will be told Labor pointing out Dutton’s crystal-clear record as health minister is a scare campaign. To which I say, Peter Dutton’s record on Medicare isn’t just scary, it’s bloody terrifying.
Health minister introduces Labor bulk-billing platform
The health minister, Mark Butler, is appearing now at an event in Launceston to formally announce Labor’s pre-election Medicare plan.
He says at this election, voters face the “clearest choice possible”.
On the one hand a stronger Medicare under Labor and on the other more cuts to Medicare under Peter Dutton. Bob Hawke, Paul Keating and Neil Blewett 41 years ago introduced Medicare.
It was the promised of making healthcare cheaper, simpler and fairer. Bulk billing was the beating heart of that promise. Because what could be cheaper, simpler, or fairer? The idea that every Australian no matter where they lived, no matter what, could see their doctor for free.
Protesters gather outside Gallery of Australia against Palestinian flag 'censorship'
Pro-Palestinian groups will hold a rally outside the Gallery of Australia in opposition to the censorship of the Palestinian flag in an Indigenous art installation.
The Palestine Action Group Canberra (PAGC) and Canberra Palestine and Climate Justice Group (CPCJC) will gather at 1pm today, calling the censorship of any artwork or nation’s flag “unacceptable”.
The CPCJC’s Dr Tamara Kayali Browne said “once censorship starts, it is the beginning of the end”.
If an institution can censor, particularly on such spurious grounds, there is no logical reason why you would censor one thing and not another.
Even if you are not passionate about the struggle for Palestinian liberation, everyone has an interest in opposing this censorship, because if this is permitted, it sets a very bad precedent and we could all be censored.
The gallery claimed it covered the Palestinian flags in the major exhibition after undertaking a security threat assessment. They said, in a statement:
Consideration was given to past protest activity and vandalism at the Gallery, the volatility of the environment and reported violence, vandalism and threats in Canberra, and across Australia at the time.
Victorian government tweaks plans for high-density housing ‘activity centres’
The Victorian government has made a concession on housing, releasing updated plans for its first 10 pilot “activity centres”, which are expected to deliver 60,000 homes to suburban areas by 2051.
The update, introducing boundary restrictions and lower height limits, follows two rounds of community consultation with more than 10,000 people, councils and other key groups.
The plans, to become law next month, allow for fast approvals in busy commercial precincts, with lower height limits for the residential areas.
They will operate in Broadmeadows, Camberwell Junction, Chadstone, Epping, Frankston, Moorabbin, Niddrie, North Essendon, Preston (High Street) and Ringwood.
Under the previous draft plans, all proposed catchment areas had a four-storey height limit – with scope for up to six storeys on large blocks. Instead, catchment areas will be split into two: inner and outer.
Inner catchments will have the same limit, while outer catchments will have a new three-storey limit, or up to four storeys on larger blocks. Maximum heights range from 10 up to 20 storeys for developments using the fast-tracked “deemed to comply” process.
Catchment boundaries have also been reduced in most centres after local feedback.
The premier, Jacinta Allan, said the status quo “won’t cut it”.
There is only one way out of the housing crisis – build our way out.
The state government announced plans in October to add another 50 activity centres in some of Melbourne’s most affluent suburbs, in an effort to build thousands more homes.
Advocates call for holistic approach to combating domestic and family violence
Anti-violence campaigners are calling for a holistic approach to domestic and family violence prevention as well as specific help for child victim-survivors, AAP reports.
Successive governments have failed to stem what has become a national crisis, despite allocating millions of dollars to do so.
Experts say levels of violence are also increasing with new forms of abuse enabled by technology.
Women and children can now be terrorised by perpetrators stalking, surveilling and harassing them from tracking devices in children’s toys to threatening messages embedded in bank transfers, without the abuser even being present.
The annual cost of violence against women and their children is estimated at $26bn, according to the Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032.
One in three women have experienced physical violence since the age of 15, and one in five have experienced sexual violence.
Total fire bans declared as out-of-control blazes continue to burn in Victoria and Tasmania
Increased fire danger is building across Australia’s south-east as wild winds and warm conditions keep crews on alert, AAP reports.
Total fire bans have been declared across Tasmania and parts of Victoria as conditions challenge firefighters in two states.
More than 150 firefighters, 14 aircraft, eight bulldozers and scores of interstate and international teams have been battling fires in Tasmania sparked by dry lightning earlier in February.
The blazes have scorched at least 94,500 hectares of Tasmanian wilderness and world heritage forest.
In Victoria, total fire bans have been declared in the Central and North Central regions with hot, dry and windy conditions expected to elevate risks before a west-to-south-west change. Temperatures of up to 36C are expected in the state’s north, along with wind gusts up to 100km/h before a late change.
Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Angus Hines said elevated fire danger was expected to continue on Sunday morning across Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia.
‘President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is the elected leader of a courageous country’
Jim Chalmers has also bluntly contradicted the US president’s comments about Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the ongoing war with Russia.
Donald Trump shocked many western partners by calling Ukraine’s president “a dictator” and warning that he “better move fast” or he “won’t have a country left”. The US president also claimed Ukraine started the war.
Chalmers told ABC Insiders the Australian government’s position was clear:
We say the same things privately as we say publicly when it comes to Ukraine. The Australian position is very clear. It’s been really consistent.
The war started because of Russian aggression. President Voldomyyr Zelenskyy is the elected leader of a courageous country.
Our support for Ukraine has been unwavering and that will continue.
Decision on Qatar Airways’ Virgin Australia bid to come this week
Jim Chalmers says he will make a decision on Qatar Airways’ bid to buy 25% of Virgin Australia from its private equity owner as early as this week.
Here’s what he told the ABC:
I received advice from the Foreign Investment Review Board this weekend. I will weigh up that advice. I hope to make a decision pretty swiftly. Ideally, this week, if I can.
I will weigh up all of the considerations in the Foreign Investment Review Board’s advice. I will make a decision which is consistent with our national economic interest.
Earlier this month, the competition watchdog said it was proposing to grant authorisation for the airlines to enter into an alliance, which would see the two carriers operate an additional 28 weekly flights from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth to Doha.
Coalition will 'not get in the way' of Labor’s Medicare changes
The shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, says the Coalition will not “get in the way” of Labor’s $8.5bn plan to improve access to bulk-billed medical appointments.
Speaking on Sky News, Taylor accused the Albanese government of letting bulk-billing rates drop in some parts of the nation.
He flagged the Coalition would not actively campaign against Labor’s policy in coming weeks:
We’re not going to get in the way of Labor cleaning up the mess that it has made. And it’s important that that mess be cleaned up.
What should have happened is we should have kept the gains or the benefit that we had when we were in government; that higher level of bulk-billing, that lower level of out-of-pocket [costs].
