Australia politics live: question on ‘bulk-billing crisis’ sparks finger-pointing across chamber
Liberal MP ejected as question on ‘bulk-billing crisis’ sparks finger-pointing across chamber
We’re back on Medicare bulk-billing rates. Liberal MP Terry Young asks:
GP bulk-billing rates in my electorate of Longman were at 93% in 2019 before Covid. Under the Albanese Labor government, they’ve fallen to as low as 79%. Australian families are already facing a cost-of-living crisis, a housing crisis and an energy bill crisis. Why are my constituents now having to endure a bulk-billing crisis under this minister?
Mark Butler starts by asking:
Why is there a bulk-billing crisis in Australia? Hmm.
Oh boy, there’s a lot of finger pointing and a lot of shouting from both sides of the chamber.
The opposition tries to raise a point of order on … hubris…?
Butler continues:
In response to the member for Longman, when we came to government, the college of doctors said that bulk billing was in free fall and the general practice was at a tipping point and it was very clear why that was – because the Medicare rebate had been frozen for six years.
Now Milton Dick has sent Young out of the chamber under 94a.
Key events
Labor MP weighs in on Lattouf v ABC
The minister for industry and science Ed Husic was just speaking on Afternoon Briefing. As the conversation was winding up, he said he had one more thing to add that may get him “into grief”.
He wanted to talk about Antoinette Lattouf v ABC, and the broadcaster’s controversial defence that her case should fail because she had not proved that there was a Lebanese, Middle Eastern or Arab race.
Today, the ABC withdrew the defence.
He said:
Why raise it in the first place?
I just speak as someone, I’m the kid of migrants, I think there were a lot of us that were surprised that they would enter [it].
I felt for people of a Middle Eastern, Lebanese or Arab background that had to hear that.
Emergency fire warnings are in place for Tasmania’s north-west.
People in Corinna and surrounds are being told to leave immediately and those in Sandy Cape are being told to take shelter.
Everybody’s Home spokesperson Maiy Azize said the findings paint a devastating picture of a sector in crisis, with services struggling to meet overwhelming demand.
Azize:
The services at the coalface of Australia’s housing crisis are at breaking point. They can barely keep up with the rising number of people facing housing stress and homelessness.
Frontline organisations are telling us this has been the worst summer for increased workload, as sky-high rents and the cost of living continue to smash Australians.
With more and more people in need of help, frontline services are facing more complex casework, longer waitlists, and staff burnout and turnover.
Record numbers of people are being turned away from the help they need because there are simply not enough resources to meet the demand.
Cait Kelly
Agencies supporting homeless people experienced surge in demand
Frontline organisations supporting people affected by Australia’s housing crisis have faced their worst summer on record, experiencing an unprecedented surge in demand, according to Everybody’s Home.
The national housing campaign’s ‘Under Pressure’ sector survey interviewed 61 frontline organisations across the country. It found that nearly nine in 10 (87%) had a major increase in workload during December and January compared to previous years, due to the worsening housing crisis.
The vast majority (98%) of organisations—including those in housing, homelessness, domestic violence, and other social and community services— reported increased workloads over the past year and expect demand for their services to keep rising in 2025.
As a result of soaring demand for their help, three in four (76%) organisations reported more complex casework, seven in ten (72%) cited increased waitlists, while two in three (67%) said they’ve been unable to provide clients with long-term housing solutions.
Cait Kelly
Hi everyone – this is Cait Kelly. I will be with you for the rest of the day, so let’s get into it!
Krishani Dhanji
Thanks all for joining me on the blog today!
I’ll leave you in the very capable hands of Cait Kelly for the rest of the afternoon, and see you bright and early in the morning.
Tldr: what did we learn in question time today?
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The opposition started on negative gearing (which didn’t go far), and then pivoted to bulk-billing rates, challenging the government on why the rates have been dropping.
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Mark Butler said he “wouldn’t be lectured” on bulk-billing by the opposition, after Peter Dutton froze Medicare rebates for several years.
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The dixers were a mixed bag today, the first few celebrated the passing of production tax credits, but then swerved to housing, cost of living and veterans affairs.
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Honestly, can’t say we learned a lot, it was all pretty tame today.
Another day without a result in Werribee byelection
Benita Kolovos
Voters in Werribee in will have to wait a little longer for a result from the weekend’s byelection in Victoria.
A recount continues today in the outer western Melbourne seat and both major parties still expect Labor’s candidate, John Lister, will retain his narrow lead over the Liberal party’s Steve Murphy.
But it seems like neither will make a call today.
Opposition leader Brad Battin told reporters this afternoon that it remains a “big challenge” for the party to get over the line. He said:
To get over the line right now would be difficult but it’s not impossible. We know that up in Ripon – when we won Ripon the last occasion [in 2018] – we were nearly 300 votes behind before the recount. We ended up getting on top [during] the scrutineering process. So I’ll be making sure I back my scrutineers. There’s hope, and we’ll work towards seeing every vote count, and if fingers crossed we’ll manage to just get over the line, but it’ll be difficult.
He said he felt “the frustration” that the community in Werribee were going through due to the VEC having not updated the count on their website. Battin said:
The reality is people just want to know, they want to see what’s happening. It shouldn’t just be the scrutineers or the parties … getting information about the count … so we can come out and start to talk about who is the new member for an area like Werribee. They deserve to know who’s going to be representing them as soon as possible.
Battin also defended choosing Murphy as the Liberal candidate despite him no longer living in the electorate. He said:
For 30 years, [Murphy] raised his kids in the area, still has his business in the area, and goes there each and every day. Our issue about [the former member] Tim Pallas was not the fact that he also didn’t live there – he didn’t even turn up. This is a guy that didn’t even come into the electorate. Steve Murphy has spent more days in the last four weeks in the electorate than what Tim Pallas spent there in the last 10 years.
While Labor may hold onto the seat, its once-comfortable margin has shrunk from 10.9% at the 2022 state election to a razor-thin 0.6%.
And with that question time is over.
Another question from the crossbench comes from independent member for Fowler Dai Le. She asks:
Since my election in May 2022, I’ve repeatedly raised concerns about the rising cost of living. As your government’s term ends, what real reforms will you introduce now fix the electricity market and bring down energy prices for families, small businesses and councils, who are now paying double just to keep the streets lights on? With those costs passed down to ratepayers? Australians needs more than just a one-off $300 Band-Aid rebate.
The PM speaks broadly to the cost-of-living issue, pointing to inflation coming down, higher wages and tax cuts.
Le stands up on relevance, asking for Albanese to say what reforms he’ll introduce “now” to fix the electricity market. Milton Dick says because she said cost of living in her question – Albanese is in order.
He says “The member for Fowler, I’m sure, supported our $300 [electricity] rebates that are making a difference”. But he doesn’t go to the heart of her question about fixing the electricity market.
After a dixer on housing, Angus Taylor stands up for another question from the opposition. He asks:
Prior to the last election, the prime minister ruled out any changes to the superannuation. Why is the treasurer persisting for the first time in our history to tax unrealised capital gains on superannuation assets?
A note here – the government hasn’t been able to secure enough support from the crossbench to pass the bill, so it’s unlikely to pass anyway.
Jim Chalmers responds:
It’s becoming clearer and clearer to us that they had a very different question time in mind for today and so they’ve gone back to the reserve bank and all of the old chestnuts, Mr Speaker.
… He [Taylor] should know that unrealised gains are calculated elsewhere in the superannuation system. If he’s the shadow treasurer, he should understand that the arrangements for tax on superannuation would still be concessional for the 0.5% of people who would be impacted by the modest change that we are proposing.
The opposition is continuing their line of questioning on bulk-billing. SA MP James Stevens says “GP bulk billing rates in my electorate of Sturt were at 79% in 2019 before Covid. Under the Albanese Labor government, they’ve fallen as low as 69%”.
Health minister Mark Butler is again using the opportunity to pin the blame on the opposition and Peter Dutton for freezing the Medicare rebate for GPs for six years.
Perhaps after question time go and have a talk to your leader about what happened to Medicare over the last 10 to 15 years, because the truth is those opposite have never supported bulk billing. The father of the modern Liberal party, John Howard, called bulk billing an absolute rort. He fought it tooth and nail, election after election.
… I say this – we’re not going to take lectures on bulk billing from a party that has spent 41 years trying to dismantle the universal health mission of Medicare, a system that we created, that we delivered.
Liberal MP ejected as question on ‘bulk-billing crisis’ sparks finger-pointing across chamber
We’re back on Medicare bulk-billing rates. Liberal MP Terry Young asks:
GP bulk-billing rates in my electorate of Longman were at 93% in 2019 before Covid. Under the Albanese Labor government, they’ve fallen to as low as 79%. Australian families are already facing a cost-of-living crisis, a housing crisis and an energy bill crisis. Why are my constituents now having to endure a bulk-billing crisis under this minister?
Mark Butler starts by asking:
Why is there a bulk-billing crisis in Australia? Hmm.
Oh boy, there’s a lot of finger pointing and a lot of shouting from both sides of the chamber.
The opposition tries to raise a point of order on … hubris…?
Butler continues:
In response to the member for Longman, when we came to government, the college of doctors said that bulk billing was in free fall and the general practice was at a tipping point and it was very clear why that was – because the Medicare rebate had been frozen for six years.
Now Milton Dick has sent Young out of the chamber under 94a.
The next dixer is for the prime minister and we’re staying on the manufacturing theme, with the passing of the production tax credits in the Senate yesterday.
He brings up a presentation that the shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, apparently made as a consultant on aluminium exports – which gets a point of order from the opposition. While Albanese continues there’s plenty of shouting.
He’s also asked to table the document he’s reading from that contains the presentation by Taylor.
The first crossbench question (following a dixer to the industry minister on manufacturing) goes to independent Kate Chaney who asks:
Governments from both sides rely on bracket creep caused by inflation to increase tax over time and surreptitiously fund their additional spending. Do you agree that indexing tax brackets like 17 other OECD countries have done would stop us sleepwalking into greater reliance on income taxes and provide greater transparency for taxpayers about new spending?
Treasurer Jim Chalmers says there are a “range of suggestions” for where to go next on tax reform.
There are more or less – to oversimplify – three different ways that you can return bracket creep. There’s the way that member for Curtin is proposing. There’s the way those opposite were proposing, which is to just return bracket creep to people who are already on the highest incomes, or it’s the Labor way, the way that we have chosen to return bracket creep and as the Treasury analysis makes clear that we released a little over a year ago now, when we made the changes to the tax cuts, the way that we chose has positive benefits for workforce participation and other benefits as well.
The second question from the opposition is from Liberal MP Jenny Ware and goes to the health minister on GP clinics closing down.
27,000 small businesses have collapsed since the last election. Minister, how many GP clinics have closed since the election of the Albanese Labor government?
Butler says he’ll take that question on notice, and talks through bulk-billing rates around the country.
Butler announced this morning that their bulk-billing increases have created an additional six million bulk-billed GP visits – an average of 100,000 additional visits each week. He says:
When we came to government, I made it very clear that of all of the myriad pressures on our health care system – and there are many – with an ageing population more chronic disease and the impacts of a once-in-a-century pandemic, there are many pressures on our health care system, but of all of them, the one we have focused on more than any other is rebuilding general practice.
