Senator the Hon Anne Ruston
Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care
Shadow Minister for Sport
Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate

TRANSCRIPT

Interview with Kieran Gilbert, Sky News
1 February 2024

Topics: Medicare’s 40th anniversary, bulk billing, primary care crisis, stage three tax cuts changes

KIERAN GILBERT: Let’s bring in the Shadow Minister for Health now, Anne Ruston, on a big day for our health system. The 40th anniversary of Medicare. How would you assess the contribution of what was a major reform for this nation, and has played a pivotal part in recent decades to the health of Australians, Anne Ruston?

ANNE RUSTON: Well, obviously Medicare has been, over time, an amazing support to all Australians. It’s renowned around the world as probably one of the great primary care systems. But you know, of course, over time there’s been a number of changes, I mean, not the least of which was a change that our government brought in, which was telehealth, which was an amazing support to Australians during the Covid pandemic. But, you know, Medicare has a very fond place in the hearts of many Australians who’ve relied on it for being able to get access to affordable healthcare over the 40 years that it has been supporting our health system in Australia.

KIERAN GILBERT: Do you accept that the Government’s recent tripling of the bulk billing incentive has worked to boost bulk billing across the country?

ANNE RUSTON: Well, I think the fact that the Minister’s out here this morning crowing about some great success of a $3.6 billion taxpayer investment into the tripling of bulk billing, and we’ve seen a slight increase of 2% - And of course, we’re very happy that those Australians have been able to get access to bulk billing and obviously affordable access to health care - But there’s a long way to go for this government to actually turn around the trend that we’ve seen since they came into government. Month-on-month bulk billing rates have been dropping. They’ve dropped to the lowest levels since they were last in government. So I think the Minister’s being a little disingenuous crowing great success when this is only the first step. And you’d like to think for $3.6 billion we’d get a significant improvement in bulk billing rates. So I think we should probably wait a little longer before we claim success on this one.

KIERAN GILBERT: Do you think that one of the pivotal problems here, it seems to me that the amount of - We see a lot of medical graduates, a lot of kids studying medicine, which is wonderful, but very few of those graduates going into general practice. We need to turn that around. How do we do that?

ANNE RUSTON: Well, absolutely, that is the number one issue facing our primary care system, facing our entire health and care system right now, is the challenges of workforce. And when it comes to primary care - A drop from, you know, sort of ten years ago, where we saw 50% of our medical graduates choosing general practice, to less than 13% choosing today - there is obviously a crucial problem here. And that’s why I think that we need to look at innovative ways where we can incentivise our young graduates to choose general practice. But we also right now - That will take some time for that to flow through the system - We also need to be looking at other things, like making sure that we’re streamlining overseas doctors being able to come into our country to practice much more quickly than they currently are. And we also need to make sure that those people that currently are in general practice are being rewarded, not just financially, but with the supports that they need so that they will stay in general practice, and hopefully continue to practice. Because we have a crisis in primary care right now, and it is plainly workforce.

KIERAN GILBERT: On the tax cut issue, there would be many of your backbenchers in the Liberal Party and National Party that want the Coalition to say, okay, well, we’re not going to repeal these tax cuts for low and middle income earners - If you want to do more, do it. But it’s hard to see the Coalition seeking to block these. Certainly many of your backbench don’t think you should.

ANNE RUSTON: Well, the first thing I’d say is that, you know, we have always been the party of lower taxes, and we want every Australian to keep more of what they earn in their pockets. And so, that’s why we put in this comprehensive three stage reform process for our tax system. When I listened to Anthony Albanese last week at the Press Club in relation to the changes that he was proposing to stage three, there were so many questions that remained unanswered. And obviously, as a Coalition, we will go through a process to decide how we are going to respond to this. But, I would reinforce, you know, we have a great track record of saying to Australians, we want you to keep more of your money. But the last thing that we need to be seeing here, which is what Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers are doing, is they’re pitting one group of Australians against another. We want to see all Australians get tax relief. And the other thing we need to remember about the reforms that Mr. Albanese and Mr. Chalmers are promising right now is they’re $15 a week over a 12 month period, not starting until the 1st of July. I don’t think there’s an Australian family who is not worse off under this government, and they’re worse off by thousands and thousands of dollars. And if you take in the mortgage rate increases -

KIERAN GILBERT: 15, $15 is on top of - That’s on top of the original stage three. So it’s actually for someone on 70 grand a year, that’s $30 a week or $120 a month. That’ll be noticed.

ANNE RUSTON: Well, obviously, any relief that we can give to Australians right now in relation to, you know, the cost of living pressures that are on them - But my point still remains absolutely valid. No matter how you cut and dice this particular change that Mr. Albanese’s put on the table, no Australian is going to be recompensed in any way, shape or form for the damage that’s happened to their disposable incomes under this government. It’s like putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound. This government needs to be addressing the runaway cost of living that is before us at the moment. In a more general sense, they need to be, you know, putting in broader reforms so that cost of living actually can start coming back down to the kind of levels where Australians actually feel like they’re getting ahead.

KIERAN GILBERT: Anne Ruston, appreciate that. Look forward to seeing you next week when Parliament returns. Thanks.

ANNE RUSTON: Looking forward to it. Thanks, Kieran.

ENDS