Transcript: Interview with Kieran Gilbert, Sky News - 24 February 2025

TRANSCRIPT

Interview with Kieran Gilbert, Sky News

24 February 2025

Topics: The Coalition’s $9 billion Medicare commitment, Labor’s primary healthcare crisis, GP bulk billing data  

E&OE…………………………………

Kieran Gilbert: Welcome back to Newsday. Joining me is the Shadow Health Minister, Anne Ruston. Appreciate your time. Big 48 hours. You've agreed to this $8.5 billion on Medicare. In fact, you're upping it by $500 million. Is this all a bit of a surprise to you?

Anne Ruston: Well, we already had put on the table right from the get-go, the first time that the Labor Party came out and said that they were going to cut support to people with complex and chronic mental health conditions - We said no way, we were going to put that back on the table. So, the additional funding has been on the table since 2023. But, you know, we've known for some time there's a complete crisis in primary care. I mean, your listeners would know every time they try and visit their doctor, if they can get in, they're paying way more than they've ever paid before in out-of-pocket costs. So, we always knew that there was going to be, you know, they needed to fix this primary care crisis, which is why we were ready.

Kieran Gilbert: Is this the sort of scope that you had planned for anyway, and you were ready just to say Peter Dutton, as health spokesperson, I think we should back this?

Anne Ruston: Well, I mean, if you have a look over the last three years, by every metric, we have seen our healthcare system go backwards and Australians are paying the price of this. I mean, it's a cost-of-living issue, just like just about everything else we've got before us. So, we were well aware that there needed to be a significant investment in primary care, because if you invest in primary care, you invest in a healthier nation. And what we are seeing is 1.5 million Australians last year didn't visit the doctor because they said they couldn't afford to. So that's 1.5 million sicker Australians, many of these are ending up in emergency departments where the cost is so much higher. So, primary care was really where the investment needed to be.

Kieran Gilbert: Mark Butler says you shouldn't be trusted, the Coalition and the Liberal Leader, given it was his freeze on the rebate in the first place that has, in part, caused the problems.

Anne Ruston: Well, what I'd say is just look at the facts. I mean, under us, we saw bulk billing rates increase right the way through our term. I mean, we inherited an 82% bulk billing rate. Peter Dutton got it up to 84%. When we went into Covid, it was 86%. And through Covid, and when this government inherited the government in 2022, it was in excess of 88%. As we sit here today, it's 77%. So, I think you just have to look at the facts on the table, and no amount of spin or scare campaigns actually deflects from the facts. And so, I think Australians deserve the truth, and that's what we're telling them. And I think that the Labor Party are being pretty disingenuous by going out and using health, and telling lies in health, to try and cling on to government.

Kieran Gilbert: We will talk to you soon. I appreciate it very much.

ENDS