Anne Webster
Mallee · National Party · Australia
“The government's first duty is to protect its citizens and, arguably, its most vulnerable citizens—in this case, children. Today that duty extends into a digital world, where the playground has actually moved online and where too often it is unpoliced and unsafe.”
“We know that, despite the ban, large numbers of children are still accessing these platforms because enforcement has been weak and the regulator has not been given the tools it needs.”
“They worry about exposure to violent content; harmful algorithms; cyberbullying; scams; predatory, paedophilic behaviour; and the relentless pressure that social media can place on young people's mental health. These concerns are real, and they deserve to be taken seriously.”
“For many young Australians, social media is where they access news, educational content and creative learning. It's where they stay connected with friends and family. It is where they participate in their communities and engage in public debate.”
“My constituent asks that there be some sort of agency or protocol where these accounts can be collated, investigated and closed where applicable.”
“Labor rejected it and then, in the 2024 budget, accepted it. We pledged in June 2024 that we would deliver the under-16s social media ban, which Labor, thankfully, copied.”
The complete record
Every one of 760 lines we hold for Anne Webster, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 15 of 16.
“We will match this women's health package, including measures to enhance menopause care for women through a new Medicare rebate; expand health professional training; develop national clinical guidelines; and increase funding for endometriosis and pelvic pain. I've got to say that this was actually brought by the previous member for Boothby, Nicolle Flint, who worked incredibly hard to see that endometriosis was raised to the level where government took it seriously. I'm really pleased to see this funding announcement made, and we welcome the government's decision to expand on this work with 11 new clinics. Whether it is helping women who live with chronic health conditions like endometriosis, supporting women with menopause or helping families on their fertility journey, we are committed to getting the policy settings right.”
“The maldistribution of doctors—again, another great idea by the Albanese government!—expanded the distribution priority areas, so doctors left in a flood from Modified Monash Model regions MM3 and MM7 to MM2 and even MM1. So, in the regions, we have fewer doctors to start with, and more people are having to pull out more money from their pocket to go and see their doctor, if they can get an appointment. This is a sham by the Albanese Labor government, to brag about their outcomes in Medicare. I want, however, to speak about the women's health package. The coalition supports the government's $573.3 million package announced today, which builds on the historic work undertaken by the former coalition government in supporting women's health.”
“To put this into perspective, the GP bulk-billing rate rose under Peter Dutton, the opposition leader, when he was the health minister, to 84 per cent, and it continued to rise under the former coalition government to 88 per cent before we left office in May 2022. But under the Albanese government Medicare is currently covering the lowest percentage of GP fees on record. On average, Australians are being forced to cover 45 per cent more of the cost from their own pocket to see a doctor than when the coalition was in government—and this is in a cost-of-living crisis. What is happening is that people are not seeking out an appointment with their doctor, because they simply cannot afford it. This is emphasised in the regions where we have fewer doctors to go around.”
“It's nice to see a female speaker talking when I'm about to speak about support for women's health, in particular. Those of us on this side of the House believe in outcomes rather than spin. Labor's rhetoric about saving Medicare and celebrating anniversaries is desperate when you compare actual outcomes, because their record is actually pathetic. Not only do they keep the Department of Health and Aged Care under the thumb and are unable to provide us or the public with data on outcomes but they manipulate departmental resources to claim bulk-billing rates are improving. GP bulk-billing has fallen 11 per cent under the Albanese Government, to 77 per cent, while out-of-pocket costs have increased by 11 per cent—and that's just in the past year alone.”
“This is the can-do regional spirit at work. We crack on, getting the job done, but to say the Mallee electorate is looking longingly to a return of a coalition government would be an understatement.”
“New mayor Helen Healy told Wade Stephens of the Sunraysia Daily newspaper: The application we submitted would have realised a whole host of major additional improvements to our riverfront precinct, and is certainly in line with the purpose of this program, so we're not only disappointed, but a little surprised. The chief executive, Martin Hawson, added: We'd also committed to a significant level of matching funding as part of our application, as this project would have provided numerous benefits for our community, particularly families. While this is obviously a setback, we're still committed to these improvements and will look at how much we can do with Council funding. I have to say that that is very difficult in country electorates and country shires. They are really scrambling to find dollars to even fix roads.”
“It's appalling—so much so that the Mildura Rural City Council in my home town also hit out about missing out again under Labor's Growing Regions Program. If we get the chance, Speaker, I might take you out to the Mildura Sporting Precinct for a kick of the footy or perhaps to shoot some hoops—you can do that! The coalition put $17.5 million into the Mildura region in that project alone from the Building Better Regions Fund. It was amazing. Do you want to guess what they've had under Labor's replacement, the Growing Regions Program? Diddly squat.”
“I have 12 shires in my Mallee electorate, when many metropolitan electorates have just one or two. Our councils have very low rate bases. They make a judgement call to invest in the resources to make an application, and a key factor in that decision is how critical it is for their residents. Yarriambiack Shire made four housing applications and got zip, zilch, nada. It may horrify you, Speaker, to hear that, comparing the last three years under a coalition government to these three years of the Albanese Labor government, the difference in federal spending in my electorate is a factor of 20 to one. In my first three years, $2 billion was delivered in the electorate of Mallee. Since Labor have been in, there has been just $100 million across 12 shires.”
“The Labor government recently announced the successful recipients of the Housing Support Program, and guess how much support Mallee got? None—not a cracker. Yarriambiack Shire mayor Kylie Zanker was gutted, telling the local media: As a Mayor to say our council is disappointed is an understatement. We work restlessly on funding applications and to miss out again is just heartbreaking. We submit quality applications investing time and money on consultants to assist to ensure our applications are of the highest standard and to be unsuccessful is devastating. Four quality projects across Yarriambiack and not one funded. Our communities deserve so much more than the zero that is being delivered. I have to underline that money was invested in applications.”
“Before I begin, Speaker, let me tell you how excited the people of Mallee are that you will be joining us in the wonderful north-west of Victoria, visiting our schools and encouraging everyone to engage in our incredible democracy. Regardless of which chapter it might be in your storied career as Speaker, we cannot wait for you to join us in tropical north Victoria. Time won't permit us to take you to all four corners of the wonderful Mallee electorate, but I am sure that, in Sunraysia, you will put on quite a show. Speaker, it may disappoint you to learn that there is a little grumbling about the Albanese Labor government in Mallee, not least from some of its mayors—you won't meet any of those, so it's okay! It's shocking, I know, but it's true.”
“The existing offences in division 80 of the Criminal Code make it an offence to urge violence against individuals or groups on the basis of race, religion and the like. They make it an offence to advocate terrorism or genocide. For months, the coalition has been calling for the existing laws to be used. We have been saying that the existing offences should be tested and those preaching antisemitism should be put before a court. Why hasn't this happened? Regardless, the changes made by these laws as introduced are welcome. I only hope they will be enough to start to stem the tide. Inaction is no longer acceptable. The scourge of antisemitism in this country must be stopped.”
“Evil is always present, gently bubbling beneath the surface, and strong action must be taken to ensure it doesn't start to simmer, let alone boil. To further illustrate the fact that antisemitism is not just an issue in the cities, I highlight an instance of blatant public activity by a white supremacist group in Mallee in 2021. A group of about 30 men were seen performing Nazi salutes and chanting slogans such as 'white power' and 'heil Hitler' while camping and hiking in a national park—the mind boggles. This bill is intended to help mitigate some of the government's failures. It modifies the existing offences in division 80 of the Criminal Code that should have been used to stop the spark of antisemitism in the first place.”
“An Italian migrant complained to me recently that his family came to Australia in the 1950s and accepted Australian values, so why can't newer arrivals? The ability to understand and subscribe to Australian values is essential for social cohesion and maintaining our way of life. I reiterate the concern expressed by Victoria Police about rising antisemitism in Victoria. The Victorian Chief Commissioner recently articulated this: We've seen a significant rise in antisemitism … It remains our biggest concern. Commissioner Patton said that, since the October 7 attack, more than 160 antisemitic incidents have been reported in Victoria. Accordingly, an increased police presence is now being deployed in Melbourne. Unfortunately, it does not seem this will extend to the regions.”
“While people in Mallee, my electorate, might think this is an urban issue, the reality is that I've been made aware of antisemitism in my own electorate. This is an issue not only in inner-city areas, where there are many Jewish people living in close proximity to each other, but also in rural and regional communities. In small rural and regional communities people often know each other and rely heavily on their social networks and connections, making festering antisemitism even more volatile. Jewish people in Mallee tell me they don't feel safe due to open antisemitism in the Australian community, including the display of blatantly antisemitic propaganda in public spaces within my rural and regional electorate.”
“No more.' Let's start combating that now rather than watch this history just play out. Bearing that in mind, what sort of lifestyle should Jewish Australians and those of any other religious or cultural group expect? Rights and freedoms for all individuals; freedom of thought, worship, speech and association; the rule of law, safety, justice; and equality of opportunity, reward for effort and a fair go—at least, that's what the coalition believes in. Yet Labor's inaction is tearing our social cohesion apart. Antisemitism is like a wound that festers within communities. Without appropriate treatment it grows and causes destruction of the surrounding tissue, eroding community connections, relationships, and values and pitting neighbours against each other.”
“Former Labor prime minister Julia Gillard told a Sky News documentary earlier this year: Many of the anti-Israel demonstrations have been caused by a distortion of history … It's a misunderstanding about how Israel came into existence. It's a misunderstanding about the nature of the conflict … And because of that, I think particularly young people are developing views about this which are unbalanced and really not informed by the history in any way. Ms Gillard went on to say, poignantly: The Holocaust, of course, teaches us where antisemitism leads if it's not confronted. That is the history of Germany before the war. It didn't happen all at once … These things happened step at a time. So given we've seen that history, we're in a position when we see the first few steps to say: 'No.”
“To save their seats in inner cities from the Greens, Labor is railroading regional communities with a radical rollout of wind turbines, solar panels and 28,000 kilometres of transmission lines for a political target. My point is that this Prime Minister lacks the leadership to govern for all Australians and act in the national interest. Antisemitism is inconsistent with Australian values and unthinkable in modern Australia. Australia must reject antisemitism as it must reject the persecution of any group on the basis of religion or race. Jewish people have been persecuted persistently over history, and the recent 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on 27 January 2025 reminds us of the horrors of the Holocaust with deaths of some six million Jews—a circumstance that all agree must never be repeated.”
“Those fleeing Gaza or Lebanon should be turned back if they are terrorist sympathisers. They do not have a place in this country. This failure of decisive action is a leader in crisis. In the application of existing laws, the diplomatic abandonment of Israel and weak stance on border security all can only be for perceived local political gain. The Albanese government is more concerned with winning votes in Western Sydney and appeasing voters in inner-city electorates than with ensuring the protection of Jewish people in Australia and maintaining our values and way of life. If you might forgive a brief digression, we see the same callous political games played with regional Australians.”
“This abandonment traces back not only to the failure of the Prime Minister and his government to take decisive action but also to the diplomatic abandonment of Israel, the only liberal democracy in the Middle East. This government has overturned a decades-long bipartisan position on Israel in our foreign policy, as evidenced by voting patterns at the United Nations. On the international stage, Australia appeared to reward Hamas's terrorist attacks. Diplomatic abandonment has been coupled with a weak stance on border security, including the provision of visas to thousands of people from Gaza, a war zone ruled by a listed terrorist organisation, many without proper security checks. People on visas who sympathise with terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah should be deported today.”
“Most recent was the finding of a caravan packed with explosives and an alleged antisemitic plot to attack several Jewish targets. In Australia in 2025, who on earth would have thought this could be. This is now a clear campaign of terror and is not something I would ever have imagined happening in our lucky country, a place where, for generations, migrants have come across the seas to find safety, opportunity and a chance to live a better life. This is not the Australia we know and love. Attacks on Jewish Australians are attacks on our way of life—attacks on every Australian. Attacking people because of their Jewish faith or ancestry is un-Australian. Under Labor, the Jewish community now feels under siege and abandoned.”
“Existing criminal laws that are meant to deal with things like the urging of violence against groups defined by race or religion in division 80 of the Criminal Code were not used. Hence, antisemitic sentiment was allowed to fester. Through the Prime Minister's actions—or, conversely, inactions—the Prime Minister sent a very clear message that, despite what he might say, there will be no real consequences for those who target and attack Jewish Australians. Because of this Prime Minister's inaction, we are now experiencing acts of outright terrorism—the firebombing of cars and targeting of homes, childcare centres and synagogues, including the horrific attack on the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne in December.”
“But acknowledging Jewish Australians' experiences of antisemitism does not diminish the experience of Muslim Australians. The Prime Minister did not address this, and his failure to do so was an indication that he did not take the threat of antisemitism seriously. We saw ongoing failures to take decisive action against antisemitism in Australia. Antisemitic displays were not prosecuted, protests were not stopped, and universities were permitted to be used as encampments. Worse still, the tone was set incorrectly from October 2023 when police arrested a man carrying an Israeli flag in Sydney during protests supporting Palestine—allegedly for his own safety. Offensive references to Jewish people were made at the same protests, which to this day continue to be debated and forensically examined to find out what was actually said.”
“The Prime Minister should have made clear through his actions from the very beginning that those who sought to spread antisemitic attacks here would feel the full force of the law. He should have been clear from the very beginning about the scale of the horror inflicted by Hamas, and underscored Australia's allegiance to its long-term friend and ally, Israel. He could—and should—have used our laws and our police forces to clamp down on those who sought to weaponise the Hamas attacks for their own hateful purposes here at home. He did not. At a time when we were seeing an unprecedented rise in antisemitism, the Prime Minister and his ministers failed to acknowledge the presence of antisemitism without concurrently mentioning Islamophobia—always seeking a moral equivalence. Neither have a place in this country. Both are condemned.”
“It is, as the member for Hughes has just said, too little too late when it comes to this legislation and the broader issue of dealing with the scourge of rising antisemitism occurring in our country since the Hamas terror attacks on 7 October 2023. Make no mistake: this bill is necessary because of the repeated failures of the Albanese government. The Prime Minister has been stoking tensions over the past 16 months through his weak leadership and failure to act decisively to stamp out antisemitism. He has been missing in action on this very important issue. This is all about leadership, or the lack thereof. Australians look to their prime minister to set the tone of the national response to any crisis.”
“I hasten to add in this banking regulation space that more than half of Australian ATMs have closed in the last six years, and many of my constituents who rely on cash can't get to an ATM in their town or anywhere near where they live. It's well and good for the government to be talking about mandating the use of cash in essential service contexts, albeit with potential small-business exemptions, but, if regional Australians can't withdraw cash, what then? I urge anyone watching or reading to go to www.scamwatch.gov.au for the latest information on scams and on how protect yourself and to discuss sensible protective behaviours.”
“Australians were the victims of around 601,000 reported scams in the last reporting year, up 18.5 per cent, and both the number of reported scams and the amounts lost are just that—reported. There could be a whole lot more from embarrassed people who don't want to admit that they've been scammed. Are Australians stupid? Are my constituents stupid? No. Yet the implied message in this bill is we need to protect the banks, not vulnerable Australians. Labor's solution in this bill is not immediate reimbursement; it is handing vulnerable Australians a snakes-and-ladders board where they roll the dice and move up and down the ladders and slip down the snakes. Internal dispute mechanisms, external dispute mechanisms, legal action against the bank—really? Is this the best the government can do?”
“I bought tickets to a big hotel in Melbourne, only to discover afterwards the ticket website that they had moved me onto was fake, and money was taken from me—$9,000, in fact. My pathway to getting reimbursed by the bank was not straightforward. I'm not embarrassed by being scammed. I'm angry, but I'm not embarrassed. I've had private conversations with members here, and they admit they have been scammed as well. It is becoming far too common. Over $2 billion is lost to scams in Australia every year, with around $2.74 billion dollars lost in the 2023 year. That contrasts with over one billion pounds per annum being scammed in the United Kingdom across their population in recent reporting years. Yet they've gone all in, compelling banks to reimburse customers.”
“The banks at either end of the transaction must pay half that cost each. Let me ask you this. Who is best placed to protect bank customers from scammers: vulnerable customers like Emily, the recently bereaved widow, or the banks themselves? Who is best placed to go chasing social media companies or internet platforms for responsibility: widows like Emily or Janet, with her punctured lung and pneumonia, or the banks? Clearly the United Kingdom have decided that, no matter what role social media or internet platforms have played, the fairest and best outcome for victims is for them to be reimbursed. The banks can go hunting the platforms after that. I am furious—and I have been furious since last year—that vulnerable Mallee constituents are being scammed. And now let me disclose my own interest. I too have been scammed.”
“This legislation we have before us today doesn't seem to be drafted to protect Emily, Janet, Danny, my staff, their families or vulnerable Australians but rather to protect banks. The new United Kingdom legislation—introduced by the now former Conservative government, I might add—relates to so-called authorised push payment, or APP, scams. Britain mandated that banks must compensate scam victims 99.9 per cent of the time. Further, the UK system defines some customers as vulnerable and does not require them to exercise a standard of caution. That is, other customers are required to show they have not demonstrated gross negligence. Vulnerable customers are also not required to carry the 100 pounds excess on their reimbursement. Britain's maximum reimbursement is 85,000 pounds.”
“The Global Anti-Scam Alliance say that in the most recent reporting year scammers have taken a whopping $1 trillion. As they note, that rivals the GDP of some nations. In countries like Pakistan, their scam losses are equivalent to 4.2 per cent of their GDP. It's 3.6 per cent in Kenya and 3.4 per cent in South Africa. The Global Anti-Scam Alliance said in their latest report Australians lose US$1,452 per capita per year to scams, well below US$3,500 in the United States and US$1,800 in the UK. The Global Anti-Scam Alliance report found that globally, when survey respondents were asked who they expect to ensure scam victims are reimbursed, they answered the online platform used by the scammer, the website they used or the bank.”
“We're not talking peanuts here; we're talking about people's life savings. He lost it from the life insurance payout he got from the death of his son, Robert, who died two weeks after Danny lost his daughter, Sharon, to motor neurone disease. The scam? Another Microsoft impersonation scam, last September. Danny told news.com.au that he couldn't believe it took the bank nearly two hours to discover that funds had been taken out of his bank account four times. None of these were investment scams—just people caught out by scammers that target the vulnerable. In the United Kingdom, prior to the new 7 October mandatory obligation, the majority of banks were voluntarily reimbursing their customers 72 per cent of the time. In contrast, in Australia, the voluntary bank reimbursement figure is less than five per cent.”
“She was unwell at the time with a punctured lung and pneumonia and was taken to hospital the next day, so she was convinced the so-called technicians were there to help her. In the circumstances, would you call Janet stupid? I don't think so. Janet was vulnerable, and the scammers are scumbags. But it gets worse. Janet later found her money in her bank was gone. Janet was initially relieved to hear from her bank that she was going to get some money back. What did she receive? $3.66. That would ease the burden, wouldn't it? $3.66—there must be some one per cent rule the banks are using to recompense victims. My word to them is thanks very much on behalf of everyone who is being scammed! Seventy-six-year-old Vietnam war veteran Danny McIver, another Mallee constituent, lost $70,000.”
“However, there were several of us in the office at the time who told him to hang up immediately, shut the computer down and invest in some reputable computer security protection. It's a really good idea; if you don't have it, I would strongly recommend that you get some. I have another story: a publican in my electorate thought he was ordering beer for his pub from his regular website. He wasn't. He said goodbye to tens of thousands of dollars. I won't name him, but good luck telling him he's stupid. The Maryborough District Advertiser newspaper in the south-east of my electorate told the sad story of Janet, who lost $30,000 she had saved for her children. Janet got a call from someone claiming to be Telstra and saying her phone had been hacked.”
“Their credit card details were taken, and a scammer helped themselves to buy some Armani goods in Asia. That family only got their money back by threatening legal action. They have since changed banks, something banks would do well to remember. As I prepared to speak on this bill late last year, while discussing Emily's case with her bank, another of my staff was here in Canberra and put her husband on speakerphone. His home computer was frozen, and he was on another line to a 1800 number—which the on-screen message had directed him to—claiming to be Microsoft. Here we go again. It wasn't Microsoft; it was scammers. They would most likely have asked for personal information to access his finances, just like Emily.”
“I reiterate: Emily is not stupid, but that is the implied message that sits behind the banks' collective treatment of victims like Emily and, I am sorry to say, behind this legislation in its current form. Investment scams are a big portion of Australia's scam losses. Emily's story—and I'm about to share more—falls outside the approximately $1.3 billion in Australian investment scam losses. Surely, if there is concern about what a mandatory reimbursement of customers might mean for banks and their shareholders, the primary group for protection should be everyday Australians who are not trying to invest money but are tricked into handing over personal details. Let me give some of those personal stories. The wife of one of my staff bought tickets to go to a museum on a state government website.”
“In my view, it is my job and my privilege as a parliamentarian to help Emily and people like her, but why does it have to come to this? Why do members of parliament end up being ombudsmen and clearing houses for sensible decision-making that simply should have been appropriately handled in the first place? Emily is an intelligent woman. I dare anyone in this place to call Emily stupid. I don't believe anyone in this place would call Emily stupid. Emily's family told me that she is computer savvy, creates invoices on the computer and does a lot of internet banking, and, as they say: She's not easily fooled and has been caught at a moment of vulnerability.”
“And if you have been scammed, I want to make this clear: you have been manipulated, disempowered and gaslit by people who intended nothing but evil towards you. I met with Emily's bank representatives here in Canberra soon after speaking with her about this situation because I felt it was fundamentally wrong, and I told them as much. After some discussion, I am pleased to say that a settlement was reached. This is what Emily had to say about the outcome: I was getting nowhere going through the bank fraud people. So I thought, it's a lot of money, I want to try as hard as I can to be recompensed for something. So I went to my member of Parliament, who I vote for and always will!— I will say that's always a lovely message— I've been astounded at the result. I didn't know members of parliament had such contacts.”
“The message told Emily to call a 1800 number to speak with Microsoft. A voice at the end of the line said they were trying to track down the scammers and wanted her help with a sting operation asking for her account details so they could put money in her account to transfer to the scammers to assist with the police operation. Instead, these scumbags were the true scammers and helped themselves to $157,000 from her bank account. And how much did her bank agree to reimburse her? You won't believe this, Deputy Speaker. It was just $22.36. I spoke to Emily during the final sitting week of last year, and she told me how she felt so ashamed at being scammed, so embarrassed, that she didn't want to tell her adult children. This is so wrong. Emily should never have felt ashamed. No-one who has been scammed should feel ashamed.”
“Scammers are the scum of the earth. Scammers target vulnerable Australians, but make no mistake: they come after every Australian. Scammed Australians are not stupid; they are victims. I want to start with those statements of principles because I fear that, in the debate about scams, vulnerable Australians—victims—are ignored and, in fact, sometimes insulted by their banks. I fear that the debate on the Scams Prevention Framework Bill 2024 and in the scam space is all about the banks and people who hold shares in banks and not about their customers, the victims, the vulnerable Australians. They are vulnerable Australians like 82-year-old widow Emily, from Mildura in my electorate, who lost her husband in June last year. Shockingly, just a few weeks later, a message popped up on her computer screen that she was being scammed.”
“That is not to mention—as time doesn't permit—the woeful approval times at Ahpra, on this government's watch, to get doctors up and running and practising here, which at times leaves our health services desperately short, as it did in Maryborough last year. These are key issues which must be addressed to make it easier for people in the regions to see a doctor, yet this government has been moving the dial in the wrong direction. I haven't even touched on the challenges posed by the higher costs of running a GP practice in the regions, including to fund locum doctors or incentivise GPs to move to an area by reimbursing relocation costs and providing subsidised housing. All this is coupled with patient populations who have lower incomes on average and, therefore, a reduced ability to pay out-of-pocket costs.”
“Then there is the issue of supervision. Younger GPs are pushing back against the requirement to supervise trainee GPs in their practices—and I have some in Mildura in exactly that position—in part because they are just not remunerated adequately for the time and energy involved to train the next generation of doctors to a high standard. It also takes them out of seeing their own patients. If you have a level 1 registrar, it requires for the GP—their supervisor—to sit with that registrar in every appointment. It's a requirement and it's needed, but the remuneration is not there to match the workload.”
“This longstanding workforce crisis was amplified thanks to Labor bleeding the regions of doctors through the expansion of the distribution priority area, which funnelled international medical graduates into peri-urban settings. There is a significant and persistent maldistribution of the GP workforce, resulting in shortages in the regions, especially in small rural towns—and I have 72 in Mallee. We know that small rural towns like Dimboola, in my electorate, have, on average, almost 60 per cent fewer health professionals than major cities do—just imagine. As older GPs retire, more young GPs are required to replace them as they're no longer willing to work the kinds of hours that were required in the past. One retiring GP might require two or even three younger GPs to cover their workload into the future.”
“Here are some of their comments. 'There are no GPs in my town. The nearest is 70 kilometres away.' 'Our previous clinic closed, and it took six months to find a new GP clinic that would accept new patients. My family now has three different clinics between us, but we still do not have access to a regular doctor, because they keep leaving town.' 'The last doctor I was seeing left the nearest town. Now there are none taking new patients, so I see locums in a town further away.' All Australians should be able to access the care of a GP when they need it, yet, under the Albanese government, this is becoming a pipedream for a few. There are just not enough GPs in the regions.”
“People in the regions are really doing it tough when it comes to getting the primary care they need and deserve, and this government has not done them any favours. The Australian Bureau of Statistics data corroborates this finding, illustrating that people living in outer regional, remote and very remote areas were more likely to report waiting longer than they felt acceptable for a GP appointment in 2023-24 than those living in major cities were—36.3 per cent compared to 26 per cent. They were also less likely to see an after-hours GP, 5.6 per cent compared to 3.9 per cent; and more likely to visit a hospital ED, 20.4 per cent compared to 13.8 per cent; or be admitted to hospital, 14.2 per cent compared to 12.1 per cent. Constituents regularly tell me of the significant challenges they face just getting to see a doctor.”
“Earlier this sitting fortnight, I visited the CareFlight helicopter that landed in Federation Mall to promote their work. Medical evacuation to capital cities for emergency treatment has become the norm in rural, regional and remote Australia. A 2023 report published by consulting firm Nous clearly articulated the relationship between Medicare Benefits Schedule, or MBS, expenditure; emergency department, or ED, presentations; and hospital separations. MBS expenditure reduces as you get more geographically remote, and, in concert, ED and acute hospital usage increases. When this existing system strain is coupled with the degradation that is occurring under the Albanese government, the outcome is magnified.”
“This is a concern not only in and of itself but also because people who do not receive the primary care they need in a timely manner often become sicker and need to access the hospital system, including overburdened emergency departments, when their symptoms become more severe. This is not good for patients, and it is costly for the health system. These circumstances are amplified in the regions, where the primary care system has long been stretched and is now approaching breaking point. People living in the regions, including in my electorate of Mallee, already have reduced access to primary care, rely more heavily on emergency departments and are admitted to hospital at a greater rate than those living in major cities. Worse still, those emergency departments are a long distance from where rural, remote and regional Australians live.”
“The bulk-billing data I gave earlier points to a primary care system at crisis point. When primary care becomes unaffordable, difficult decisions must be made in families and households and by individuals, regarding how to spend their limited resources. Australians are making the trade-off between paying their bills and seeing the doctor. Under the Albanese government, health costs have gone up by 10 per cent. We know that 1.5 million Australians avoided going to a GP in 2023-24 due to cost concerns. The proportion of people who reported that cost was a reason for either delaying seeing a GP or not seeing a GP when needed increased to 8.8 per cent in 2023-24 from seven per cent in 2022-23.”
“At that level, you could excuse Australians for thinking that, under Labor, waiting an inordinate amount of time for outcomes is the norm. In 2023-24, 77 per cent of all bulk-billing claims were completed past their official deadline, the second-worst result across Services Australia's entire health work program. Now, more than ever before, it is critical that the government ensure Australians can have their Medicare and PBS claims paid on time, but instead they have sent the system backwards. Residents in my electorate of Mallee have not seen improvements to Medicare under this government. Labor promised to strengthen Medicare, but they have weakened it. It has never been harder or more expensive to see a doctor than under the Albanese Labor government. Bulk-billing rates are falling, and the cost of seeing a doctor is rising.”
“This Labor government is excellent with the headlines but not so great on the implementation. They are great at beating their chests and at two-word slogans with the word 'Medicare' in them but not great at beating the delays and delivering Medicare funded services to needy Australians, especially in the regions. New data obtained by the opposition through Senate estimates reveals a massive spike in the time it took for the agency to process key health claims during a cost-of-living crisis. The new data also shows that more health claims in 2023-24 were completed outside the agency's own internal timeliness standard than not, with 8.3 million completed after the official deadline, compared with 5½ million claims completed on time.”
“While we support measures to strengthen the effective administration of Australia's important health benefits schemes, including the Medicare Benefits Schedule, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and the Child Dental Benefits Schedule, we want to make sure that there are no unidentified negative consequences created by this bill for Australia's healthcare professionals. It is rather ironic that this legislation aims to make efficiencies in the way Medicare works and improve its integrity, yet, under this government, wait times for Australians trying to access vital health services through Services Australia have blown out dramatically, with Australians waiting almost three times as long for PBS patient refunds to be processed. Now, who would have thought it!”