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.
 
Because we understand Medicare is at the heart of people’s lives.
 
Fundamental to your family’s health and security.
 
Front and centre in helping with the cost of living.
 
And a measure of the most Australian idea there is – the fair go.
 
That’s why Medicare is much more than an ordinary policy or program.
 
Medicare is a promise that Government makes to every citizen.
 
That if something goes wrong, if you get hurt, if your child is sick, if 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, the 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, then it’s not just the individual who suffers, our whole society pays a price.
 
That’s the cold, hard lesson of every Liberal Government - especially the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government.
 
A decade of conflict and chaos, with Peter Dutton front and centre.   
 
A decade of cuts that pushed our health system to breaking point, and put bulk-billing in free fall.  
 
In 10 years, the Liberals turned bulk-billing from a service you could count on, to something you have to search for.
 
And that wasn’t an accident born of neglect or their incompetence – it was their goal all along.
 
It’s why Peter Dutton’s number one priority as Health Minister was a GP tax designed to destroy bulk-billing altogether.
 
He wanted to impose a medicine tax.
 
And a hospital tax on every Australian who had to seek care at an emergency department.

And when he couldn’t get his way, he launched a six-year freeze on Medicare rebates for GPs that stripped away billions.
 
Remember that, next time you hear the Liberals talk about getting ‘back on track’.
 
Remember what they want to go back to.
 
Remember the track they put Medicare on.
 
The dead end road to a system where every Australian paid more for less.
 
Thirty and forty 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’.
 
But every single time they get into Government, their attacks on Medicare are always the same.
 
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.
 
And when they talk about ‘contributions’, or ‘co-payments’ that means user pays.
 
‘User pays’ means patients pay.
 
It means families pay.
 
It means doctors and nurses and health care workers pay.
 
That’s why, in the Labor Party, we don’t call people who rely on Medicare and bulk-billing and the PBS and public hospitals ‘users’.
 
We call them Australians.
  
In health, as in so many other areas, my colleagues and I have spent every day of the last three years cleaning up the mess the Liberals left behind.
 
But we’re not satisfied with clearing away their failures.   
 
In the next three years we want to go further and do better.
 
We want to deliver on the true promise and purpose of Medicare.
 
If the Australian people entrust our Labor Government with a second term, a single, straightforward objective will be the foundation of our health policy.
 
By 2030, we want 9 out of every 10 visits to the GP to be bulk-billed.

We want 9 out of every 10 visits to the GP, to be free.
 
That’s an ambitious goal - but people deserve ambition from their Government on Medicare.
 
Because just as every Australian wants the best health care for their family, our Government wants the best health care for every Australian.
 
That’s why two weeks ago, we delivered a $1.7 billion funding boost for public hospitals in the coming year.
 
A 14 per cent increase, for Tasmanian hospitals.
 
That’s on top of the $120 million we’ve put in to build the new Northern Heart Centre right here in Launceston.
 
Our plan for stronger Medicare is about ambition - and it’s about action.
 
Setting the goal – and outlining what we will do to get Australia there.
 
At the last election, we promised to open 50 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics.
 
Less than three years later, we’ve opened 87.
 
Including five right here in Tasmania.
 
Since the clinic in Wellington Street opened 18 months ago, it has helped over 26,000 Tasmanians get the free urgent care they need, fully bulk billed.
 
So if you get a burn or a sprain, if your child falls off their bike after school or hurts themselves at footy training or is running a fever before bedtime, you don’t need to wait around in the hospital emergency department.
 
You don’t need to ring around trying to find a GP who might be able to see you the following day.
 
You don’t need to risk a small thing becoming much more serious later on – and all the costs that go with that.
 
You can get help, and you can get it straight away.
 
And you don’t need to put it on the credit card.
 
All you need is your Medicare card.
 
In less than three years, our Medicare Urgent Care Clinics have become a key part of the health system – and a vital part of so many communities.
 
They take pressure off our hospitals and our healthcare workers.
 
And they save people money.
 
Medicare Urgent Care Clinics have helped more than one million Australians see a doctor for free.
 
Parents and families swear by them: one third of patients have been under the age of 15.
 
But the most important number in this equation is one.
 
One card guarantees it all.
 
One card covers it all.
 
Not your credit card - your Medicare card. 
 
And our Government wants your Medicare card to carry the same value in every community.
 
We want to encourage more GPs and local practices and medical centres in every town and suburb to bulk-bill.
 
Whether your home is in the suburbs or the regions, whether you live on the north island or here on this beautiful south island, you should be able to see a doctor for free.
 
That’s the meaning of Medicare.
 
Yet 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 “free-fall”.
 
So we took action.
 
We tripled the bulk-billing incentive for 11 million people.
 
The people who need to see a GP the most: pensioners, concession cardholders, and families with young children.
 
The doctors of Australia called it a ‘game changer’ - and they were right.
 
Because last year, when those families and pensioners went to see a doctor, more than 9 out of 10 of their appointments were bulk-billed.
 
And the largest rise in bulk-billing happened right here in Tasmania.
 
This turnaround was the direct result of our investment, the biggest investment in bulk-billing since a Labor Government created Medicare, four decades ago.
 
The biggest investment in bulk-billing – until now.
 
Today, we go further.
 
Today I announce that our Government will expand the bulk-billing incentive to cover all Australians. 
 
From 11 million people – to all 26 million of us.
 
This is the biggest boost to Medicare in its history.
 
And it is the most important investment that we can make in Medicare’s future.
 
An $8.5 billion 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.
 
Because Medicare is for all Australians and we are a Labor Government for all Australians.
 
One of the big challenges facing our health system is that 10 years of Liberal cuts have driven too many GPs away from bulk-billing.
 
We’re going to bring them back.
 
Today I announce 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.
 
It will provide around 4,800 medical practices across Australia with the security they need to bulk-bill every visit.
 
And it will provide millions of Australians with new security too.
 
Because whenever and wherever you see that green and gold Medicare sign.
 
You will know, straight away.
 
No asterisk, no fine print. No terms and conditions.
 
Just 100 per cent bulk-billing, covered by Medicare.
 
Of course, strengthening Medicare is more than investment, it’s about people.
 
It’s about doctors and nurses and midwives and healthcare workers in each and every part of the system.
 
That’s why – starting next year – our Government will deliver the biggest GP training program in Australian history.
 
Another 2,000 new GPs each year.
 
We will encourage more junior doctors to become GPs and to work in the regions and suburbs where they are needed most.
 
And we will create 400 new scholarships for nurses and midwives.
 
One of the best things about our nation’s health system is – and always will be - the people who work in it.
 
Our Government will invest in the doctors, nurses and midwives who will deliver the stronger Medicare that all Australians deserve.  
In the last year alone, our Labor Government has delivered 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.
 
Meanwhile in the past three years, Peter Dutton has only come up with three ideas.
 
One, $10 billion for taxpayer-funded long lunches. 
 
Two, $600 billion for 7 nuclear reactors that won’t be ready until sometime in the 2040s.
 
And three, cutting everything else to pay for them but they'll let you know where the cuts are after the election.
 
The Liberals refuse to say where their axe will fall.
 
But we know. Australians know.
 
Australians know that every single time the Liberals come to Government with a plan for cuts, Medicare is the first place they look.
 
We know that when Peter Dutton was Tony Abbott’s Minister for Health, he said he was proud of cutting $50 billion from public hospitals.
 
The Liberals spent a decade in Government trying to destroy Medicare - and three years in Opposition haven’t taught them anything.
 
When it comes to health care the Liberal Party will never learn – and Peter Dutton will never change.
 
They tried to stop us from making medicines cheaper.
 
They called our Urgent Care Clinics ‘wasteful spending’.

Peter Dutton said boosting bulk billing for families was a ‘sugar hit’.
 
The Liberals will never stop trying to make Australians pay more for their health care.
 
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.
 
At this year’s election the decision Tasmania faces, the decision Australia faces, is so much more than a choice between two different parties or two different plans.
 
On every 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’ve turned this around.
 
Under the Liberals inflation had a 6 in front of it, and was rising.
 
Under Labor inflation has a 2 in front of it, and is falling.
 
Under the Liberals wages were kept deliberately low – and real wages fell for their last 5 quarters in a row.
 
Under Labor, real wages have increased 5 quarters in a row.
 
Under Labor, employment is strong – with over 1.15 million new jobs created.
 
And on Tuesday, the hard work of Australians delivered the first cut in interest rates since 2020.  
 
Inflation down.

Wages up.
 
Tax cuts delivered.

Unemployment low.
 
Debt down.
 
Interest rates falling.

Building a stronger economy - and today, building stronger Medicare.  
 
This is an $8.5 billion commitment to the fundamental promise and purpose of Medicare.
 
Our plan will mean more bulk billing, in every part of our country.
 
Because our Government wants 9 out of 10 visits to the GP to be free.
 
And against us stands a Liberal Leader condemned by his own record.
 
Peter Dutton did more damage to Medicare than any Liberal before him.
 
The doctors of Australia voted him the worst Health Minister in our nation’s history.
 
And his agenda represents the greatest threat to Medicare’s future.
 
Because he will have to cut Medicare, to pay for his nuclear fantasy.
 
Even under the Liberals’ own scenario, Tasmania won’t get anything from nuclear reactors that won’t be finished until sometime in the 2040s, but every Tasmanian will have to pay for them starting straightaway.
 
They won’t send you any power - but they will send you the bill.
 
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 Medicare is built on.
 
Through half a century of change, through everything the world has thrown at Australia, Labor’s commitment to universal health care has never 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 other nation.
 
We only want our health system to be more Australian.
 
There for more Australians to count on.
 
Free for more Australians to use.
 
Only our Labor Government believes in that.
 
Only our Labor Government will deliver it.
 
Only Labor is building stronger Medicare.
 
Only Labor is building Australia’s future.

As at 23 February 2025.