Mr BUTLER (Hindmarsh—Minister for Health and Aged Care and Deputy Leader of the House) (14:14): I want to thank the member for Robertson, because there is no-one in this chamber who has a deeper understanding of what is happening on the frontline in health care right now than the member for Robertson, because, when he's not in this building or working hard as a local MP, he's pulling shifts as an emergency doctor at the Wyong Hospital, seeing every day the impacts of a decade of cuts and neglect to Medicare. That's why the member for Robertson and everyone on this side of the House campaigned so hard on our promise to strengthen Medicare and make medicines cheaper. Those cuts to Medicare were felt deepest by general practice, the backbone of our healthcare system. Bulk-billing was in freefall. General practice said that they were at a tipping point without further investment. That is why we tripled the bulk-billing incentive, the biggest investment in the history— Ms Ley: What about cutting mental health? What about cutting 20 appointments to 10? The SPEAKER: The Minister for Health and Aged Care is going to pause. I don't like interjections interrupting ministers, because I want to hear their answers. Deputy Leader of the Opposition, if you're just going to continually give commentary or just roll through with non-stop communication, it's very, very difficult for question time to operate in that way, and I don't think anyone wants that. So, to help me hear the answer, I'm going to ask you to cease interjecting so that other members—perhaps the one who asked the question—can listen to the answer as well. Mr BUTLER: Thank you, Speaker, even though I've become accustomed to the white noise. We stopped the slide in bulk-billing and I'm really pleased to report that there's been a rebound—an additional 5.4 million free visits to the doctor in just 12 months. Beyond that, we also topped up the annual overall increase to the Medicare rebate, so, in just two years, this Prime Minister and this Treasurer have delivered bigger increases to the Medicare rebate than happened in nine long years under those opposite. Along with higher payments to support practice nurses and a range of other things, this has really boosted general practice—their confidence and their financial integrity. What the college tells us now is that more GPs are bulk-billing more of the time and, really excitingly, more junior doctors are choosing general practice as their career. We also promised 50 Medicare urgent-care clinics, and as of today we've delivered 82, and more will be delivered in coming weeks. Seven days a week, fully bulk-billed, they've already treated more than 900,000 patients with high-quality, free urgent care. Of course we promised cheaper medicines, and we've certainly delivered on that. Last year alone, there were 22 million additional scripts to pensioners, completely free of charge. We delivered the biggest cut to the price of medicines for general patients ever, and we finally allowed up to six million patients to get their scripts for ongoing chronic conditions for 60 days, not just 30. So there are more doctors, more bulk-billing, more free urgent care and cheaper medicines. This is making a real difference every day to millions of Australians. We know there is more to do, and we are committed to doing more. Only the Labor Party will strengthen Medicare. We know you simply can't trust the Liberals on health.