Radio interview with Assistant Minister Kearney, ABC Melbourne Drive – 24 February 2025

ALI MOORE, ABC RADIO MELBOURNE: Over the weekend Labor announced a policy and the Coalition very quickly adopted the same policy. Nine out of 10 GP visits will be free from out-of-pocket expenses by 2030. Under this election funding promise that's worth $8.5 billion. Ged Kearney is the Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care. Minister, welcome to the program.
 
GED KEARNEY, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE: Thanks so much, Ali.
 
MOORE: Why is it that bulk billing rates have fallen so much, do you think?
 
KEARNEY: Well, the previous. Government froze the increase- any increase in rebates to general practitioners for six years. This meant-
 
MOORE: But they've still fallen while you've been in power.
 
KEARNEY: What's that? What's fallen? The bulk billing rates?
 
MOORE: The bulk billing rates.
 
KEARNEY: So, that is according to the Coalition who are using very dodgy data, if I might say. Because they include every single visit to a doctor - to get a vaccination during COVID for the PCR test during COVID - all of which we know were bulk billed and all of which were rather extraordinary.
 
So, if you look at the real data, bulk billing was in absolute freefall when Labor was elected and this is due to six years of the rebate for GPs being frozen. And you know that over six years’ costs have gone up dramatically, even for households’ costs had gone up, so it made it very difficult for GPs to bulk bill. But what we do know is when we tripled the bulk billing incentive for pensioners and children under 16, that nine out of 10 of all kids and pensioners got bulk billed. So, the bulk billing incentive actually does work.
 
We also increased, the biggest ever increase in the rebate when we came in to try to make up for six years of the rebate being frozen. So, we're confident that by applying that bulk billing incentive to everyone, not just people on pension or on Centrelink and people under 16 but to everyone, that we expect nine out of 10 visits to be bulk billed as well.
 
MOORE: Are you confident- are you as confident about what will happen in terms of particularly inner city areas? Because I look at that spread of the incentive, the incentive that will go to all adults - $21. I mean, co-payments in many instances, particularly in the city, is more than $21.
 
KEARNEY: It will go up 62 per cent in the city. And what primary healthcare providers are telling us is that this is enough for them to have confidence that a bulk billing clinic will actually be viable. Many of them are saying that they will now consider opening new bulk billing centres in areas of high population. This is- we've worked very closely with health professionals to work this through and just about everybody is really saying that it is absolutely, you know, fantastic policy and will work.
 
MOORE: If it is so necessary and such a game changer, why not do what Peter Dutton has said should happen, and that is legislate? Parliament is scheduled to sit in a couple of weeks. You could lock it in.
 
KEARNEY: This is a budget decision and, as the Minister said this morning, it will come in from 1 November. There's no need to legislate. I'm not quite sure what the Leader of the Opposition is talking about, but the vast bulk of this was provisioned in the mid-year budget. It was- that was announced in December, and the remainder will be included in the coming budget or budget update, whichever we have. We all know there's going to be an election, and the Labor Party is just happy to bring this in.
 
MOORE: How quickly can you grow the workforce, I guess? Because this- I mean, I assume that you would be hoping that this is going to be more people going to see their GP, so how quickly can you grow the workforce?
 
KEARNEY: Well, we are investing a great deal in the workforce over the next four years. We're going- you know, $265 million to expand GP training, and we think that will bring an extra 200 places per year. And that will increase to 400 places from 2028. A lot of incentives. Beyond that, we are going to give incentives to junior doctors to come and work in primary healthcare. At the moment, if they leave a hospital they lose long service leave, they lose maternity leave, they lose lots of different terms and conditions. So, we will be allocating money to provide paid parental leave and study leave for trainee GPs and lots more Commonwealth supported places. We will be having 400 scholarships for nurses and midwives to extend their skills. So, it won't be just GPs that will be working under this different regime, it will be a vast array of primary healthcare professionals.
 
So, we- And on top of that, of course, we have been bringing in fast tracking doctors coming from overseas, from the UK, US, Ireland and Spain. So, I think we will see a big increase in the GP workforce for sure.
 
MOORE: When does it all start?
 
KEARNEY: It starts on 1 November, should Labor be elected. And-
 
MOORE: Why November? I mean, you just made- you just said that about half of it's already been put in the budget, the other half will be put in budget statement or whatever you have, so why not start now?
 
KEARNEY: Because we need to give general practises time to gear up. I mean, this will require some infrastructure, some IT infrastructure. We all know that you- that bulk billing is- actually relies on IT. It relies on the general practices to have that infrastructure in place to do it, so we want to work with the general practices to make sure that they are ready, ready to go. So, we think that 1 November is a good time for that to happen.
 
MOORE: You're listening to the Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, Ged Kearney. We're talking about the Federal Government's announced changes to, well, what they say will be nine out of 10 free GP visits by 2030. It starts on 1 November if Labor is returned to government. Ged Kearney just on that, new polls out today that show the Coalition at 52 per cent, Labor at 48. I know only one poll counts and that is the poll on election day, but it is the biggest gap since the last election. What's the mood in the party at the moment?
 
KEARNEY: Oh, look, we know that this is a- this is really challenging. We're not taking anything for granted. We're not focused on the polls but we've known all along that this is going to be a very tight election. And we're working really, really hard to make sure that the Australian people get a good Labor Government that has given them cost of living relief, that has really cared about their healthcare. I was very proud as an Assistant Minister to be part of the announcement in the last couple of weeks around women's health, for example - the biggest investment, I think, ever in women's healthcare. You know, we've made medicines cheaper. We're working very hard on the housing crisis - we've got fantastic policies around that. I mean, so- on climate change, I think that we have a really great differential to offer between us and the Liberal Party, and over the next few weeks we'll be prosecuting that.
 
MOORE: And just a final issue, Ged Kearney, a very different issue. I know that you're well aware of the fact that there's this survey out today from the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine. They say 50 per cent of emergency doctors are seeing physical violence in their department daily or weekly. They want security guards dedicated to emergency departments. Is the government considering that?
 
KEARNEY: Well, you know, it's interesting because, Ali, you might remember that I'm a nurse and I worked in the public hospital system for nearly 20 years. And I remember- I was also Secretary of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation and we did lots and lots of research that showed working in the health system - actually, being a nurse was one of the most violent jobs in our economy and that you were subject to violence. And it seems to be something that we've been prosecuting for a long time.
 
MOORE: So, there should be security guards in emergency departments?
 
KEARNEY: I’m surprised- I think that you will find there are- there is security, certainly when I worked there.
 
MOORE: No, but I think the issue, Ged Kearney, is that- I've heard them say is that you have a security guard but they're at the front door. They're not in the emergency department, and by the time they get to the emergency department you might be in a completely different situation.
 
KEARNEY: I see, and that may well be the case. If there's- look, I heard the Minister, Minister Butler, say this morning that people deserve to be safe in their place of work. This is really unacceptable. There should be more respect. You should be kept safe in your workplace. And if there's anything that we can do to work with the states and territories who are responsible for the hospitals, then we will do that.
 
MOORE: Ged Kearney, thank you very much for joining us.
 
KEARNEY: It's a great pleasure, Ali.
 
MOORE: That's the Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care there.