Minister for Health and Aged Care, press conference – 11 March 2025

MEMBER FOR CORANGAMITE, LIBBY COKER: Good morning, everyone. My name is Libby Coker. I'm the Member for Corangamite. I should acknowledge the Wadawurrung people, our First Nations people on the land where we meet today and pay respects to elders, past, present and emerging.

Today, we have very exciting news. It is a day where we are formally announcing an Urgent Care Clinic for Torquay. This is an amazing announcement. What it will mean is for people, not just in Torquay, but also in Armstrong Creek and the broader Surf Coast that you will have an Urgent Care Clinic. It means that instead of coming in to emergency and potentially waiting for hours, that you can go to your local clinic. It is free, it is seven days a week, extended hours, and it will mean that your young child, perhaps who's broken their arm on their skateboard, can go to this Urgent Care Clinic and get immediate treatment. I'm really proud to have our Minister for Health and Aged Care, Mark Butler with me today for this announcement. Please welcome Mark. Thank you.
 
MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE, MARK BUTLER: Libby has been such a terrific supporter of our strengthening Medicare agenda. That agenda has really rested on three key pillars; more bulk billing, more doctors and more Urgent Care Clinics. The last election, I promised that we would establish 50 Urgent Care Clinics that would be open seven days a week, for extended hours and importantly, would be fully bulk billed. They're designed to take the pressure off  hospital emergency departments like the one behind me. But also provide people with a really convenient, high quality option for care, for emergencies that aren't life threatening. And since that time, we've actually opened 87, well more than the 50 I promised. Those 87 clinics have already seen 1.2 million Australians. A third of those patients have been under the age of 15. They've been kids who've fallen off the skateboard or injured themselves at footy on Saturday afternoon and needed to be seen very, very quickly. Often, the mums and dads who needed urgent care for their kid would only have had the option of going to a hospital emergency department and spending literally hours waiting to have the kid’s broken arm or deep gash attended to by a doctor and by a nurse. I'm really pleased that about 10 days ago, the Prime Minister and I announced that if elected, we would establish another 50, we would bring the network up to 137. That's great news for people in Torquay and the Surf Coast, because right now, one of our Medicare Urgent Care Clinics has been established here in Geelong, it's in Belmont. It sees about 300 people every single week, about 15,000 patients every year, across seven days a week, 365 days a year, fully bulk billed.
 
But in the region that Libby represents so effectively, there is the need for an Urgent Care Clinic there. If our 50 additional clinics are established, it will mean that four in five Australians live within a 20-minute drive of this highly effective, completely free of charge, Urgent Care Clinic, and one for the Surf Coast, probably based in Torquay, will be an extraordinary addition to our urgent care network.
 
I just want to say also that our tripling of the bulk billing incentive that we put in place in the 2023 Budget started at the end of calendar year 2023, has also been a terrific boost for the people of Corangamite that Libby represents. The increase of more than 6 per cent in bulk billing just through that initiative alone. And if elected, we will extend, for the first time, bulk billing support to every single Australian, not just those on a pension or with a concession card, but every single Australian. That that will add to the tens of thousands of additional free visits to the doctor that our first investment in bulk billing has already delivered to the people of Corangamite. Happy to take questions.
 
JOURNALIST: Where will the site of the clinic be?
 
BUTLER: That will be a matter determined by the Primary Health Network that will conduct an open tender process at arm's length from the government. That has been the process followed with all of the Urgent Care Clinics that have  been established so far. There is clearly a strong case for it to be in Torquay, which is in the centre of the relevant region, the Surf Coast, Bellarine. It's a growing population. Libby tells me that the population in Torquay has more than doubled since she first ran for council about 15 years ago. At the moment, as Libby said in her introduction, for people at Torquay whose kid falls off that skateboard and breaks their arm currently needs to come into the emergency department here in Geelong, which is obviously highly effective, but was really built for more life threatening emergencies. If they can be adequately cared for in a well-staffed Urgent Care Clinic in Torquay, high quality doctors and nurses, open seven days a week for extended hours, and fully bulk billed that's going to be better for them and better for this hospital.
 
JOURNALIST: Is the plan to establish the urgent care centre alongside the proposed Torquay Community Hospital, or instead of?
 
BUTLER: The matter of the question of Torquay Community Hospital is a matter for the state government. I understand they've made a promise about that. That would be great to see that delivered. The Urgent Care Clinic is separate from state hospitals, that's been the case here in Geelong. What we do is we put out a call for general practices in the region who want to take their practice to the next level. We're not about building new buildings. We're about tapping into the existing connections and experience that existing general practices have in a region like Torquay. There would be an open expression of interest, general practices would be able to bid, and if successful, would receive additional funding from the Commonwealth to be able to satisfy those conditions in the Urgent Care Clinic program. Being open seven days a week, they'd have an equipment grant that would allow them to ensure they had the relevant equipment for urgent emergencies and that would be really a matter for them. Obviously, if there is a hospital established in Torquay, an Urgent Care Clinic will take pressure off that emergency department. The emergency department here and other hospitals across the country are able to focus on life threatening emergencies, which is what they were built for.
 
JOURNALIST: An issue that many locals raised, though, is that the closest emergency department is in Geelong. So obviously the urgent care centre doesn't fill that gap there. So what is the federal government doing to accelerate development of the emergency department close to the Surf Coast?
 
BUTLER: That's a matter for the State government. State governments run the hospital system. We're providing significant additional funds to all state governments, including here in Victoria. The funding allocated for Victoria next financial year is $400 million more than we've paid this year, so an increase of 12 per cent. But ultimately, decisions about where emergency departments are or are not established, are decisions for state governments. They have the on the ground connections, they employ the staff, and that's a matter for them. Our job is to provide good care in the community, primary care in the community, and that's why we've established this Urgent Care Clinic network. The first time that Australia has adopted this model of care that is so common in other countries we usually compare ourselves to, like New Zealand, Europe, UK, the US. That's our job. The State government will determine whether or not an emergency department is put in place on the Surf Coast.
 
JOURNALIST: You said there was a need in Torquay, what, I guess, established this need, was it raised by the community, or was there data or something? What helped establish that Torquay was going to be where this clinic will be held?
 
BUTLER: Libby has been making the case for this commitment for a long time now. She's obviously got a long history of representing the Surf Coast and local council as the mayor, and also for years now as the federal representative. She understands what that growing community needs. At a more national level, though, we have taken the decision to identify these 50 sites within 50 regions. Looking at hospital emergency data, particularly the hospital here in Geelong, which is the closest hospital for the Surf Coast and Bellarine community. Also looked at bulk billing data, and that geographical spread that I mentioned that would ensure as far as possible that as many Australians live within a reasonable driving distance of a Medicare Urgent Care Clinic.
 
JOURNALIST: Russia has said that “there will be grave consequences if Australia puts boots on the ground in Ukraine as part of the Western peacekeeping operation. Does the government perceive that as a threat?
 
BUTLER: It's hard to perceive it as anything more or less than a pretty transparent attempt to intimidate Australia. Australia has never been intimidated by threats and by bullies. As the Prime Minister and other senior ministers have said, if a request is made for Australia to contribute to peacekeeping operations in this region, then of course we would consider that. And that consideration would be on its merits, not according to whether or not a country like Russia, which started this war through its illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine, tried to intimidate Australia. The Foreign Minister has made it very clear over the last 24 hours, Australia is not going to be intimidated.
 
JOURNALIST: Does Australia need to be more outspoken about President Trump as Mark Carney and Malcolm Turnbull have suggested?
 
BUTLER: The Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister, other members of our government will pursue Australia's national interest, whether that's in relation to policy discussions with the United States or anyone else, frankly, in the world. I think that has been our approach over the last three years that we've been in government, that sensible, measured approach has served Australia very well. It's opened up trade again, for example, with China. That's opened up access for $20 billion of exports from Australia to that important market. We intend to continue that approach? Because it serves Australia's national interests.
 
JOURNALIST: Richard Scolyer has posted about his prognosis online. He says “immunotherapy and or anti-cancer vaccination may have helped, but more work needs to be done as part of the clinical trials.” Can you reflect on the success of this work and if there's room for federal funding for a trial like that?
 
BUTLER: We've been talking to Professor Scolyer and obviously Professor Long as well, over the last 12 to 15 months, about the exciting work that they've been conducting and obviously we'll continue to do that. I've said over the last 24 to 48 hours, how much our thoughts, our wishes, our prayers from all Australians go out to Richard during this incredibly difficult phase of his battle with cancer. He has shared that battle so generously, as have his family with all Australians to help deepen the understanding of Australians about this type of cancer and all the things that can and should be done to battle it, to prevent it. I have the utmost respect for Richard his professional partnership with Georgina that they’ve showcased so amazingly, in their time as Australians Of The Year. The way in which his family have so generously allowed Richard to share their story with the Australian people. All I can say now is, Richard's a fighter, but all of our hopes and prayers are with him right now.
 
JOURNALIST: Global markets have dived overnight, including ASX after Trump refused to rule out a recession. Should we be worried?
 
BUTLER: I go back to my earlier answer. We recognise this is a challenging time for the global economy. There's a lot of shifts that are happening. We are focused on the national interest that Australia has, and that will continue to be our approach.
 
JOURNALIST: And has Malcolm Turnbull narrowed our chances of an exemption on Trump's tariffs?
 
BUTLER: I think the case that we have been making through the Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister, the Treasurer, the Defence Minister, and, of course, Ambassador Rudd, really speaks for itself. We have, frankly, a trade deficit with the US. Our exports of steel and aluminium to the US constitute a very small share of the total imports of those two metals into the US market, but they are an important generator of well paying, secure jobs in the US itself. We think that case is a strong case. We'll continue to make it whatever happens this week. Of course, it took nine months for the exemptions to be obtained by the Turnbull government back during the first Trump Administration. We know that this is not going to be easy, but as I said earlier, we will continue to press Australia's national interest in making that case to the US. Thanks everyone.