BRIAN MITCHELL:
I’m Brian Mitchell, the federal Member for Lyons, and we’re joined here at the Launceston Medicare Urgent Care Clinic with Treasurer Jim Chalmers. Jim, thanks for coming to beautiful northern Tasmania. Jim’s here of course to talk about the extra funding that the federal Albanese Labor government is putting into the 4 existing Medicare Urgent Care Clinics across Tasmania, and indeed the 29 (new) – and the 58 (existing) urgent care clinics across the country.
Jim handed down the Budget last week, you may have heard, a fantastic Budget for Australia. The centrepiece of it was cost‑of‑living relief, and a big part of that was bigger and better tax cuts for all Australians. I’d like to thank Jim for his leadership in this regard. We’ve spoken previously about the changes that he made to the Liberals’ stage 3, which is going to see 9 out of 10 Tasmanians get a bigger and better tax cut on July 1 as a result of the change that Jim and the government have made. If you are a family on average wages in Tasmania, you know, 2‑income mum and dad, you’re looking at around $3,000 coming back in tax cuts in your pay packet, and that’s a big deal.
The other big part of the Budget, of course, was energy bill relief, $300 for every single household across Australia, and $325 for eligible small businesses. So that’s this Labor government making sure that cost of living is front and centre of everything that we do while keeping downward pressure on inflation. I could talk for ages. Jim reckons he’s going to give me 35 to 40 minutes, I won’t do that to you, and I’ll hand over to Jim Chalmers.
JIM CHALMERS:
Thanks very much, Brian. I said last time when I was here talking about the tax cuts that Brian’s a really influential and powerful voice in our Albanese Labor government, so it’s a real pleasure to be here with you again, mate, at Launceston.
We are travelling around Australia in the aftermath of the Budget; 6 different states in 6 days, and I’m really pleased that we could come here to this Medicare Urgent Care Clinic because we are really proud of the investment that the government is making here and the wonderful work that all of the staff do here in Launceston. The Budget was primarily about easing cost‑of‑living pressures, and that means a tax cut for every one of the 280,000 Tasmanian taxpayers, it means energy bill relief for every one of the 260,000 Tasmanian households, it also means help with rent and help with out‑of‑pocket health costs, whether it’s cheaper medicines or making it easier to see a bulk billing doctor.
Now Labor created Medicare, and we are proud to invest in it and strengthen it, billions of dollars since we came to office to make sure that more Australians can access a bulk billing doctor, and we are so pleased with the popularity of these urgent care clinics. So this one, since it opened almost 14,000 visits, and you can see how that takes pressure off the Launceston Hospital. And it also gives people peace of mind, that they can come here when they need to see a bulk billing doctor, maybe they can’t get into their own GP, or they don’t have one, and they don’t want to roll up to the Emergency Department at Launceston General Hospital.
And so, we’re very pleased and very proud to see these urgent care clinics being embraced so enthusiastically by local communities, including this one here in Launceston as well. I’m going to take some questions on this issue, and then I’m going to come back at the end to cover off on some issues from the Shadow Treasurer’s appearance at the National Press Club. But over to you in the first instance.
JOURNALIST:
The Tasmanian Government says it needs 5 urgent care clinics, but we only have one. Why?
CHALMERS:
The Tasmanian Government, like all governments around Australia, would like to see more urgent care clinics, and that’s because they are very successful and because people like them. We understand that. Every state government would like more urgent care clinics. What we are investing in here is expanding the 4 existing and funding another one so that more patients can be seen in these urgent care clinics in Tasmania, and indeed around Australia.
JOURNALIST:
Why didn’t you fund the LGH masterplan?
CHALMERS:
We are enthusiastic investors in the hospitals of this country. We’ve piled billions of dollars into making sure the health system is stronger, making sure we can take pressure off LGH and other hospitals around Australia, and that’s because we understand that when these cost‑of‑living pressures are intense, we understand when people are anxious about how they’ll afford good healthcare, that investing in the hospitals of this country and investing in the urgent care clinics around Australia are a big part of the story. We’re also negotiating as we speak a hospitals agreement with the states and territories, and no doubt the Tasmanian state government, as they should, will be advocating as part of that.
JOURNALIST:
What does that involve in terms of the masterplan?
CHALMERS:
The hospital funding around Australia is determined largely by the agreement that we have with the states and territories. Different agreements have different emphases – whether it’s the capital that you’re talking about, whether it’s emergency departments, whether it’s surgery waiting lists, there are different elements of that agreement. Those discussions are underway, but the people of Tasmania, the people of Launceston can be assured and reassured that Labor will always fund the kind of health services that people need in communities like this one.
JOURNALIST:
So will you commit to Tassie getting a second urgent care clinic?
CHALMERS:
Well, Tassie is getting a fifth urgent care clinic. There’s 4 existing and one additional one, and that’s because this model has been spectacularly successful, and we know that from the thousands of people that have visited this one since it opened last year. Before Labor came to office there were precisely zero Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, we shouldn’t lose sight of that. There is going to be 5 more because of us than there would have been under our Liberal predecessors, and we shouldn’t lose sight of that.
JOURNALIST:
Guy Barnett says Tasmanians have been left off the map yet again and that we’ve been treated like second‑class citizens when it comes to the Federal Budget. What’s your response to that?
CHALMERS:
I think that’s ridiculous, frankly, that is ridiculous. Tasmania is getting a greater than population share when it comes to infrastructure investment, they’re getting a big investment in local healthcare like the expansion of urgent care clinics like this one. 280,000 taxpayers in Tasmania are getting a tax cut, almost all of them a bigger tax cut than they were going to be getting from the Liberal Party. 260,000 households will be getting energy bill relief, and so I don’t think the very partisan comments being made by that gentleman stack up against the facts.
JOURNALIST:
The state government here keeps dipping into its coffers to try and prop up GP clinics which are failing in remote and disadvantaged areas here in Tassie. Should the federal government be helping with that?
CHALMERS:
The federal government invests in strengthening Medicare in our regions, in our rural areas and in our suburbs and cities and towns as well.
You know, one of the things I’m proudest of, of our first 3 budgets is the billions and billions of dollars that we have invested in strengthening Medicare. Whether it’s the relevant incentives to try and arrest the decline in bulk billing, especially in regional areas, or all of the other ways that we’re strengthening Medicare. There has been a sea change in the way that governments have enthusiastically invested in strengthening Medicare. The last 2 years of the Albanese Labor government have seen billions more flow into healthcare in the regions and in the suburbs and towns.
JOURNALIST:
In 2022, Labor promised urgent care clinics would be open from 8 am to 10 pm. The earliest opening time for a Tassie clinic is 12 pm. Is this funding enough for these clinics to be open for the promised hours?
CHALMERS:
We’re in discussions with the state governments to make sure that they can be open for as long as possible. We are aware of that issue that has been raised with us, and that’s a legitimate issue. And one of the reasons why we’re piling more funding into these urgent care clinics is because we want them to be available for longer during the day.
One of the really encouraging things about this urgent care clinic, and indeed around Australia, is something like a quarter of the presentations have been on a weekend, and that, I think, is evidence of the appetite that people have to see doctors here and to see health professionals here at all hours of the day. It’s also encouraging that around a quarter of the presentations here are kids under 15, and that demonstrates the appetite, the enthusiasm for these urgent care clinics, and to expand them to be open longer I think is a really important aspiration that we all share.
JOURNALIST:
I have a question on the Mac Point GST funding, which you’ve been asked a thousand times before. Why won’t the federal funding for Mac Point be exempt from GST calculations?
CHALMERS:
Well, that’s just consistent with the way that these kinds of urban renewal projects are treated, and for stadiums which are not for big international events like the Olympics. And so, the comparison, the precedent that I’d encourage you to check out is from my own home state of Queensland when we put $100 million into the Townsville Stadium, beautiful stadium in Townsville, that was not exempt either from the GST calculations. And so, these calculations are done at arm’s length by the Commonwealth Grants Commission. It is the norm that they not be exempt unless they’re for a big international event like the Olympics.
JOURNALIST:
Also on the Mac Point stadium, the federal government has made the $240 million contribution to the redevelopment conditional on upgrades to the wharf. Has the government received the request for funding for those upgrades, and will any be provided?
CHALMERS:
I’ll have to check with Catherine King and Anika Wells, the relevant ministers on that specific question, but I think it goes to our willingness to ensure that this redevelopment is about a stadium, but it’s also about broader urban renewal in the area. You know that we want to see more housing built, we’re investing billions of dollars in that as well, we want our cities and suburbs to be wonderful, liveable places, and we see this stadium and the surrounding areas as an opportunity to do that. I can check with the relevant ministers to see if that request or information has been provided.
MITCHELL:
Before we get on to Angus, can I just address your point on GPs. Of course, my electorate of Lyons has a lot of GP clinics, and some of them are closed for whatever reason. What Mr Barnett is saying is not quite correct. The GPs who have been assisted, they provide services to a state government facility and then they provide a separate GP service as well, which a state government does not fund. So they’re not really dipping into their coffers to assist those GPs. The GPs are contracted to provide services to hospitals and then they run a separate private practice. We all know that GPs across the country, particularly in regional Australia, there’s real pressure.
Our government is doing a lot to try and address that. We’ve got a single employer model in concert with the state government here in Tasmania to try to address some of those issues, so we are taking the issue very seriously. But Mr Barnett needs to stop playing politics and this gentleman’s point about Mr Barnett talking about the Budget forgetting Tasmania, he should listen to Peter Dutton’s Budget reply speech. Not a word about Tasmania, in fact virtually declaring war on renewable energy, which of course is going to be responsible for thousands of jobs across my electorate of Lyons. So Mr Barnett needs to stop playing politics and work with our government rather than working against it. What we’ve got under the federal Labor government, under Jim’s leadership, under the Prime Minister, is more jobs, record jobs under this government, higher wages, bigger tax cuts and a plan for a Future Made in Australia. Under Peter Dutton we’ve got a plan to make nuclear, a plan to make power bills go nuclear, literally go nuclear. So that’s the difference that we’ve got.
JOURNALIST:
While we’ve got you here, can we ask, have you been pre‑selected to run again in Lyons?
MITCHELL:
That’s a good question. I’m certainly intending to run in Lyons. I could not tell you, but I’m certainly intending to run.
CHALMERS:
And we certainly hope that he will run, because Brian’s a wonderful local member. Your Canberra colleagues and counterparts just asked for our reaction to the absolute bin fire of a speech that Angus Taylor has just given at the National Press Club, and so I thought I’d say a few words about that.
Angus Taylor’s speech at the National Press Club was in absolute shambles. The centrepiece of Peter Dutton’s Budget reply is now a smoking ruin because of Angus Taylor’s speech.
The only thing that Peter Dutton wanted you to know in his Budget reply was about migration, and Angus Taylor has completely and utterly stuffed up today in Canberra. Peter Dutton lowered the bar and Angus Taylor has tripped over it, and what we saw today was the reason why nobody takes Peter Dutton or Angus Taylor seriously on the economy. He couldn’t answer the most basic questions about the centrepiece of Peter Dutton’s Budget reply. He couldn’t tell us where he would find hundreds of billions of dollars of savings. He couldn’t tell us how he would fund bigger tax cuts for the wealthiest Australians. He couldn’t tell us where the nuclear reactors are going to go, or how much they are going to cost.
But I think most fundamentally, he couldn’t explain the migration numbers which are at the very core of Peter Dutton’s Budget reply. This was the most shambolic appearance by a senior politician at the National Press Club in memory. This was the most important speech that Angus Taylor has to give this year, and he has stuffed it up really badly. Peter Dutton and Angus Taylor’s credibility was already not substantial, and now it is non‑existent as a consequence of this absolute shambles that we’ve seen at the Press Club. Thanks very much.