Good morning everyone. Welcome tot he Murrumba Downs Medicare Urgent Care Clinic. In particular I want to welcome our Prime Minister. This Medicare Urgent Care Clinic opened in 2023, and it has become a much-loved part of our local community. At the end of last year, I actually came here to deliver a cake, a big celebratory cake, to celebrate the milestone of 25,000 patients. And now we have over 32,000 patients, and that is such an incredible achievement. And I think that local residents are going to be so incredibly happy. We've just announced an extra $1.8 billion for our 135 Urgent Care Clinics right across the country to make them a permanent part of our health system. I know that everybody in this region, in the Moreton Bay region, will be so happy with that announcement.
But also, I want to say, it's been one year since I became the Member for Dickson. And I'm so incredibly proud to be part of a Labor team that is prioritising Medicare. Over the past year, we have increased bulk billing. We have cheaper medicines. We have Medicare Mental Health Centres, one in my electorate in Strathpine. We have an awesome Women's Health Package, and we also have these incredible Urgent Care Clinics. The whole reason I got involved in politics was to strengthen Medicare, and I'm just so proud of our team that we have been laser-focused on this, and now I'm going to hand over to the Prime Minister.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Well, thank you so much to the remarkable Ali France, my friend and someone who I campaigned with three times. And it showed something about Ali's resilience and her commitment to this local community that she ran, and then ran again, and was then successful on the third occasion. And I was always pretty confident, I've got to say, about that. And that is one of the reasons why I was here on the morning of the first day of the election campaign, one year and two days ago. And this is now the third visit I've made to this Urgent Care Clinic. And this is an example of the difference that good government can make to a local community. A local member here in Ali who is inspirational, frankly, and someone who is a much-loved and respected member of our Labor Caucus. And I know from the feedback I've had in this local community as well, that they very much value Ali's work right across the board, across all of the policy spectrums, not just for this local electorate, but as a strong advocate for Labor in government and for a government to look after people. And that is what we continue to do.
On Tuesday's Budget, now just one week away, one of the centrepieces of that Budget will of course be once again strengthening Medicare. It was a key foundation of the election campaign in 2022, and then our re-election campaign last year. We committed to additional Urgent Care Clinics, and now 135 of those are open. And in Tuesday's Budget, we will have $1.8 billion over the next five years, but ongoing to make Urgent Care Clinics a permanent feature of our health system. Urgent Care Clinics have been such a success because people can come in here whether to look after themselves or their children, given one in three of the three million Australians who've been to Urgent Care Clinics are there to look after a young one with a sports injury or with an issue that they may diagnose pretty quickly, but which is not life-threatening. It has built that gap between a local GP service and the emergency departments of hospitals, making a difference to both, taking pressure off emergency departments, but making sure people get the care that they need when they need it. And importantly, all they need is this little piece of plastic here, this green and gold symbol of Australian fairness and looking after each other that is so important with Medicare.
During that campaign as well, of course, we promised $8.5 billion for the bulk billing incentive to extend it right across the board. And we said we wanted to get bulk billing rates up, and that is happening as well. There are now eight clinics here in the electorate of Dickson that are fully bulk-billed. Five of those are new. So, what we've seen is a more than doubling of the access to fully bulk-billed services for GPs and for medical clinics in this electorate as well. When you combine Urgent Care Clinics with the bulk billing improvements, with cheaper medicines, just $25, the same price that they were in 2004, with as well the other work that we've been doing, endo and pelvic pain clinics, aimed specifically at women as part of our whole Women's Health Package, the Medicare Mental Health Centres as well. 1800 Medicare, where people can get that 24-hour advice by just picking up their phone. All of these measures have been the most comprehensive health package to strengthen Medicare that we've seen from any government, and next Tuesday's Budget will certainly be consistent with that.
This clinic here is seeing something like 275 patients a day on average. It's one of 25 that are up and running here in Queensland. There's going to be one just up the road at Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast open this financial year as well, which is one of the last two to bring up to the 137 that we committed to. This is about Labor governments delivery as a result of the commitments that we made and as a result of the election of people like Ali France here. And it was certainly a great way to begin the campaign in 2025, and on the 3rd of May it of course was a great opportunity to celebrate Ali's election at that time. Happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, there's reports today that the Budget will include an earned income offset tax cut for workers. Are you able to confirm, deny, or comment on that?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm able to confirm that the Budget will be next Tuesday. There's a whole lot of speculation out there with budgets, and that's what happens. Some of it's right, some of it's wrong. We are making announcements. We've made the announcement just this week about the increased permanency that we're putting into Urgent Care Clinics. There'll be more announcements in the lead up to the Budget, but on budget night, people will see that this is a Budget that I will be really proud of, full of Labor values, full of a commitment to strengthen opportunity in Australia and consistent with the values that we have. We went to the election arguing for a better future. Measures such as the ones that we're talking about here, are about just that.
JOURNALIST: Beyond any specifics, Prime Minister, can voters expect any new tax cuts or offsets in the Budget?
PRIME MINISTER: Voters can expect that there'll be a Budget that's consistent with Labor values. And I've said consistently that the two themes that characterise my Government are 'no one left behind' and 'no one held back'. No one left behind - we want people to get access to things such as healthcare and education. Later, in a short time, when I leave here, I'll be visiting a TAFE here in Brisbane as well. Free TAFE we've made permanent. That's about not leaving people behind, but it's also about creating opportunity - no one held back. We want an Australia in which people can aspire to a better life for themselves and for the generations to come. And that, of course, is one of the key motivations of why I went into politics to make this country as strong as it could possibly be, and my Government is determined to do that.
JOURNALIST: Can you guarantee that any cost of living relief or tax relief package won't push up inflation?
PRIME MINISTER: You're asking a question about a hypothetical which hasn't been announced. We - what I can guarantee is that certainly we're very conscious about putting that downward pressure. We've already had $114 billion of savings in our budgets. There'll be more savings in the Budget that is announced next week. This will be a responsible Budget. We inherited a fiscal position which showed budget deficits every year, and what we did was we turned that into two budget surpluses and then lower deficits. And I can confirm that we've been doing hard work looking at savings in the Budget, as we always do. We want to make sure that there's good value for money. And one of the things about some of our expenditure as well, such as Urgent Care Clinics, what they're doing, what they're doing, is taking pressure off emergency departments and hospitals. If someone comes in here and gets the care that they need when they need it with just their Medicare card, there is a cost of that. But I tell you what, there's a massive saving compared with them being in the emergency department of a hospital or not getting the care that they need as well. And so that health issues become more acute if people don't have access to that, and it ends up costing the health system more. But we also, importantly in the Budget, part of the expenditure, which is new expenditure, is the agreement that I reached with state and territory governments, including the Crisafulli Government here in Queensland, that $25 billion of additional health and hospitals funding has to be accounted for, and that's one of the things that you will see in the Budget of increased expenditure.
JOURNALIST: Surely, you must have received advice on the Budget. You know what's in it by now? It's not a hypothetical -
PRIME MINISTER: I do. I do. And I know it's next Tuesday -
JOURNALIST: But it's not hypothetical. You know, you must have received advice on keeping inflation -
PRIME MINISTER: And what we do is we produce savings. And that's what my Government did, and it's something that stands in stark contrast to the Government that we replaced. Josh Frydenberg's last Budget was, of course, handed down in March of 2022. It's really easy to remember the figure of savings in that Budget, because it's zero. Not a single dollar of savings in that Budget. And indeed, a whole lot of expenditure baked in as well, and that's something that the Coalition left us with. That's not what we've done. We've been responsible in how we've dealt with these issues.
JOURNALIST: How can your Government say they are building trust with voters when you are breaking an election promise by pursuing higher property taxes?
PRIME MINISTER: What we're doing is handing down a Budget on next Tuesday. People will see the Budget there, and people will make their own mind up about the decisions that we have made. But we have made decisions across the board on savings, you'll see expenditures. You'll see us work through a Budget that is consistent with Labor principles and consistent with strengthening the economy, but also looking after people on the way through.
JOURNALIST: Are you planning on visiting Alice Springs, Prime Minister, once the Sorry Business has concluded?
PRIME MINISTER: At the moment, there's Sorry Business is occurring. I've been a regular visitor to not just Alice Springs, but to the Northern Territory. I've been to the Northern Territory now, I think it's something in the order of 14 or 15 times to every part of the territory, including to Alice Springs on a number of occasions. I spoke with Malarndirri McCarthy just yesterday, and have been in touch as well with Marion Scrymgour. I understand Sorry Business is occurring, and I've been respectful of that.
JOURNALIST: The RBA is expected to raise rates this afternoon. What's your message to mortgage holders who are already struggling?
PRIME MINISTER: The RBA is, of course, independent of government. What I would say is that we understand that people are under financial pressure, and that the global conflict, this war across the other side of the world, in which Australia is not a participant, is having an impact right around the world, including here in Australia. And that is part of the context in which we have been trying to frame a Budget with volatility in the global economy, which everyone can see, everyone knows about. There are different statements made on a day-to-day basis about what's happening in the Strait of Hormuz, what's happening in the Gulf, what's happening with the conflict. What we want to see is the de-escalation. We want to see the conflict end, because it is having a massive impact on the global economy.
JOURNALIST: We're obviously in a fuel crisis, as you mentioned, because of this conflict. Are you concerned that the Queensland Government and the unions here are at such a stalemate that more Queenslanders are having to get on the road to drive because we don't have enough trains?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, I think that's a matter that the Queensland Government have to deal with. What I would say is that we've been dealing each and every day with the global challenge, which is there. I had a very successful visit from Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi. And I hosted the Prime Minister and her delegation last night at The Lodge in Canberra. And part of our agreements that we reached there is to provide security in two ways of our trade, either way. That's important. It is, I think, would surprise many that there were more ships arrived in April in Australia than arrived in January, February or March. That's not to say that there aren't challenges there, because you've got to be straight with people, and there's a great deal of uncertainty. We know that that is the case in the Gulf as a result of this conflict. So, we continue to work on fuel security. We continue as well to say that every little bit helps. And can I say this, that the statement that I made to the nation, and then the address to the Press Club, and our campaign of 'Every Little Bit Helps' has been listened to by Australians, and Australians are doing what they can to save fuel at this time - whether it be catching public transport, working from home, if that works for businesses as well as for the employee, car sharing. All of these measures do make a difference. And you would recall - you probably reported in March on the people rocking up the service stations, filling up jerry cans in an irresponsible way, and having a whole lot of petrol in their garage or on their properties in a way that, frankly, wasn't safe either. This was reminiscent of what occurred with toilet paper during Covid, except petrol is a lot more dangerous, and so I'm very pleased that, overwhelmingly, those messages have gone through. Thank you.
