Month: September 2019

An increased number of Australians are attending General Practitioner (GP) appointments without reaching into their pockets, with GP bulk billing rates under Medicare hitting a record high of 86.2 per cent for the full year of 2018-19.
Since 2012-13, bulk billing rates have increased by four full percentage points from 82.2 per cent, and is further proof Medicare is stronger than ever before under this Government.
Our commitment to Medicare and bulk billing is rock solid.
The latest figure – up 0.1 percentage point compared to last year – was the fourth consecutive quarter last financial year to achieve a record, and is evidence more Australians are visiting their doctor without having to pay a cent.
Patients made 136.5 million bulk billed GP visits in 2018-19, up 3.3 million on the previous financial year.
The bulk billing rate for total Medicare services reached 79.2 per cent for 2018-19, up 0.2 percentage points compared to the previous year, and up 2.7 percentage points from 76.5 per cent in 2012-13.
The benefits for patients are clear. Australians accessed 335.8 million bulk billed services including GP, specialist, pathology and diagnostic imaging services in 2018–19, up 8.9 million more than the record set last year.
The total cost of all Medicare services in 2018-19 was $24.1 billion, an increase of 3.5 per cent in benefits paid.
These figures show that Medicare is supporting the health and wellbeing of Australians more than ever before.
As well as continuing and increasing its investment in Medicare, the Morrison Government is ensuring it supports quality health care.
On 1 July this year, the Government increased the patient rebate for further GP items on the Medicare Benefits Schedule. Specialist procedures, allied health services and other GP services such as mental health and after hour’s services, were indexed.
The Medicare Benefits Schedule Review will ensure Medicare services are effective and appropriate for patients now and into the future.
Australia has one of the best health systems in the world, founded on Medicare. These figures show Medicare, under the Morrison Government is supporting the health and wellbeing of Australians more than ever.

In light of escalating violence in Hong Kong and the looming threat of intervention by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, Australian Greens Leader Dr Richard Di Natale is calling on the Government to immediately offer permanent protection for anyone from Hong Kong who currently resides in Australia.
“The recent attacks on peaceful protesters by the Hong Kong police and proxy forces are shocking and completely unacceptable. Using force against peaceful protestors is never acceptable and we stand in solidarity with the people of Hong Kong,” Di Natale said.
“It is now absolutely clear that any Hong Kong resident currently in Australia faces a genuine risk of harm should they return home. We have a legal and a moral obligation to offer them safe haven, and that is what Scott Morrison must order his Government to do.”
“The Australian Greens are calling on Scott Morrison to immediately offer permanent protection to anyone from Hong Kong currently residing in Australia.
“We have been here before; we have a roadmap. Bob Hawke’s decision to grant protection to Chinese citizens in Australia in the wake of the Tiananmen Square massacre was a shining example of Australian leadership in the world, and has only made our multicultural nation richer in the decades since.
“Like Bob Hawke in the wake of Tiananmen Square, Scott Morrison now has an opportunity to demonstrate to the world some kindness and generosity. For the sake of everyone involved in these tragic circumstances, I hope he takes it.
Note: There were a total of 18,839 Hong Kong residents in Australia across all visa classes as of June 30, 2019 according to the Department of Immigration.

Australian Greens Senator and Education Spokesperson, Dr Mehreen Faruqi, has welcomed Early Learning Matters Week and called for the Morrison Government to commit to supporting the sector, including by introducing funding certainty, guaranteeing all three and four year olds access to 24 hours of early childhood education a week and supporting early childhood workers with professional pay.
Senator Faruqi said:
“Early Learning Matters Week is a great opportunity to highlight how early childhood education supports the well-being of our children, families and society.
“We need to recognise the importance of a well-resourced and accessible early childhood education system with professional pay for staff and thank Australia’s early childhood educators for their work.
“The Morrison Government needs to get serious about early childhood education in this country by introducing funding certainty for providers, guaranteeing all three and four year olds access to 24 hours of early childhood education a week and supporting early childhood workers with professional pay.
“The Greens strongly support early childhood educators across the country and their rights to fair pay. It is well past time for the people who educate and care for children to have decent pay and conditions” she concluded.

Greens climate change spokesperson Adam Bandt MP has today called on Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor to do his job, end the war on renewables and extend the Renewable Energy Target (RET) to cut pollution and lower power bills.
“If Angus Taylor wants to do his job and cut emissions, he needs to extend the RET,” said Mr Bandt.
“Australia’s energy sector is facing a valley of death from the coming investment strike.
“It’s time for Australia to end its war on renewables. We need to extend the RET, establish a national storage target and significantly boost investment in the grid.
“Angus Taylor is like an internet dater ghosting on the state and territory Energy Ministers, refusing to host a COAG Energy Minister’s meeting since December 2018. We are a country floundering without an energy policy.
“Angus Taylor needs to do his job, call a COAG meeting and extend the RET to lower energy costs and cut pollution.”

Paedophiles would face mandatory jail sentences and the most serious offenders could be jailed for life under sweeping changes to Federal sentencing laws to be introduced to Parliament next week.
The Crimes Legislation Amendment (Sexual Crimes Against Children and Community Protection Measures) Bill 2019 will also make it harder for serious offenders to get bail, while repeat offenders will have to stay in prison for longer.
The Bill reflects the Morrison Government’s commitment to keeping Australians safe and creates new offences to capture evolving forms of child exploitation such as being the administrator of a website that functions for the purpose of distributing child abuse material.
Attorney-General Christian Porter said 28 per cent of child sex offenders convicted of federal offences in 2018-19 did not spend one day in jail – a statistic totally out of step with community expectations.
“It simply beggars belief that nearly a third of all child sex offenders who were sentenced last year were not required to spend a single day behind bars, despite the devastating and life-long impacts that their crimes have on their young victims and their families,” the Attorney-General said.
“And when jail terms were handed out, the average length of time that offenders spent in custody was just 18 months.
“The changes being introduced by the Morrison Government will ensure that a jail term becomes the starting point for all child sex offenders, while maximum penalties will also be increased to better reflect the gravity of these types of crimes, including a new life term for the worst offenders.”
Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton said the Australian Federal Police received almost 18,000 reports of child exploitation involving Australian children or Australian child sex offenders last year, which was almost double the number from the previous year.
“Sentences need to reflect community expectations and act as a significant deterrent to others, which is why these sorts of despicable crimes must result in significant penalties, not simply a slap on the wrist which is often the case,” Mr Dutton said.
“Our Government is at war with these predators and all those who would seek to do harm to children
“The message we are sending to paedophiles is that it won’t matter how good their lawyer is, a prison cell will be waiting for them when they are convicted. This is what the community expects and this what the Morrison Government intends to deliver.
“I would urge the Labor Party, who failed to support these reforms in the last Parliament, to listen to the Australian People and put community safety first when it comes time to vote on this Bill.”
The Bill complements a broad package of reforms already introduced by the Coalition during the last Parliament, which strengthened laws relating to child sexual abuse and created new protections for the community.
This included tough new measures to stop child sex offenders from travelling overseas to abuse children and the introduction of Carly’s law, which targets online predators who use the internet to prepare or plan to sexually abuse children.
The new Bill will vastly improve justice outcomes and community safety through:

• Mandatory minimum sentences for serious child sex offences and for recidivist offenders
• A presumption against bail for serious and repeat offenders to keep them off the streets
• Increased maximum penalties across the spectrum of child sex offences, including up to life imprisonment for the most serious offences
• Presumptions in favour of cumulative sentences and actual imprisonment
• Ensuring that all sex offenders, upon release from custody, are adequately supervised and subject to appropriate rehabilitative conditions
• Preventing courts from discounting sentences on the basis of good character where this is used to facilitate the crime.

The Bill will be introduced to Parliament next Wednesday.