JASMINE KELLAWAY: I’m here this morning with our Chief Executive Julie Sturgess. Thanks for joining us today for the first day of the Hervey Bay Medicare Urgent Care Clinic. We’re really excited to have this service up and running and have you all here to join us. Before we begin the formal opening, I’d just like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands on which we meet today, the Butchulla people. I’d like to acknowledge their continued ties to land and the waters that we have the privilege of living and working on. We extend our respects to elders past, present and emerging.

 

Today we welcome the Treasurer, the Honourable Dr Jim Chalmers, and he will officially open the new Medicare Urgent Care Clinic. We also welcome Senator Anthony Chisholm, Assistant Minister for Education, Regional Development, Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry; Councillor George Seymour, the Mayor of the Fraser Coast Regional Council; and from ForHealth, we also have with us Andrew Cohen; and we have Dr Adjit Bhalla as well, who is the state Clinical Director for Urgent Care. Could I now invite the Treasurer Jim Chalmers to do the honours, followed by Senator Chisholm along with Julie and Andrew, who will be welcoming you to the service today.

 

JIM CHALMERS: Thanks, Jasmine. A really exciting day here in Hervey Bay because today is all about strengthening Medicare and supporting families and pensioners in the Fraser Coast. This is a wonderful part of Queensland, a beautiful part of Australia, and local people need and deserve the kind of Medicare bulk‑billed services which this urgent care clinic will be providing.

 

I wanted to say thank you to everyone who’s been associated with setting this up. I want to acknowledge the Mayor as well and Minister Chisholm here, who will speak after me. The Albanese Labor government is all about strengthening Medicare and easing the cost of living where we can. We know that out‑of‑pocket health costs can be a big part of the pressure on household budgets here in Hervey Bay and the surrounding areas. So we’re doing everything that we responsibly can to strengthen Medicare and to take the pressure off household budgets, and that’s what this really proud day is all about.

It’s also terrific that we can take pressure off local hospitals, like Hervey Bay Hospital. We know that almost half of the presentations to the ED at Hervey Bay are the sorts of things which could be treated and will be treated here at this new Medicare Urgent Care Clinic in Hervey Bay.

 

We know people are under pressure. We know out‑of‑pocket health costs are a big part of the story, and this is all about strengthening Medicare and taking pressure off household budgets as well. We’re especially proud as Queenslanders that this is the 16th Urgent Care Clinic in Queensland. There have actually been more than a million visits now to Urgent Care Clinics right around Australia, about 168,000 of those have been here in the best state in the Commonwealth. We’re very, very proud of that. I was very proud to meet Margaret on the way out. Margaret was the third patient here at the Urgent Care Clinic. We missed the first 2, but we got to see number 3, and Margaret was very, very happy to be able to access these bulk‑billed services near where she lives. Margaret is part of the million Australians benefitting from Urgent Care Clinics.

We want to make sure that the sort of services which are often taken for granted in the big cities are being provided in regional Queensland and regional Australia.

We know if we want communities to thrive right throughout our regions and we want our economy to grow, regional Australia, and particularly regional Queensland, needs to be a big part of the story. That’s why Anthony and I will be covering 6,000 kilometres, over the next few days – Hervey Bay, Rocky, Longreach, Cloncurry and Cairns – talking about the cost of living, talking about strengthening Medicare, talking about local infrastructure as well later today in Rockhampton. We’re very pleased to be here. We’re very proud to be making these investments and to be opening this wonderful, wonderful new Medicare Urgent Care Clinic in the beautiful town of Hervey Bay. I’ll hand over to Anthony Chisholm.

 

ANTHONY CHISHOLM: Thanks, Jim. It’s really great to be on the road again in regional Queensland with you and first off here to open this Urgent Care Clinic in Hervey Bay. I’m someone who has to visit Hervey Bay on a regular occasion and really enjoy my time here. But also, you get a sense of how important a facility like this will be for the local community. We know it’s an elderly population here, so enabling that caregiver to bring that elderly person down here for treatment and care, take the pressure off the hospital. There’s a number of young families who are very activity playing sport, so think about that injury that they might have at training or on a weekend. This is the place that they can come, frees up that hospital as well.

I’m confident that this will make a significant difference for the local community. It is the 16th Urgent Care Clinic to be opened in Queensland. I’ve had the ability to visit a number of them and I know what a difference they’re already making in those communities, and I’m confident that this facility will be a tremendous asset for the local community, young and old, and everyone will be able to access it 7 days a week. So really looking forward to the difference it will make in this town. Thank you.

 

JULIE STURGESS: Thank you. And once again, very happy to have the Treasurer, Dr Chalmers, and Senator Anthony Chisholm here. Look, from a PHN perspective, of course, we’re as excited as anyone about opening the Urgent Care Clinic.

We’ve already covered some of those reasons, but you know what we see in Hervey Bay every year, last year about 18,500 patients presented to ED that could have been managed in settings like urgent care outside of emergency departments.

Even more concerning in those numbers is that the vast majority of those patients after they present into ED actually didn’t stay and wait for an appointment. So what we see is people present to ED for many reasons: 1) they mightn’t be able to get into their GP or, 2) there are a lot of out‑of‑pocket costs in regard to pathology and radiology that they might need to cover.

So the Urgent Care Clinic really offers an ability for people to access that care at any time and know that there are no out‑of‑pocket costs for those associated expenses. We’re looking forward to people seeking care when they really need it and having those issues dealt with early.

It’s exciting to have ForHealth as the successful provider, and certainly we’ve had experience with ForHealth in other regional centres delivering urgent care.

In Rockhampton, similar to Hervey Bay, already they’re seeing 50 patients a day through the Urgent Care Clinic, and that’s 50 patients a day that aren’t presenting to emergency departments. So a wonderful opportunity.

I probably would like to say, though, to remind people that urgent care is about care that is urgent but not an emergency, and also it doesn’t replace the role of your regular GP. So for regular preventative health, always your regular GP is where we would expect people to go. But, of course, we know that with ForHealth and the Urgent Care Clinic there will be really strong relationships established with all of the service providers across Hervey Bay to make sure that people can seamlessly move through that journey of care. So great to have it open. We know in Hervey Bay that at Christmas time the holidaymakers all come here, so nice to have the community prepared for that additional work and activity that’s going to happen over the next Christmas period.

 

ANDREW COHEN: ForHealth is the largest bulk‑billing general practice provider in Australia. We see about 8 million patient visits a year, and our mission is really about affordable, accessible health care. We focus on low socioeconomic, outer metro but also regional areas. The backbone of our mission is really the Medicare system, which is the system that makes me proud to be Australian. It’s one of the best things about our country.

I want to first thank the Albanese government for the investment that they’ve made in starting to reset the Medicare system first with the tripling of the bulk‑billing incentive and also with 80 Urgent Care Clinics, and including this one here at Hervey Bay, which will make a big difference to the community. We have a few of these across the country, and to give you a sense of the impact that these centres do, we will see 40, 50, sometimes 60 or 70 patients a day in those centres. One or 2 of those patients will say that they would have otherwise gone to an ED. Nine out of 10 of those patients say that they would highly recommend the service. On average by the time they get triaged to when they commence care, it’s usually under 35 minutes, which is fantastic. They’re making a really, really big difference. So thank you for investing in the community. And Julie and Jasmine, thank you very much for your partnership and support, which has been fantastic, and we hope to provide a great service here at Hervey Bay.

 

CHALMERS: Let’s hear from Ajit, and then I’m happy to take your questions. Thanks, Doc.

 

AJIT BHALLA: My name is Dr Bhalla, I’m the State Medical Director for Urgent Care.

I don’t really have much else to add with my colleagues and I’d say the team has brought them to urgent care. What does it mean for the residents of Hervey Bay? It means accessible, affordable universal healthcare. It means shorter waiting times in the emergency department, and it means we’re freeing up the ambulance services. Better for those injuries that are outside of hours, things that are urgent where you need to see a doctor but you can’t get in to see them for weeks or you need the injury fixed on the day. You can come into the Urgent Care Clinic. We run extended hours, and so when your GP is closed, if there’s something that is urgently needed to be looked at, you can come and see us rather than back up the emergency departments. I look forward to working with the community and helping reduce the wait times and the ambulance ramping.

 

CHALMERS: Thanks, Doc. Okay. Easy questions for me, hard questions for the doc.

 

JOURNALIST: Why have you guys specifically chosen Hervey Bay to open this clinic?

 

CHALMERS: We know that there’s a need for local bulk billed services here in Hervey Bay. We’ve opened – I think as Andrew said there are more than 80 Urgent Care Clinics Australia wide. We promised 50 at the last election. We’ve under promised and over delivered when it comes to strengthening Medicare and opening Urgent Care Clinics. But we know as Queenslanders, we know as ministers in the Albanese government who take our responsibilities to regional Queensland very seriously, we know what the need looks like. We consult with people providing services on the ground to make sure that we provide the best possible services in the best way that we can. Hervey Bay stands out as an area where a Medicare Urgent Care Clinic can do a lot of good.

 

JOURNALIST: How much federal funding is awarded to the region to be able to run the service?

 

CHALMERS: This is part of a bigger spend – hundreds of millions of dollars that we’ve allocated to those more than 80 Urgent Care Clinics. We account for those collectively rather than individually. But these millions of dollars that we’re investing in Medicare and bulk billing in Hervey Bay is part of a number of billions of dollars that the Health Minister Mark Butler, the Prime Minister, myself, Katy Gallagher and others have found in the budget. If you look at our first 3 Budgets, you’ll see that a number of themes emerge, and one of them is a real enthusiasm for investing billions of dollars in strengthening Medicare, not as some kind of abstract thing but because of the difference it makes on the ground in places like the Fraser Coast and more specifically here in Hervey Bay.

 

JOURNALIST: We are a bit short of doctors in the region here. This is a brand new clinic. How can we ensure that there’s staff for this clinic without taking from pre‑existing GP practices in the region?

 

CHALMERS: This is a big challenge that we grapple with. Again the Health Minister Mark Butler is very focused on making sure that we can train the doctors and the workforce that we need to make the most out of these sorts of facilities. The care economy more broadly in Australia is growing very strongly. We know that health workers are in desperate need right around Australia, and so that’s a big focus of all of the investment that we’re doing and the thinking that we’re doing to make sure that when we provide the funding for Medicare Urgent Care Clinics like this that we have the people to provide the services that local people need and deserve.

 

JOURNALIST: Why open a new clinic rather than fund an existing clinic?

 

CHALMERS: It’s not the only thing we’re doing when it comes to strengthening Medicare. There are billions of dollars going into tripling the bulk‑billing incentive. Andrew was very kind to mention that a moment ago. So, tripling the bulk‑billing incentives, some other measures that we’re doing to invest in Medicare and bulk‑billing in local communities. So, it’s not an either/or, it’s that as well as investing in these Medicare Urgent Care Clinics. What we know from around Australia and the million people who have come through the door of Medicare Urgent Care Clinics is that people welcome having the alternative. It doesn’t replace completely any one other element of the health system. It’s complementary. It’s complementary to the wonderful work that people do in EDs and hospitals. It’s complementary to the wonderful work that local GPs do. It gives families and pensioners more options. We know as parents and we know as Queenslanders and as Australians that one of the big pressures on families and pensioners is driving around looking for a bulk billing doctor and also making sure that the out‑of‑pocket health costs aren’t having too big an impact on household budgets, which are already under pressure, and so that’s what today is about.

 

JOURNALIST: Is universal childcare economically feasible, and do parents earning half a million dollars need subsidies for their children in childcare?

 

CHALMERS: Today’s announcement is all about recognising that early childhood education is education, not baby‑sitting. It’s about making sure that more Australian kids can have access to the early education which will get them ready for school.

It’s a really important day. The announcements that the Prime Minister made – we were there earlier today in the southern suburbs of Brisbane – are a game changer for Australian families, for Australian communities, for education and for the Australian economy more broadly. If you think about the investments that we’re talking about today – game‑changing investments in early childhood education, game‑changing investments in Medicare and local Urgent Care Clinics like this one, a big focus on the cost of living – these are all important priorities for the Albanese Labor government.

 

The reason why we want to provide early childhood education that is accessible and affordable to people right up and down the income scale is because we recognise that this is about education, not just about care. It’s about both things. Whether this is pay rises for early childhood educators, whether it’s the investments we’re making in childcare centres where there aren’t enough of them or whether it’s what we’re doing to change the activity test into a 3‑day guarantee, all of this will be a game changer for Australian families and the economy more broadly.

 

JOURNALIST: Just in regards to Rex Airlines, ASIC chair Joe Longo said the government was aware of the probe and it was planning to prosecute the airline before the government gave Rex $80 million. Was it appropriate for the government to give Rex that money?

 

CHALMERS: It’s important to separate the legitimate issues that ASIC has raised and is progressing through the legal system, that that is separate from our willingness and our belief that people in regional Australia deserve access to decent aviation services. The work that we are doing is with the administrators, not with the former board. The ASIC proceedings are about the former board, not the administrators. We are providing assistance to Rex via the administrator. It’s not about the company, it’s about the passengers, making sure that people have options while the airline works through what its future might look like. It’s very important that we separate these proceedings from ASIC. I always support the work of our regulators. This is about the board that existed before the administrators took over. Our support and our work is with the administrators, and it’s about the passengers.

 

JOURNALIST: So, the government hasn’t been requested to provide any additional support to Rex?

 

CHALMERS: There are ongoing conversations between Rex and the federal government. Here I want to pay tribute to the outstanding work of our colleague Catherine King. There have been ongoing conversations about the future of Rex and what, if any, role the Commonwealth government will play in that. But, again, very important that we separate the legitimate issues raised by ASIC about the former board from the conversations that the government has been having with the administrator about the future and, most importantly, about making sure that people in regional Australia have access to the aviation services that they have a right to expect.

 

JOURNALIST: Just to Adelaide now, arsonists have targeted an Islamic school bus in Adelaide. What do you have to say to the community in the wake of that attack?

 

CHALMERS: Completely unacceptable. We’ve seen in the last few days attacks in Melbourne and Sydney and now Adelaide. We don’t want to see the kind of division and these kinds of acts become a feature of our local communities around Australia. Australia is a warm and welcoming place, an inclusive place. We don’t want to see that change. We condemn any acts of violence, whatever their motivations. We have condemned very strongly, for example, the anti‑Semitism that has driven the attacks in Melbourne and Sydney. We condemn these attacks in Adelaide as we learn more about them. We don’t want to see violence. We don’t want to see division. We want to see people come together at a difficult time, and we don’t want to see the problems that exist in other parts of the world become a permanent feature of our local communities here.

 

JOURNALIST: Just back to childcare, how much will the childcare changes cost the budget?

 

CHALMERS: The 3 main changes announced today – the change to the activity test will cost $427 million. The fund for childcare centres will cost a tiny bit over a billion dollars, and there’s a $10 million commitment around some further work.

So about 1.5 billion dollars announced today. Worth absolutely every cent when you think about the dividend that Australia gets and that families get from proper investment in early childhood education.

This one and a half billion or so is obviously not the beginning or the end of our investment in early childhood education. One of the biggest features of this Albanese government’s first Budget was changes to make childcare more affordable.

We’ve got the wages increases flowing for early childhood educators right now. In fact, this week, 10 per cent this week for the wonderful people who educate Australian youngsters. Then there’s this additional commitment today about one and a half – $427 million for the activity test, a little bit over a billion for the centres and then a $10 million commitment around the process.

 

JOURNALIST: Is a flat rate of $10–20 still on the table?

 

CHALMERS: What we’ve made clear today – and, again, the Prime Minister did a wonderful job this morning setting out his vision and our vision for early childhood education – if you think about all of the changes that we’ve been making, they’ve been about steps towards a more universal system. We need to do that in a way that we can afford to do, the most responsible way that we can. But what we’ve shown in our 2.5 years is a willingness to commit substantial resources to early childhood education but also a way to sequence that.

We’ve said in the past that some of the good ideas from organisations like The Parenthood and others about a more universal system, we are engaging with them on that. But what we’ve announced today is a very significant step towards universality, particularly when it comes to that activity test.

For some of us, that activity test has been a target for some time. We’ve had to make sure that we can afford it, that we can sequence it, we can change it into that 3‑day guarantee. I’m confident it will be a game changer, and I’m also confident it’s not the first thing we did in early childhood education, and it won’t be the last thing we do in early childhood education, but it’s very, very important.

 

JOURNALIST: So, it’s still on the table?

 

CHALMERS: We’re always looking for ways to get closer and closer to a universal system, whether it’s that way or other ways. The changes to the activity test are a very substantial step in that direction.

 

JOURNALIST: Just back to Medicare now, recently we saw one of these same clinics close their doors in Bundaberg. Are you across that situation?

 

CHALMERS: Yes.

 

JOURNALIST: Can you provide an update on the future of that clinic?

 

CHALMERS: I can. Obviously, we didn’t want to see the services from the Bundy clinic paused, and we’re working with the relevant people to get it restarted again as soon as we can. Our expectation with that is that that would be around the beginning of next year.

We want to make sure that we’re providing services here in Hervey Bay and Bundy as well. We’ll get it up and running as soon as we can. Obviously, we were very concerned when the services had to be paused. We’ll do what we can to get it up and running again so that the wonderful people of Bundy can access health services bulk billed, just like the people of Hervey Bay will be able to now.

 

JOURNALIST: Any indication on why that had to close its doors and what needs to happen to get it reopened?

 

CHALMERS: The Health Department is right across the various causes of that pause in the provision of services. I’ve been briefed to an extent. But they’ll continue to work with the local authorities to make sure that we can get it up and running as soon as possible, that we can deal with the issues that forced it to be closed temporarily.

 

JOURNALIST: Okay. And, finally, given we’re so close to Bundy here, are you confident that we wouldn’t see this clinic go the same way? Have to close their doors after such a short period of time?

 

CHALMERS: We’ll do everything we can to prevent that. I’m really confident. I know these guys. I work with them in my own local community and in Anthony’s own local community.

I’m really confident that we’ll get this one right, and I’m confident that we’ll get the Bundy one right as well. Those services will be provided in the best possible way. These Urgent Care Clinics overwhelmingly are huge success stories.

The patient feedback that we get about them is overwhelmingly positive. People love having the option. I’m really confident that we can deal with those issues in Bundy and we can continue to provide wonderful services to the people who need and deserve them.

 

JOURNALIST: I’ve been asked to get your response to claims big energy companies are ripping off customers with increasing profits.

 

CHALMERS: We want to make sure via the ACCC and others that that’s not the case.

Our job as a government has been to roll out these energy bill rebates which are taking quite substantial pressure off people’s energy bills. We were working with the former Queensland government to do that, but our energy bill rebates are rolling out right now. That’s about taking some of the sting out of these energy prices, electricity prices. They’re one of the reasons why in the most recent inflation data electricity prices have come off quite substantially. We want to make sure the sector is competitive. That’s what the ACCC is for. If any of that behaviour is going on, that you’re asking me about, I’m sure that the ACCC is all over it.

 

JOURNALIST: Is there anything in particular you’re going to do about it?

 

CHALMERS: I’m going to continue to do whatever we can to put downward pressure on electricity prices. Our focus is rolling out the energy bill rebates that I’ve already budgeted for and already announced, because we know that that’s one important way that we can ease the cost‑of‑living pressures that we know people are confronting, whether it’s here in regional Queensland or right around Australia.

 

JOURNALIST: Is it eating into those government energy rebates, though?

 

CHALMERS: What we’ve seen in the most recent inflation data is that the prices have come off. That’s partly because of the energy bill relates, partly because of the changes in the wholesale price that my colleague Chris Bowen has spoken about at length.

We want to make sure that the electricity companies are doing the right thing by people. People are under enough pressure as it is. That’s what motivates us as a government to roll out these energy bill rebates that we’ve already announced and already budgeted for, and which are helping people with their household budgets at a time when those household budgets are under pressure.

 

JOURNALIST: Just on the RBA Board, when will we find out who the new board members will be, given the new structure comes into place in March?

 

CHALMERS: We’re doing a lot of work on bedding down the members of the 2 new boards being created by the Reserve Bank legislation which passed in the last week or 2. That was a very good development, very welcome development. It means now that we can appoint 2 boards full of first rate, first class people. We are working through that right now – almost literally right now. I’m looking forward to consulting with the Opposition on that. I’ll be consulting the Shadow Treasurer on that quite soon in the coming days. That’s an important part of the process. Once we’ve done that, once we’ve consulted in a genuine way, in a meaningful way, we’ll make the announcement as soon as we can after that.

 

JOURNALIST: Well into the new year or by the end of the year?

 

CHALMERS: Ideally not. I’d like to announce the members of the 2 new Reserve Bank boards by Christmas, but we haven’t yet had another conversation with the Shadow Treasurer about the makeup of those boards. There’s a lot of work to do with the prospective members of the boards. I thank the Treasury and the Reserve Bank for the work that has happened already. We’ve got a little bit more work to do, a little bit more consultation to do, but I’m looking forward to telling you about the first class, first rate people that I intend to appoint to these 2 very important boards.

Thanks very much, everyone.