Federal government must prioritise workforce, infrastructure and Medicare
AMA Queensland Immediate Past President spoke to TODAY the morning after the federal election to discuss healthcare promises and the need to boost the medical workforce and Medicare rebates. "We need more infrastructure, particularly helping the rural and regional areas, but we also need the people to care for people. If it wasn't for the brilliant work that healthcare workers currently do, where they go above and beyond, our health system would have collapsed already."
Transcript: AMA Queensland Immediate Past President Dr Maria Boulton, Channel 9, Weekend Today with Clint Stanaway and Alison Piotrowski, Sunday 4 May 2025
Subjects: Federal election health promises
CLINT STANAWAY: Well, Australia is reacting this morning to the news that Anthony Albanese will return as Prime Minister for a second term after that Labor landslide victory.
ALISON PIOTROWSKI: So, after campaign promises targeting cost of living relief, how are our key industries responding this morning? To discuss, we are joined by GP Dr Maria Boulton who's with us here, education expert Kevin Donnelly and Australian Industry Group CEO Innes Willox. Good morning to you all. Doctor, I'll start with you first.
The big promise – increased bulk billing and urgent health care clinics – is this something that GPs really want?
DR MARIA BOULTON: Many GPs think that the government is wrong in this area. We know that they're spending more money in healthcare, but that money should have been put towards increasing Medicare rebates rather than increasing the bulk billing incentive. Many GPs feel that the pledge the government has made of increasing bulk billing rates to 90 per cent is unrealistic. This is because that funding will not actually help people who pay a gap to see their GP. It's also not enough to cover healthcare costs. So, GPs are not going to be able to revert back to bulk billing. There is a huge need in the afterhours space, and you know, we all have kids who wake up in the middle of the night with sore ears where you need to have a doctor on call at that time, but I feel that something is not quite right with the urgent care clinics.
CLINT STANAWAY: So, if GPs don't want it, clearly the constituents do want it because they voted in a huge number last night.
DR MARIA BOULTON: There's some confusion as to where that funding is going to go, and when you speak to patients, sometimes they think that it's going to go towards their Medicare rebates. So just clarifying the fact that funding is only going to towards people who get bulk billed, it's not going to go towards people who pay a gap, which is most Australians.
CLINT STANAWAY: In terms of infrastructure, do you feel as though there needs to be so much more work done to improve the infrastructure that would in turn improve the system?
DR MARIA BOULTON: Most definitely. We need more infrastructure, particularly helping the rural and regional areas, but we also need the people to care for people. If it wasn't for the brilliant work that healthcare workers currently do, where they go above and beyond, our health system would have collapsed already. So, we need the government to fund more training places. We need more doctors, more nurses, more paramedics, more physiotherapists, more pharmacists.
ALISON PIOTROWSKI: It sounds like you want more detail in all of this. We will move on because we do have other guests to talk to here.
