Senator The Hon Anne Ruston
Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care
Shadow Minister for Sport
Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate
James Brown
Liberal Candidate for Mackellar
The findings of the 2025 Cleanbill Blue Report released yesterday are damning - Under the Albanese Labor Government, bulk billing is going backwards as out-of-pocket healthcare costs are going up across New South Wales.
Bulk billing has collapsed, despite all of Labor’s disingenuous rhetoric. According to the findings, the rate of clinics that will bulk bill new adult patients without a concession card in NSW has decreased by 2.7% in the past year alone to 34.5%.
At the same time, out-of-pocket costs for patients in NSW who cannot get access to bulk billing have risen by more than 4% in just one year to $44.05 on average in 2025.
This adds further stress to household budgets in the middle of the cost-of-living crisis, forcing people to make the difficult choice between going to see a doctor or paying the bills. Concerningly, more than 1.5 million Australians avoided seeing a GP in 2023-24 due to cost concerns – a shocking 25% increase in just one year.
Shadow Minister for Health, Senator Anne Ruston said that it has literally never been harder or more expensive to see a doctor than under the Albanese Government, and this is hitting the people of Mackellar at a time when they can least afford it.
“It is unacceptable that more and more Australians are being forced to avoid essential healthcare because they just cannot afford it under Labor. This poses a serious risk for the health of all Australians and for our hospital systems, which we know are already overrun,” Senator Ruston said.
“Instead of focusing on the record high healthcare costs that they have created, Labor is lying to Australians with a third attempt at their disgraced Mediscare campaign. The reality is that the Liberals increased Medicare funding every single year in government and oversaw record high bulk billing rates. Under Labor, Medicare has only been weakened.”
James Brown, Liberal for Mackellar said “the Australian Medical Association’s own report shows it was Labor that froze the Medicare rebate. Instead of echoing the government’s year-old unchecked attack lines, Dr Scamps should be representing the people of Mackellar and
holding the Prime Minister and his government to account for declining bulk billing rates that are hurting locals.
“A Liberal government will increase the number of Medicare mental health sessions from 10 to 20 for Northern Beaches residents and 240,000 Australians – that will make an enormous difference,” Mr Brown said.
The Liberals have already announced that we will invest in women’s health, including specialist cancer nurses to support Australians with Ovarian Cancer; we will double the number of Medicare mental health sessions; and we have committed $400 million to grow a strong pipeline of home-trained GPs, which we know is critical to addressing Labor’s primary care crisis.
This investment will provide financial incentives for junior doctors to choose to train as a GP in the community. As the Cleanbill report makes clear, ensuring the availability of local doctors right now is a necessity.
We are focused on ensuring the people of Mackellar have timely and affordable access to healthcare.