SENATOR THE HON KATY GALLAGHER
MINISTER FOR FINANCE
MINISTER FOR WOMEN
MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE
MINISTER FOR GOVERNMENT SERVICES
ANDREW LEIGH MP
ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR PRODUCTIVITY, COMPETITION, CHARITIES AND TREASURY
MEMBER FOR FENNER
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
SCULLIN GENERAL PRACTICE
FRIDAY, 31 OCTOBER 2025
SUBJECTS: Albanese Government delivering more bulk billing for the ACT, Senate QT, child care and child safety, ACT Liberals
ASSISTANT MINISTER LEIGH: Thanks very much everyone for coming along today. My name is Andrew Leigh, the federal Member for Fenner and it's terrific to be here with Katy Gallagher the day before bulk billing incentives kick off. Canberra has traditionally had lower levels of bulk billing than many parts of Australia, and we have worked assiduously since coming to government in 2022 to turn that around.
We've increased bulk billing incentives, but these new incentives that come into place tomorrow are going to be a game changer. We will be rolling out bulk billing incentives for all patients and putting in place practice incentives at the same time. And as a result, the Scullin General Practice from tomorrow will be bulk billing every single patient. It currently bulk bills around 70 per cent of its patients, but it will go to 100 per cent bulk billing from tomorrow. And across the ACT, the health department has had nine inquiries from different practices who are keen to switch to become fully bulk billing practices.
Bulk billing is the beating heart of Medicare, and Medicare is Labor invention. So, that's why Labor is so committed to ensuring that we get bulk billing rates up here in Canberra and across Australia. People in the regions often feel they like can't afford to see a doctor as a result of the cost of living, and we're turning that around by creating incentives for more GPs to go to pure bulk billing.
Today is also the 50th anniversary of the Racial Discrimination Act - another terrific Labor innovation, and we're really proud to be celebrating the Racial Discrimination Act today, as well as the new initiative that takes effect tomorrow. I'll hand over now to Katy Gallagher to say a few words.
MINISTER GALLAGHER: Thanks Andrew. It's lovely to be here with you and with the doctors at the Scullin Medical Practice. We really do appreciate Scullin Medical Practice allowing us to come and visit them and hear about how the tripling of the bulk billing incentive is going to make a difference to their Practice, and most importantly to their patients. We know that Canberra and the region surrounding us really has a lot of pressure around bulk billing, and we've been looking at every lever available to us to make sure that we're doing everything we can.
Ultimately, it is a doctor's choice about who they bulk bill, but governments can help by making sure those incentives work. And so, we're looking at, obviously, the tripling of the bulk billing for 16 year-olds or under 16 year-olds and concession card holders. That drove an extra 44,000 bulk billed presentations in the ACT. So, 44,000 additional bulk billed patients with that incentive. And we're going to watch exactly what happens when that incentive kicks in for everybody on the first of November. This is happening around the country, where we know that there are higher bulk billing rates than here in the ACT, but we know, again, that Medicare and bulk billing was on life support when we came to government. We've been doing Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, we've tripled the bulk billing rate for concession card holders; we're now doing this one. It's a huge investment, but we know it's the right thing to do.
The other thing for the ACT obviously, is the three additional bulk billing clinics that we promised at the last campaign. We are going through the process of tendering those now, and we are doing everything we can to get those up-and-running as soon as possible. We know that something additional had to be here in the ACT, and with Andrew, Alicia and David, we were able to argue for essentially, some special measures happening here in the ACT. So, we've got the change happening tomorrow and then over the next few months we'll have the results of that tender process and hopefully get those clinics up-and-running as soon as possible as well. Thank you.
JOURNALIST: Long term, I guess, how does this sort of be insured across the country? It's a big investment, so how does it ensure long-term that people will be able to rely on Medicare for the long-term?
MINISTER GALLAGHER: Well, I guess it supports doctors to make that choice. So, what we recognise is that costs for being a GP are rising. They suffered under the indexation freeze under the former government, where the rebates were frozen in time and costs kept increasing. So, we lifted that indexation freeze, and we're putting this investment in permanently. We tried it with 16 year-olds and concession card holders. We saw that drove an increase in the bulk billing rate, so that tripling of the incentive makes good business sense, as well as good sense for patients.
And really our job is to make sure the investment is there, but also the levers that are available to government to incentivise GPs and support their work. I mean, the primary health care system is right at the coal face of our health care system, and we need to make sure that GPs are supported to do their work. This investment does that and gives them the option and a good business option, to actually go to full bulk billing not only with the incentive but within the incentive payment for the practice to be 100 per cent bulk billing.
JOURNALIST: So, do you know how many GP practices in the ACT will be 100 per cent bulk billed?
MINISTER GALLAGHER: We know that nine have applied for the bulk billing clinic incentive. So, that's over and above the bulk billing incentive that comes through MBS. So, nine have shown expressions of interest in that, and we hope to see more come on-board as that as the first of November date passes.
JOURNALIST: And do you know what proportion of GP appointments will be bulk billed due to these incentives?
MINISTER GALLAGHER: Well, we won't. I mean we'll check the data as time allows, so we'll get quarterly results first and we'll want to see that continue. We know that when we did the under sixteens and the concession card holders, we did see an increase from 51 per cent to about 53 per cent of consultations - bulk billed. Obviously that's still too low. We want that much higher, and we want to head towards the national average.
So that's why in the ACT, the Albanese Government is not just doing what we're doing around the country with the clinic and the bulk billing incentive, but we're also putting extra investment in those three bulk billing clinics. Actually bringing to Canberra bulk billing clinics; three additional ones to work alongside GP practices like this.
JOURNALIST: Would you know some of the statistics in regards to the country? Or regional compared to metropolitan? How many have signed on to the initiative so far?
MINISTER GALLAGHER: What I can say is around the country, we've had an overwhelming response. I was speaking with the Health Minister and he believes it's faster than he had expected and faster than the Department of Health had expected. So, seeing lots of interest in areas that weren't expected and that does include regions around the country. I mean often, bulk billing rates are higher in metro areas, but we are seeing this is really a game changer for general practice. If you're getting an incentive payment for the clinic itself, and then a tripling of the bulk billing incentive for every patient you see - that's made it good business sense as well as good health care.
JOURNALIST: All the media releases at the moment say all patients. But is it all patients? Because GPs have got to be able to help or bulk bill every single person that comes through the door?
ASSISTANT MINISTER LEIGH: Well, we believe it's going to be in the financial interests of GPs to shift to being pure bulk billing. This really changes the financial incentives for practices and ensures they can do the right thing for patients. And it also makes sure that they’re taking pressure off other parts of the healthcare system.
We were chatting before to Nadia, who is just about to start here. Her first day will be next Wednesday and will be working one day a week at this practice as well as an ED doctor. What she was telling us is that working on the ED, she's often seeing patients who are coming in saying they can't afford to see a GP. That they don't have a local GP, and that's why they're turning up at the Emergency Department. This will take the pressure off emergency departments, because people will be able to see a bulk billed doctor.
JOURNALIST: I understand the company that’s taking over the Tuggeranong bulk billing practice hasn't yet received any of the $3.8 million in funding that it was promised. Can you confirm whether that's the case and where that payment is at?
MINISTER GALLAGHER: Well, I imagine we're going through the process of, you know, we don't just hand something. We have a process where we go through a procurement process, but the money has been made available. So, I would imagine it's just a matter of finalising that in accordance with the Department of Health's processes. But yes, that money has been there and the tender documents have gone out for all the other ones as well.
JOURNALIST: How important? Or why was the decision made to go over to this incentive?
DR CADRESSEN VILLEPIN: Yeah, because we found that nearly around 75 per cent of people bulk billed, and so the triple incentive will help us. That's why we decided to fully bulk bill.
JOURNALIST: Are you expecting then, more patients to come and see through your doors? Are you worried about an increase because you will be one of the only?...
DR CADRESSEN VILLEPIN: We've been here for more than 30 years. We have our patient base, but we help these people who couldn't afford it. We are at capacity, and we've got two more doctors joining us. So hopefully. Yeah, and we are open on Sundays. So hopefully, you know, we're doing our best to help the community. You won't see a lot of GPs opening on Sundays, and we're doing that with bulk billing so.
ASSISTANT MINISTER LEIGH: It's impressive.
JOURNALIST: Did you do the math? Or how did you guys work out that this was the right incentive?
DR CADRESSEN VILLEPIN: So, the math. So, see we've been here for a long time, and the math is basically in terms of the cost. So, you have to see cost wise whether you can afford to bulk bill, and yes this is why we can do it.
JOURNALIST: Are you sort of hoping this will grow your business or be able to help more people in the community?
DR CADRESSEN VILLEPIN: So, the idea is to help people in the community - not business. As I said, a lot of people can't afford to come and see a GP, because out-of-pocket is too much, so yeah.
JOURNALIST: So, it's a bit of a trial and error. You're going to see how you go? You’re signed on and…
DR CADRESSEN VILLEPIN: No, we’ve bulk billed for a long time. On the 22 August 2022 we sought to make it mixed billing. We've always been bulk billing, since 22 of August 2022. My accountant said may as well work at Maccas flipping burgers. I said really? And then he said yes, it’s too late. Okay, you’re putting money into the practice, let’s go mixed billing. And then we found that because of the demographics, we get a lot of elderly people and kids. And then we found out that 75 per cent of people we’re still bulk billing, you see. And every day, like 9 to 10 people only paying. But with the triple incentive, we're getting incentive with everyone. So, that would of cost. Does that make sense?
JOURNALIST: Yes.
DR CADRESSEN VILLEPIN: So, that's why we’re doing full bulk billing.
JOURNALIST: Did you find patients were delaying their treatment because they couldn't afford to?...
DR CADRESSEN VILLEPIN: No. You see, bulk billing and private billing it’s quite okay. Whether you bulk bill or not, it doesn’t make a difference in terms of what you give back to the patient. So, treatment is the same for everyone. Whether you bulk bill, you take your own time. And yeah, but we can do it because we can afford to do it, you see? So, I can understand why people are against it, because it's expensive in Canberra. It's not cheap - too high. So, yeah I understand their point of view too, because I have worked in different places. So, everyone is different based on what they can afford. But I think we have a lot of prospective – see we have walk-in centres.
We put out employed doctors to work and get things done quickly. If you do the math, they have five now. If you have got nine, you can see two waiting, three waiting, and each covers a population of 80,000. So, Melbourne in the last Census had 101,000 people. So, you have so many GP practices around. So, if you put one GP there. So you don't need to work that hard.
JOURNALIST: What's that reaction from patients that will come and then you can hand them and go now you can be bulk billed I suppose?
DR CADRESSEN VILLEPIN: As I said, we always have been bulk billing a lot, and those who can't we explain to them why. So, I have my sheet. I put my expense sheet in front of them and explain why I'm doing that. Because you have four insurances. You need four cleaners to come and clean your practice. One who comes and cleans down.
The other one takes the sharps. The other one takes only the shredder, because you can't – it’s shredding a bin. And another one comes for clinical waste. So, 44-metres square for four contracts. So there's a lot of expenses to run the practice. And you have your insurances, you have the rent, IT - you need a good IT system because of hackers and all this stuff because they want your – you know you need to protect your patients. So, there's a lot of expenses.
JOURNALIST: So do these incentives help cover some of these expenses?
DR CADRESSEN VILLEPIN: It will. Because it will be tripled. That’s why we decided to go bulk billing. We did the maths!
JOURNALIST: Thank you doctor.
JOURNALIST: Thank you so much.
DR CADRESSEN VILLEPIN: You’re welcome.
JOURNALIST: If I can ask about the marathon Question Time that happened yesterday, and I guess what's been sort of bubbling over all week in regard to this Briggs review, can you commit to a timeline of when that will be released? I know you said this week you've had some meetings about it. Is there a timeline of when you expect to release that report?
MINISTER GALLAGHER: Well, I'll release it as soon as Cabinet is finished. It's not within my decision-making to be able to release it. It's a document that's before Cabinet, actively before Cabinet. I've explained that to Senator Pocock. Not once has he sought a briefing or asked me any questions about that. It was just straight to the Senate to move the motion. I've explained, and I don't know how much more I can explain, that we did this review so that it can inform best practice about merit selection processes across boards and committees.
We weren't forced to do it, it was work that I wanted to do, and now I have to get a response that has to be agreed through Cabinet. I have 22 other colleagues that have a right to have a view about that before we finalise the Government’s position. And that's what we're doing, and it's actively before Cabinet. But I can't individually just release it.
So, yeah, what happened in the Senate this week was pretty disappointing. I mean, you know, the Liberals have looked to Senator Pocock for leadership in the absence of their own leadership. He becomes the leader of the Opposition, and they ripped up convention about how the Senate should run. It's a minority chamber, it works on convention, it works on give and take, because nobody has the majority in that chamber to do whatever they want, when they want, and that changed with the passing of that motion.
And so our decision to not close Question Time yesterday – it was our decision. It was the Opposition and Senator Pocock and the Greens who shut down Question Time. It was our decision to say, “Look, we're here, we're happy to answer any questions you have, we'll keep going, and we'll sit as long as you like.” And they didn't want to do that, so they shut it down at 5.30.
JOURNALIST: Is it fair to the Australian public that there's four hours of Question Time going on now that, really, many people would argue not much is getting done in that, that it's very performative? Is it fair to people that this goes on and on until this report is released, when we really don't know when it could be released?
MINISTER GALLAGHER: Well, is it performative? Is Question Time? I mean, we were there to answer questions. They were saying we were secret, they were raising questions about transparency of government, there's no better way to be there than with all ministers fronting up to answer any question that was asked of us.
We don't pass legislation on Thursday afternoons ever, and we passed through eight bills this week. It was the most bills we've ever got through since the election. So, in terms of the Senate doing its work, it was able, and did do that, eight bills passed, important pieces of legislation.
But we're not going to cop, the Opposition hanging on to this kind of, well, ripping up convention. If they rip up convention, there are no rules about how the Senate works, and we'll see how that ends up.
JOURNALIST: The report was established to look at the review, to look into the “jobs for mates” of the Morrison era, yes, no worries, to look at the appointments of the Morrison era. But given it was conducted in 2023, is it possible that the review will also look into the appointments that Labor made in their first year of term?
MINISTER GALLAGHER: Well, the report was a point in time, and it was actually looking forward about how you go through your merit processes. But I would say it was a piece of advice to government. We have a merit and transparency policy for appointments to boards and committees, it's online, it's available, this was really about, are there ways to improve that?
So, since we came to government, I can't think of a position where a merit process hasn't been undertaken. So we have already changed the system. We're not like the former government; we don't appoint ourselves to multiple ministries. We've established the NAC, we've done a whole range of things to make sure, people have trust and faith in systems.
We're answering more OPDs than any government ever in history since Federation. Senator Bragg asked, or put, more OPDs on the notice paper in one sitting period than had occurred between 1928 and 1965. So I want a bit of balanced reporting about what's going on in the Senate at the moment.
The Government is being criticised that we are not complying with OPDs. We had 435 OPDs last parliamentary term. Paul Keating, in his entire time, had 53. And so then you get beaten up for being non-compliant on OPDs. This is where the Briggs thing has started, on OPDs that give you two days to respond for a million documents in scope. I mean, seriously, we've answered more OPDs than any other government ever, and the Senate is choosing to behave in a pretty immature way.
We turned up and said, “Well, we'll sit until midnight if you want to ask us questions about anything.” They chose to shut it down at 5.30.
JOURNALIST: And just finally, you can’t confirm a timeline as such then, but can you confirm whether there are more meetings happening, you know, in the next coming weeks about the report?
MINISTER GALLAGHER: It's actively before Cabinet, okay, so I can't give you a date that it will go to Cabinet. The work has been, you know, since we were re-elected in May, there has been quite a lot of work done across a whole range of departments in relation to this. I myself spent about five hours on it last week, looking through responses or draft responses to recommendations.
I can't tell you how more involved I am over a document than that. It seems kind of nuts to me that my genuine response to Senator Pocock, and I have told him, I’ve messaged him, I’ve said I will release this. It was my choice to release it, nobody asked me to. If he wanted a briefing, I would have given him a briefing. He hasn't asked for one. So it's a bit, you know, I don't know what the motives are there, but if he was genuinely interested in the work that I'm doing and the reforms I'm trying to implement across the APS, I would have thought he would have come and asked me for it. He hasn't.
JOURNALIST: Is Pocock too quick to head to media or too quick to put out a statement without, you know, having these meetings in the past?
MINISTER GALLAGHER: Well, I'll leave that for others to say, but I can honestly say he has not once sought a briefing on this. So to go from not once seeking a briefing to ripping up convention on how Question Time runs, to me, seems pretty extraordinary. Because, you know, when convention gets ripped up in the Senate, there are consequences, because everything, even if you want to table a document, you have to have leave to do it.
We gave leave to Sarah Hanson-Young in the middle of the three-and-a-half-hour Question Time yesterday, because that was the right thing to do. She wanted to table the document; we thought we would do it. But it's done by convention. And what happened this week is Senator Pocock, leading the Liberal Party and voting with the Liberal Party, chose another way.
JOURNALIST: Senator, just throwing one for me, the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner says the childcare sector needs more regulation after paedophiles infiltrated it. Family groups are calling for a national regulator. Will you establish one?
MINISTER GALLAGHER: So that work’s being led by Jess Walsh and Jason Clare, and there's a lot of work happening across states and territories and the federal government in relation to early education and care, and some of the issues we've seen highlighted, particularly by the ABC’s reporting. There is going to be a national register for checking for workers in that sector.
And I think this government always leans into better consistency and national regulation. But the regulation of that industry really does sit at the state and territory level, so we need to work with those governments as well.
JOURNALIST: It's not your area, but I’ve got to ask, the Liberals ACT are currently having a little bit of a debacle at the moment. What are your thoughts on that?
MINISTER GALLAGHER: Well, look, I mean, I only saw bits of it this week. It seems a little extraordinary what's going on, but it is quite in line with what we're seeing federally as well. There's a bit of a “Hunger Games” approach to the Liberal Party at the moment, where they're attacking each other and not focusing on the things that matter to people, which are things like this bulk billing. You know, they're the things that matter out there when you're talking to people, not fighting amongst yourselves.
JOURNALIST: Is crossing the floor, you know, something that should be more available or accessible within government, being able to go between parties, especially as we're seeing the rise of independents, where who knows what floor they’re sort of taking?
MINISTER GALLAGHER: Well, I feel pretty strongly about this. The place for me to agitate for change and to argue for changes is within my party room. That’s what I signed up for when you join a political party. Certainly, the Labor Party. The Liberal Party has slightly different views, although not here in the ACT, it seems, where they do allow it.
But our process is we argue within our party room, and we come to consensus, we come to agreement, and then we are bound by that, because that allows you to do a whole range of things. If you don't have discipline, you can't bring a coordinated approach to anything, and that's something that the Labor Party feels very strongly about.
It means sometimes you vote in a way that you wouldn’t if you had more, you know, but I’ve only experienced that probably a couple of times in my career, because I think the fight for change happens inside the party room.
Thank you so much.
ENDS
