ASSISTANT MINISTER NITA GREEN: It's great to be here in Mackay with Assistant Minister Emma McBride, a former pharmacist or current pharmacist still, who's been doing an excellent job in delivering the healthcare services that we need in remote and regional Australia. It's great to be here of course with the mayor, Greg Williamson, someone who's a champion for the delivery of healthcare here in Mackay and more broadly in North Queensland. And he's been a strong advocate to make sure that Mackay doesn't miss out when it comes to the Medicare services that people need.
Today, we are here officially opening the Urgent Care Clinic in Mackay, something that I announced during the last election. And I want to thank the NQPHN for taking up the task of commissioning and delivering this service. An Urgent Care Clinic is a game changer for regional Queensland. What it means is that people can get the care that they need without going to the emergency department. And how do I know? Well, I'm a mum of a four-year-old, and I've had to go to the emergency department many times with a little one because I just couldn't wait to get to a GP on the Monday. But now, because of Urgent Care Clinics, we know that moms and dads on the weekends and late at night will have the opportunity to get the care that their little ones need.
It's also really good for people who are just not sure whether emergency department is for them. And one of the effects of the Urgent Care Clinic is we will be taking pressure off those emergency departments – something that I know is supported by the health service here in Mackay. More broadly, I think that we have been delivering Medicare services here in Mackay and making sure that people can access bulk billing when they need it, cheaper medicines because they need it, and now we're adding an Urgent Care Clinic to the mix. Something that I think this community been crying out for, and now the Albanese Labor Government has delivered.
Thanks, Emma.
ASSISTANT MINISTER EMMA MCBRIDE: Thank you. I want to start by recognizing Nita as a Senator for Queensland and as an Assistant Minister for her strong advocacy. Nita has made sure that Queensland, and particularly North Queensland, has got its fair share of our investments in in Medicare, including through urgent care.
Since we first opened an Urgent Care Clinic in Australia back in June 2023, now more than 2.6 million Australians have had free urgent medical attention when they need it, close to home, fully bulk billed under Medicare. We know that in Queensland, this is now the 23rd Medicare Urgent Care Clinic. I think Nita has opened four so far, and more to come. We know that in Queensland, more than 520,000 Queenslanders have had urgent medical attention for free when they need it bulk billed under Medicare.
We also know, and I'm a pharmacist who ran a department in a regional hospital, the strain that emergency departments are under and the dedicated staff that work there. And what we've seen since the introduction of urgent care is a reduction in the semi-urgent and non-urgent presentations to emergency departments. Local Mackay hospital, almost one in four presentations are considered semi-urgent or non-urgent. They're the type of presentations, whether it's a severe cut, an exacerbation of asthma, a viral infection, will now be able to be treated here for free over extended hours – 8am till 10pm, seven days a week, free under Medicare.
And I also just want to mention, and we've been able to announce today, that we now have a provider for the Medicare Mental Health Centre that Senator Green announced, and we’ll now be delivering in this community by the middle of the year. So whether it's mental health and well-being or physical support and care, all provided free under Medicare.
And I'll just finish as a pharmacist, and we visited, Nita and I, the local community pharmacy just around the corner this morning. And to hear from the pharmacists that local people who were delaying filling prescriptions, taking medications every second day, are now taking their medication as prescribed because we have cut the cost of general prescriptions since we came to government from $42.50 to $25 and also frozen the cost of concession scripts at $7.70 till the end of the decade, making sure that providing important cost of living relief so local people and take their medication as they need to, which is so important for their health and well-being and also again reduces pressure on other health services.
And bulk billing in Mackay, through Nita’s advocacy, has increased nearly 3 per cent. So more than 80 per cent of local appointments here that are Medicare-eligible are fully bulk billed, which is making a really big difference to care provided to local people here.
I might hand over to the Mayor, 007, and then we'll take some questions.
GREG WILLIAMSON, MACKAY MAYOR: Well, I’m not really 007, but our Mayor's Charity Ball this year is themed on 007 and Casino Royale. So, there you go. Tickets went on sale last night.
Look, this this is an absolutely fabulous event for Mackay. This is a great example of the Federal Government, through the PHN, and the state through the MHHS, and private enterprise collaborating, to deliver the first for Mackay in terms of this urgent care centre. So the fact that it will take the pressure off our ED just will spell out a fantastic future for us and for everybody who needs urgent care. So, to Senator Green and to the Assistant Minister, welcome. It's great to have you here in Mackay, and I hope that this is the first of many around our district, because what it will do for us in terms of healthcare is a great leap forward. So the urgent care that's sort of gumming up ED at the Mackay Hospital and Health Service- there you go.
The urgent care that's jamming up ED for things like sutures and people waiting for seven hours, that'll stop. You can come here, and it all just takes the pressure off the whole system. And to see private enterprise involved in this is absolutely outstanding. So this is a great event for Mackay.
GREEN: Any questions?
JOURNALIST: Yes, just one. Is there- obviously this is a new thing for Mackay, but is any more being planned for the rest of the district, like Whitsundays, Isaac?
GREEN: Well, we are rolling out a huge amount of Medicare services all across regional Queensland. This is the fourth Urgent Care Clinic that I've opened. We've got another one in Cairns on the way. And as Emma said, we are also delivering a Medicare mental health clinic right here in Mackay. I know that there are really a lot of need throughout the Whitsundays particularly, and Proserpine, for good Medicare services and that's why we're delivering more block billing to those people as well, making sure that they can get a free appointment at the doctor if they need it. Of course, the Urgent Care Clinics has been an incredibly popular program that our government has run out. And although we've made no commitments at this time for more Urgent Care Clinics around the country, there are many MPs around the place who are asking for an Urgent Care Clinic in their community. So we'll keep assessing the needs of communities and we'll make sure that we deliver when communities need it.
JOURNALIST: And how important is it that people- I guess, obviously some people are delaying healthcare because they simply can't afford it during our cost of living crisis at the moment. How important is it that people do, I guess, show up and come to this clinic?
MCBRIDE: It is absolutely vital, and we want everyone who lives in Mackay and the surrounding communities to know that through the investments of our government in Medicare, they don't need to delay or avoid getting healthcare. They can have it for free under Medicare. As a pharmacist, I've seen people, a mother, say to me, which antibiotic prescription can I get filled? We don't want anyone to be forced to have to delay getting essential healthcare because of costs, which is why we've made this significant investment, more than $8 billion in Medicare, and significant investment right here in Mackay so that local people can get that care when they need it. And to hear from the local pharmacists that that change- that happened on 1 November, the election commitment came through, delivered on 1 January, means that already people are being able to get the healthcare that they need. Not having to take a medication every second day, not getting a pill splitter to cut a tablet in half to eke out that month's prescription. So absolutely vital to people's health and wellbeing and really helping to reduce the cost of living.
JOURNALIST: Yeah, great. And just one on fuel, if you can answer.
GREEN: Yeah, I can answer that question.
JOURNALIST: Yeah, is there any plans to put a price cap on this- fuel prices at the moment?
GREEN: Yeah, thank you for the question. And I know that there are concerns here, particularly in regional and remote areas, about access to fuel at the moment. And what we've done over the past week is work incredibly hard to bring everyone together to make decisions to get fuel to where it needs to go. We know that we have enough fuel here in Australia, but the problem we've faced over the last week or so is an incredible spike in demand for diesel fuel in particular. That is having a huge impact on industries, particularly the seafood industry. And I had a chance to speak to the Queensland seafood industry last night about this plan of ours. So what we've done is we have changed the fuel standards to get more fuel available. We've done that overnight and we are making sure that we are prioritising remote and regional areas in terms of where that new fuel access goes.
We are also bringing together every single person that we need to, whether it's petrol companies, the ACCC and the industries that have been affected, to ensure that we keep an eye on where the fuel is going and how much people are charging. We're going to increase the penalties for price gouging, so we have put those petrol companies on notice. You cannot use this international crisis to create a commercial one. We want to make sure that people are seeing the rise and fall in petrol prices as that happens over the next couple of weeks and months. Leading into the budget, our primary focus is on cost of living relief for Australians, and we will make sure that we are taking all of these factors into account when we do that.
JOURNALIST: Yeah, great. I know obviously we're a cane region here. Is there any plans with this possible fuel shortage that we might be facing to use cane as a bioethanol?
GREEN: Well, it makes the argument again and again, as I have been saying for many years, and I know the Mayor has been saying for decades, that biofuel is a future for this region and it is a future fuel for our country. And that is exactly why our government is investing $1.5 billion into the biofuels industry to make sure that we can develop the industry up to the point where it can be used in times like this. We know that there's a commercial opportunity here for cane farmers and for mills, but we're at a point where we are developing this product. We opened a hub here at the mill …
WILLIAMSON: Racecourse.
GREEN: Yes, at the Racecourse Road, it's in conjunction with QUT, so that we can have the very best science available to us on biofuels, so that we can supercharge this industry. There is a future for biofuels here in regional Queensland, and the Albanese Government has put money on the table to back it.