Friends, the morning after the 21st of May can be the moment we begin a better future – a better future for Australia with a Labor Government.
 
At the heart of building that better future will be repairing and strengthening our health system. 

Not just restoring it to how it was before the pandemic. 

Health workers and patients alike knew it was under serious strain.

Our aim is build it back better, with stronger Medicare as its backbone.

We need to get it right for ourselves as a society, because taking care of each other is at the heart of how we see ourselves as a people and a nation.

And we need to get it right for the proper functioning of the economy. 

No economy can come close to realising its potential without a healthcare system worthy of the name.

Stronger health care is a precondition for a stronger economy.

Surely the pandemic has reminded us of that.

And a proper healthcare system cannot be everything it can be until the hardworking health workers of this country have a proper partner in government.

A government that has your back just as you have the back of every single Australian in your care.

I look at you all here with me today and I see the faces of what has been the frontline for the longest two years of our lives.

I see heroes of the pandemic. 

I see the nurses and midwives who are the heart and soul of the system, the mainstay of a patient’s treatment and recovery. 

You are the first, reassuring face many see when they become ill. 

Tragically, amid the isolation of the pandemic, you have often also been the final source of comfort.

I see the heart of the aged care sector, the very people who give their all to ensure our older Australians have the care, comfort and dignity they so richly deserve.

Together you are the roof over our society – our ultimate shelter and protection.

But I also see and hear directly from you about exhaustion. 

I see healthcare workers close to running on empty, let down by a complacent government that has made the mistake of taking our health system for granted.

A government that assumed that a system so carefully built up by past Labor governments and by legions of health workers could simply be left to coast along without nurture and without care.

A government where the Health Minister quits without a successor in the middle of a pandemic …

… where the Aged Care Minister comes up with excuses to justify avoiding scrutiny over his role in presiding over a crisis in aged care… 

… and where the Prime Minister never bothers living up to his job title. 

A Prime Minister who never takes responsibility and only looks for others to blame. 

They have no plan for the future. They struggle with the present. And they refuse to learn from the past.

What a lost opportunity that is. 

Because if nothing else, the pandemic has given us some tough but vital lessons – and we must learn from every single one of them.

I often think of something an aged care worker said to me in the early days of the pandemic – that Covid was like an X-ray because it showed us what was broken.

I think that applies right across our health system.

That X-ray has shown us the fractures, the stresses, the pressure points, the parts most at risk.

So many of you have been warning us for years, even before Covid reached us. 

Friends, my message to you is simple. Labor is listening. And we will act.

Right now is exactly the moment we should be working to build a better, stronger, more durable health system – for everyone. 

That is part of the better future that is within our reach. 

It is the future a Labor government will make possible.

And when you look to our record of achievement, it’s clear that so much more is possible when Labor is in power.

It is a proud record and, crucially, it is a lasting record.

Whenever Australia has got it right with health policy, it’s because a Labor government has driven it.

Over the coming days, you’ll be hearing more about Labor’s plans to protect and strengthen Medicare.

On Monday in Tasmania, I announced Labor’s plans to improve support for children with hearing loss. 

And yesterday I announced that Labor will restore bulk billed Telehealth psychiatric consultations for rural and regional Australians. 

The pandemic didn’t just take a toll on our physical health, it took a toll on our emotional and mental health as well. 

That is why Labor will reverse those cuts to Telehealth consultations.

And today I announce another of Labor’s measures to strengthen Medicare. 

Labor will roll out 50 GP-led enhanced Medicare Urgent Care Clinics. 

These Medicare Urgent Care Clinics will be open longer hours, seven days a week. 

They will be in every state and territory.

They’ll provide a whole range of medical services you never know when you’ll need - like treatments for sprains and broken bones, stitches, ear infections and minor burns. 

They will make it easier for Australians to see a doctor when they require it – even on weekends and in the evening. 

Importantly, the services will be bulk billed.

Australians won’t need their wallet, just their Medicare card. 

With their own nursing staff, walk-in urgent care clinics will help to take the pressure off hospital emergency departments, which have really been feeling the added strain during the pandemic.

Anyone who has had to go to one during the past couple of years has seen how crowded they have become. 

As waiting times blow out, hard-working nurses and other hospital staff end up working harder and harder.

You give your all. You put your mental and physical well-being on the line for your fellow Australians. 

And you do it day in, day out.

I say to you today: you are extraordinary and selfless Australians. 

But we have no right to ask you to carry the load alone.

That’s another reason these urgent care clinics are so necessary. 

Just as they will make things easier for patients, they will take some of the pressure off nurses.

Nurses and midwives are frontline workers in every sense of the word. 

Not only are you expert medical professionals, you provide so much emotional support.

Who doesn’t have a story of a stressful moment in a hospital when you turned to a nurse for comfort, reassurance or advice – and sometimes just some straight talk?  

During the pandemic, nurses were often a patient’s only company during their final hours on this earth.

And you are the front line for family members too, often being the first port of call for the frustrations and emotions of worried loved ones. 

The pressure has left many nurses completely burned out. 

And the tragic reality is that after two relentless years, nurses are leaving the profession. 

When we don’t support our nurses, the ripple effects are felt by every Australian.

Which is why today I announce that Labor will launch a new National Nurse and Midwife Health Service. 

With this service in place, access to personalised and professional support services for nurses and midwives will be just a phone call away.

Whether you are concerned about stress levels, feel exhausted or anxious, or are struggling with mental health, you will be able to pick up the phone and get free, confidential and independent advice, information, treatment and specialist referrals.

Urgent Care Clinics. 

A National Nurse and Midwife Health Service.

My two new announcements today are positive, practical changes. 

That’s what Australians need. 

And that’s what Labor does.  

In that same spirit, I used my Budget Reply speech to announce our plan to fix the aged care system.

It’s important to say that many facilities do a magnificent job.
 
I know aged care workers show up every day and do their absolute best with what they have, showing love and respect for those in their care.
 
Thank you for everything you do, every single day.

But the system is at breaking point, and carers will be the first to tell you that.
 
That is why Labor has a real, concrete, comprehensive plan to fix the crisis in aged care…

… a plan that is in line with the recommendations of the Royal Commission. 

A plan for 215 minutes of care for residents each day. 

A plan for better wages for carers.
 
A plan for better food and nutrition with support from the Maggie Beer Foundation.

A plan for improved transparency and accountability measures.

But the first part of our plan will be to make sure that every aged care facility has a registered nurse on site, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

This happens already in Tasmania. It should happen as a matter of course.
 
Just as we’re going to put the care back into aged care, Labor is going to put nurses back into nursing homes.
 
Because every Australian living in aged care should get the medical attention they need, the moment they need it.
 
It shocks a lot of Australians to learn that we don’t already have nurses in every nursing home.
 
It’s just common sense. And it’s common decency.
 
What underpins our entire system is Medicare, a proud Australian achievement.

That its creation was one of the overriding priorities of the Hawke Government tells you everything you need to know about Labor.

It came after the Fraser Government abolished Gough Whitlam’s Medibank program.

Our conservative opponents know they cannot any more propose to abolish universal health care, so they have resorted to undermining it. 

It is only Labor that believes to our core in Medicare. 

It is only Labor that ever does the big things to change the country for the better.

To imagine and then set about creating a better future. 

Medicare is powered by what must always be one of the most sacred principles we have as Australians…

… that good healthcare has to be available to every single Australian, regardless of your postcode or the size of your bank balance. 

It isn’t a lottery. 

It isn’t the preserve of the lucky few. 

It belongs to all of us.

And it’s so much more than a safety net. 

A safety net catches you when you fall. 

But good healthcare, with Medicare at its foundation, seeks to stop people falling in the first place. 

Medicare gives Australians the sense of security and confidence that makes it possible to plan ahead and to achieve their aspirations. 

We’re proud of Medicare not just because it protects us, but because it has become part of our national identity.

With its green and gold, it is the most patriotic piece of plastic in your wallet. 

And the most enduring – because a Labor government will always protect it and strengthen it.

We make things to last. 

We’re not the Liberals and Nationals who fling around money like confetti, one-off handouts with all the sincerity and the staying power of a fake tan.

Their idea of vision extends only as far as election day. 

The one-off payments in their recent Budget reflected that.

Just as Medicare has outlasted Bob Hawke, exactly as he intended, we want to make the changes and the reforms that will outlive us and improve the lives of younger generations and those to come.

That same energy that drives us on Medicare drives us on every aspect of our plan to shape and build a better future for our country…

… whether it’s creating secure, well-paid jobs, making child care cheaper, or building Australia’s future right here.

Australia is the greatest country in the world and Medicare is the best health system. 

But we can be a better country with a better government, and a better health system.

We can do it – together. 

With healthcare workers – like the nurses, carers, and midwives here today – who hold our nation together, and a Labor government which will always have your back.
 
ENDS