Mark Butler
- Exclusive
- Medicare
What bulk-billing? The group missing out on cheaper GP visits
Children and older Australians were better off last year under the government’s $3.5 billion boost to bulk-billing. But adults aged 16 to 64 are paying more.
- Natassia Chrysanthos
Latest
- Exclusive
- Medicare
Bulk-billing at centre of Labor election pitch, attack on Dutton
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is gearing up to make major boosts to bulk-billing, urgent care clinics and the GP workforce, playing up a contrast to Peter Dutton.
- Paul Sakkal and Natassia Chrysanthos
- Exclusive
- Medicine
This powerful lobby group claimed 665 pharmacies would close. Here’s what really happened
The Pharmacy Guild claimed 60-day scripts would force pharmacies to shut and cause 20,000 job losses. The figures tell a very different story.
- James Massola
Fix the planning system – now that’s a good plan
Successive governments over many decades have wound back spending on public housing, sending people into the private rental market. We need more modest, cheaper-to-build homes.
- Investigation
- Smoking & vaping
‘Big vape’: How Chinese multinationals and organised crime fuelled a public health crisis
The Albanese government has introduced some of the world’s toughest vaping laws, but the black market is thriving. Now pharmacists are in open rebellion.
- Eryk Bagshaw and Laura Sparkes
Free RSV vaccines for mothers and babies as cases spike by 37,000
The respiratory virus is the leading cause of hospitalisation for infants, with 12,000 babies admitted each year. Before next winter, protection for mums and bubs will be free.
- Natassia Chrysanthos
About 1 million Australians use vapes. Chemists dispensed them just 3500 times last month
Data supplied to Senate estimates reveals a slow uptake in pharmacy vape sales during October, the first time e-cigarettes could be bought after a consultation with a chemist.
- Natassia Chrysanthos
See the free flights our most senior MPs take
Who flew where, how and who paid are fast becoming the defining questions in politics.
- Millie Muroi
We tax big tobacco due to its health impact. Why not social media companies?
Mental health advocates say the government is failing young people by pushing social media bans instead of improving access to unaffordable psychology services.
- Mary Ward
Vape-flation: prices have surged, but retailers are still flouting the ban
Two months after a ban on selling vapes outside pharmacies, this masthead visited a dozen tobacco and convenience stores across Sydney. All had vapes available on request.
- Millie Muroi
Original URL: https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/topic/mark-butler-47a