Two in three urgent care clinics are in Labor seats
Two in three of the Albanese government’s marquee Medicare urgent care clinics have been set up in Labor-held seats, as Anthony Albanese promises to build another 50.
Two in three of the Albanese government’s marquee Medicare urgent care clinics have been set up in Labor-held seats, as Anthony Albanese promises to build another 50 as part of his health-centred election pitch.
Labor on Sunday unveiled a new campaign advertisement that features footage of former ALP prime minister Bob Hawke unveiling Medicare in 1984 followed by the incumbent Prime Minister saying “Labor built Medicare, and only Labor will protect and strengthen Medicare”.
As the government makes Medicare the heart of its campaign, analysis shows that of the 13 seats Labor holds with a two-party-preferred margin less than five percentage points above the Coalition, nine already have clinics promised (Aston, Bennelong, Boothby, Gilmore, Hunter, Lingiari, Lyons, Parramatta and Robertson) and the other four (Higgins, McEwen, Paterson and Tangney) are likely to get one in that electorate or one electorate over if Labor were to win.
Of the 87 delivered so far, 60 went to Labor-held electorates, 21 to Coalition-held electorates, three to independent seats, two to the Greens, and one to Kennedy, which Bob Katter represents.
The Australian’s analysis of the 87 urgent care clinics the government delivered in the past three years follows revelations that most of the Housing Australia Future Fund had also gone to target marginal Labor seats and led to Coalition accusations of pork-barrelling.
Mr Albanese on Sunday doubled down on his government’s urgent care clinics, announcing a re-elected Labor government would create 50 more of them.
Based on the suburbs the government listed, this would likely see 23 go to Labor-held electorates and 21 to Coalition-held electorates. Since suburb boundaries do not always neatly line up with electorate boundaries this could be subject to change.
Opposition health spokeswoman Anne Ruston demanded an explanation on the electoral discrepancy of the clinics already delivered and said a potential Coalition government would roll out urgent care clinics “as they were intended – focused on relieving pressure on local hospitals and providing real access to bulk-billed urgent healthcare”.
“We know that it has never been harder and more expensive to see a GP under Labor, and this reduction in primary care access has serious implications for emergency departments, placing even further demand on already under-pressure hospital systems,” she said.
“Anthony Albanese and Labor need to explain how their locations were selected and how they are best placed to take additional pressure off hospitals as UCCs were promised to do.”
Health Minister Mark Butler on Sunday told reporters the first tranche of 50 clinics had a “very even spread, in an electoral sense, across different electorates” and appeared to pass responsibility for the locations of the remainder to state and territory governments.
“That tranche was primarily based on hospital presentation data, particularly for those triage categories I mentioned – non-urgent, semi-urgent,” Mr Butler said.
“There was then a second tranche that flowed from an agreement the Prime Minister struck with premiers and chief ministers for a strengthening of Medicare investment at the December 2023 national cabinet … the locations were determined by state governments.
“And if you look at the 50 that we’ve announced today, again, it’s a very proportional spread across the parliament in a party-political sense.”
Mr Butler accused the Liberal Party of having “never backed Medicare urgent care clinics because they are fundamentally against Medicare”.
“Peter Dutton wants an American-style user-pays healthcare system. He said there are ‘too many free services’.
“Australians can’t trust Peter Dutton with Medicare. He’s cut Medicare before and he’ll do it again with urgent care clinics.”
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