Share and Follow
The Coalition has pledged to match Labor’s promise to launch a 24-hour ‘1800MEDICARE’ service, allowing patients to access free after-hours general practice telehealth consultations.
However, it has also criticised it as a “rebadging” of existing services and said is “playing political games”.
Labor has pledged $204.5 million over four years to revamp the existing Healthdirect service, operated in conjunction with the states and territories.
Labor’s promised telehealth overhaul, which it says would be in place by 1 January 2026, would ensure patients requiring urgent care between 6pm and 8am on weeknights or during weekends had access to a bulk-billed consultation with an after-hours GP via phone or video.
Registered nurses would staff the line 24 hours a day on weekdays and weekends to provide immediate advice and refer patients to local GPs, hospitals or Medicare Urgent Care Clinics.
The ‘1800Medicare’ GP would have capacity to advise treatment of short-term illness injury or illness, and provide emergency prescriptions, with every consultation recorded under the MyHealth Record scheme.
Healthdirect currently operates a 24-hour advice line, but does not offer integrated 24/7 telehealth GP consultations across all jurisdictions.
“At this election, Australia faces a clear choice: a stronger Medicare with more bulk billing and more free urgent care under Labor, or more cuts to Medicare under s Liberals,” Albanese said.
Dutton has said at that Labor’s claims that he would cut Medicare if elected are a baseless scare campaign.
Coalition will match plan but says PM is ‘misleading’ voters
On Sunday, the Coalition said it would match Labor’s plan but added that it was “misleading for the prime minister to claim this is a new measure”.
“This is a rebadging of the existing Healthdirect service,” a media statement from Opposition health spokesperson Anne Ruston said.
“The prime minister should stop playing political games and focus on Australians’ health.”
Ruston also referenced , calling it the “single biggest reform to Medicare in recent history”.
Labor expects the rebranded program to reduce pressure on public hospitals across the country, particularly Queensland and Tasmania, where not all existing Healthdirect services are uniformly available.
“Around 250,000 Australians will avoid an unnecessary trip to a hospital emergency department, because of the free urgent GP care provided by 1800MEDICARE,” Health Minister Mark Butler said.
The policy capitalises on the booming popularity of telehealth consultations after the pandemic, and will also combat an increase in online-only GP services, which are not integrated with the Medicare system.
According to the Medicare Benefits Schedule Review Advisory Committee, such services, which offer quick access to prescriptions and medical certificates, “do not support integrated, safe and high-quality care”.
On Saturday, Butler appeared in Launceston with Albanese, where the government in February unveiled to lift Medicare bulk billing rates and increase healthcare staff.
At the time, the Coalition was quick to match the promise “dollar for dollar”.
RACGP welcomes proposal
The Royal Australian College of GPs (RACGP) has welcomed the proposed telehealth expansion, saying it would be “a positive step forward”.
The president of the RACGP, Dr Michael Wright, said: “After-hours care is a key part of what GPs do in communities nation-wide every day, and this announcement recognises that.”
He also urged the government to work with GPs in implementing the plan.
“We look forward to understanding the detail of this program, and working with the government to make sure that general practice is consulted every step of the way. It is essential that this service integrates with existing general practice care.”
Dutton set to embark on cross-country push
Meanwhile, the Opposition leader has begun the final week of campaigning in Melbourne, flagging an intention to showcase Coalition momentum by visiting 28 key seats — around four a day — before polls close on Saturday.
Needing to win 21 seats to form a majority government, Dutton is embarking on a cross-country trip seeking to tap into lingering cost-of-living anger.
In the coming days, Dutton is expected to campaign in a number of seats held by for the first time since the writs were issued.
Kooyong, Goldstein and Mackellar are among the seats the Opposition Leader is yet to visit, having made a brief appearance in teal-held Curtin in the campaign’s second week.
Gilmore, Aston and Gorton and are among the Labor seats Dutton is looking to flip, with liberal figures dismissive of published polling suggesting their primary vote has experienced a steady decline over recent weeks.
The prime minister was also urging Labor faithful not to be complacent, telling party volunteers in Bass to not “leave anything in the tank” in the run-up to 3 May.
For the latest from SBS News, and .
Visit the to access articles, podcasts and videos from SBS News, NITV and our teams covering more than 60 languages.
