Federal election 2025: Shadow health minister Anne Ruston labels Albanese a liar over ‘GP for free’ promise

Anne Ruston has labelled Prime Minister Anthony Albanese a “vulture” trying to “lie his way to the Lodge” on Medicare during an election health debate.

The shadow health minister’s spray came as she went face-to-face with Health Minister Mark Butler at the National Press Club on Wednesday, ramping up the Coalition’s claims that Labor are spreading misinformation in their campaign headline announcement on Medicare.

The Opposition claims Labor’s key campaign promise that voters will be able to “see a GP for free” and will “only need to take their Medicare card” to their doctor under a $8.5 billion pledge is fantasy — and there would be a gap fee for patients.

While Mr Butler also landed blows in the showdown, Senator Ruston’s claim was given mileage when the Health Minister admitted that their plan wouldn’t cover every dollar at the GP.

“There will be Australians — we’ve been very clear about this — there will be Australians who will continue to be charged to gap fee, but we think we can get to 90 per cent for all Australians under these arrangements,” he said.

“We’ve been very clear with our model. We’ve been saying we can get to 90 per cent of bulk billing for non-concessional patients.”

Despite Mr Butler’s claims the party has been “clear” in their messaging on the measure, Labor MPs have spruiked a “free” service through the campaign and across multiple platforms — including the PM’s social media pages. He captioned a video posted on April 8: “See the GP for free with Labor” and “When it comes to seeing the GP, all you should need is your Medicare card, not your credit card.”

“Frankly, I think Australians deserve it better than their politicians fighting, lying and scare campaigns. They need to be focusing on what is really important,” Senator Ruston said.

“And while the PM is out there waving his Medicare card around and trying to lie his way back to the Lodge, Australians are living with the reality that our health system is under real pressure at the moment.”

Labor’s Medicare investment has been described as “legacy defining” by the PM, who had hoped to use it as a launching pad into calling the election — before the plan’s timeline was derailed when ex-tropical cyclone Alfred delayed his trip to the Governor-General.

Buzz around the cash splash had also been neutralised by Opposition Leader Peter Dutton in a press conference just minutes after Mr Albanese’s announcement to say the Coalition would match it. But not just match it — step it up with an extra $500 million.

Yet Labor has still tried to grip on to health as the point-of-difference for voters at the upcoming poll.

Senator Ruston said bulk-billing rates had reached 88 per cent under the previous Coalition government.

With the pair usually separated — with Mr Butler in the House of Representatives and Senator Ruston in the Senate — debate was a chance for the rivals to lock horns.

Mr Butler’s debate wins came in his rolling attack on Coalition on their DOGE-style pledge to cut 41,000 public servants in what they claim is a ballooning public service.

In the question-and-answer session, Senator Ruston was quizzed on where Mr Dutton’s proposal would impact the Health Department.

While Senator Ruston didn’t entirely rule out trimming, she declared front line and key positions wouldn’t be touched in a Dutton-led Coalition government.

Senator Ruston said “no frontline services will be even considered as part of this”.

“We have a crisis in workforce,” she said. “It’s the biggest crisis, I think, that is facing health care at the moment, because without the workforce to be able to deliver the outcomes in health care, we cannot possibly deliver them.

“So what we want to see is — we want to see an efficient investment in frontline services, so we’ve got the doctors trained, we’ve got the nurses, we’ve got the allied health workers, the carers, people working in the NDIS and disability.

“We need to make sure that we are focused on delivering services to Australians — not public servants sitting behind desks in Canberra, but actually making sure that we are delivering our healthcare system in Australia for the benefit of everyday Australians that need that care and support, which right now, quite frankly, they’re not getting.”

Mr Butler shot back and argued public servant cutbacks would hit the delivery of health care.

“The Coalition has said that national security and frontline services are exempt from the 41,000 job reductions or job cuts,” he said.

“That leaves on the analysis of the Public Service Commission, a little over 60,000 jobs in the frame for 41,000 jobs going.

“That includes all of the Department of Health. This is going to be devastating to our capacity to implement health programs.”

He also questioned cuts to PBS support, hospitals networks and Urgent Care Clinics — all of which Senator Ruston rejected, adding that medicines would be cheaper under a Dutton government.

“We will keep open all urgent care clinics,” she said.

“We rule out any costs to hospital funding and the Coalition will never move to a US-style healthcare system. These are just Labor lies.

“What the Coalition will be doing, though, is we’ll increase investment into Medicare as we always have and always will.

“We’ll prioritise workforce because we understand no policy can be achieved without the workforce to deliver it.”

Despite the Coalition’s matched support for Medicare, Mr Butler also tried to use the debate to tell voters Mr Dutton would cut Medicare if he won the May 3 election, referencing the Opposition Leader’s time as health minister in the run to the 2014 Budget.

“Peter Dutton outlined his plan for a so-called sustainable Medicare, $50 billion ripped out of public hospitals, a tax on every visit to the GP for every man, woman, pensioner and child,” Mr Butler said.

“And when Labor blocked that vandalism in the Senate, Peter Dutton responded by freezing the Medicare rebates for six long years, ripping billions of dollars out of general practice.

“Those nine years of nasty cuts and calculated neglect have precipitated the crisis that confronts us today.

“Only months before that speech to the Press Club, of course, Peter Dutton had looked Australians in the eye and promised that there would be no cuts to health.”

Both leaders were also asked if they had ambitions to include financial support for dental, which has been a recurring health topic in the lead up to the election after the Greens placed it at the core of their campaign.

Greens leader Adam Bandt has said the minor party will try to pressure Labor to include it in Medicare if the Greens held influence in the event of a minority Labor government — while running around nightclubs with a giant toothbrush prop to make his point.

Mr Butler said on Wednesday that Labor had ambition to eventually include it but admitted it wouldn’t be a reachable achievement under the Government’s current position.

“Although Labor has in its platform and an ambition to bring dental into Medicare more broadly, we don’t have the capacity to do that in the immediate future,” he said.

“We’re focused very much on . . . strengthening Medicare as it currently stands.”

Senator Ruston echoed the focus on prioritising strengthening Medicare for primary care first.

“We have a crisis in primary care, and first and foremost, that has been addressed,” she said.

Mr Butler then claimed the Coalition would cut a planned Australian Centre for Disease Control, a new agency that would co-ordinate the country’s pandemic responses in the wake of COVID-19.

Senator Ruston said that claim was a lie.

“All I would say to you, minister, is that you made a promise to the Australian public about the formation of a CDC,” she said.

“So far, you have failed to make the case for what that CDC might look like,” she said.

“I have not seen any legislation about the establishment of the CDC and I find it quite interesting that you’re suggesting that we import, by the sound of things, the American-style CDC into Australia, when by all accounts, Australia’s response to the COVID pandemic was one of the best in the world.”