The Hon Andrew Leigh MP
Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP PRESS CONFERENCE
INFINITY MEDICAL CENTRE GUNGAHLIN
WEDNESDAY, 29 JULY 2026
SUBJECTS: New fully bulk billing GP clinic now open in Gungahlin
ANDREW LEIGH: G’day, my name is Andrew Leigh – the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury, and the Member for Fenner. I would like to thank Dr Boniface Ochayi, Practice Principal and Owner and the team here at Infinity Medical Centre for showing us around today.
This is one of three fully bulk billing centres funded by the Commonwealth Government in order to boost bulk billing in the ACT. Labor built Medicare, and Labor has always sought to strengthen it. Under the Coalition, we saw bulk billing rates decline in Canberra and Labor has set about turning that around. We've increased the incentives for bulk billing individual patients and we've increased the incentives for becoming a fully bulk billing practice.
It is now not only in the interest of patients but also of doctors for Canberra practices to switch from mixed billing to being fully bulk billing. What we've seen over the time that Labor has been in office is the number of fully bulk billing practices in my electorate of Fenner more than tripled from two to seven. Now with the opening of this practice, people are able to see a doctor in the heart of Gungahlin by just showing their Medicare card, not their credit card. That's good for them because people are able to see a doctor before a small problem turns into a big one and it's good for the whole community because someone with a sniffle gets it seen to before they pass on a serious cold to their co-workers. So this is great for health, great for productivity, and terrific for cost of living here in Canberra.
JOURNALIST: So the ACT obviously still has the lowest bulk billing rates in the country. When can we expect to be on par with the rest of the country?
ANDREW LEIGH: One of the things we see in bulk billing rates is that sometimes practices benchmark themselves against surrounding practices. What Labor is aimed to do is to change the dynamic here in Canberra – not only through changing the incentives, but also through a direct $10 million to provide these three new bulk billing practices. We fully believe that Canberra patients are going to vote with their feet and move to these fully bulk billing practices, and that will help encourage other practices to see the benefits for them and their patients of switching to being fully bulk billing.
JOURNALIST: How long do you think it would take until we're kind of on par with the, you know, with the rest of the nation? Would it be like a 10-year project or a 20-year project, anything like that?
ANDREW LEIGH: We're already seeing bulk billing rates rise in the ACT. I'm very keen for that to continue. We do know there's parts of Australia that have higher income levels than the ACT, and yet also have higher bulk billing rates. So it's not inevitable that Canberra's bulk billing rates are below the rest of the nation. We hope that we can bring these bulk billing rates up, and that'll be great for all Canberrans.
JOURNALIST: From my understanding – so these clinics are funded with a one-off payment from the government. What happens after that $10 million runs out?
ANDREW LEIGH: Well, the fully bulk billing model is strongly economically viable, not only for patients but also for doctors as well. The Commonwealth Health Department has the numbers on the economics of each practice, and so we can see the benefits for those practices and the doctors that work in them of switching to a fully bulk billing model.
JOURNALIST: Are you confident that after that, you know, that one-off payment is done, that these bulk billing clinics will be able to stay bulk billing and be able to stay open?
ANDREW LEIGH: Absolutely. Because we're already seeing other mixed billing practices switch to being fully bulk billing. We're seeing that right across the Canberra northside, with the movement of going from two fully bulk billing practices to seven bulk billing practices in my electorate of Fenner, and now across the ACT with 24 fully bulk billing practices. More and more practices every day are seeing the benefit of switching from mixed billing to fully bulk billing, allowing every patient to come in and just be seen with their Medicare card, not their credit card.
JOURNALIST: Are you confident that this model that you're using is actually working to switch people over? Obviously, you've talked about some, you know, two and a half, almost, more than doubling rather in the Fenner electorate alone. I guess, are you confident that momentum will keep going up?
ANDREW LEIGH: Absolutely. We're seeing an increase in bulk billing rates right across the nation, including here in Canberra. The federal team, Alicia Payne, David Smith, Katy Gallagher and myself are strongly committed to boosting bulk billing rates. We'll continue to work on that challenge.
JOURNALIST: With this I guess, there's also another part of this problem is having enough health workers to fulfill the requirements here. Is this place fully staffed? Has all enough doctors to fulfill that? And I guess, are there enough doctors in Canberra to keep that momentum going?
ANDREW LEIGH: Absolutely. Partly this is about getting more doctors, but partly it's also about switching the way in which doctors are remunerated. Labor has ensured doctors that work under the bulk billing system get more money than they did under the former government. That means that this is partly about a billing switch rather than increasing the number of doctors. But we're also seeing more doctors moving to Canberra. This practice has four doctors, and it will soon open another site nearby which will aim to have six more doctors. So we’re seeing more bulk billing doctors in more places around Canberra.
JOURNALIST: Those six doctors. Do we have those six doctors, or are we currently recruiting for them?
ANDREW LEIGH: That'll be a question for the practice. But I know that many practices across Canberra are switching to being fully bulk billing. Many more doctors are going fully bulk billing within their practices.
JOURNALIST: What is the government doing to ensure that more doctors and more health workers are choosing Canberra rather than anywhere else?
ANDREW LEIGH: We've got this special incentive for the ACT. There's $10 million, which is not being put on the table in other jurisdictions but reflects the ACT's lower bulk billing rate. So that commitment has seen new fully bulk billing clinics open in Tuggeranong, the Woden Valley, and now right here in Gungahlin.
JOURNALIST: Thank you very much.
ENDS