Australia Government touts free healthcare hotline as general election nears

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks during a Labor Party rally at Parramatta Town Hall on April 27, 2025, in Sydney, Australia.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

Australia’s Labor Government on Sunday (April 27, 2025) pledged to bolster the country’s universal healthcare system with a free medical advice line and telehealth service if it wins the May 3 General Election, in which cost-of-living pressures loom as a key issue.

Centre-left Labor traditionally sees its protection of Australia’s Medicare universal healthcare scheme as a key differentiator between it and the conservative Liberal-National opposition, which bills itself as superior on economic management and border protection. The government has sought to make Medicare a core election issue, pledging in February an extra A$8.5 billion ($5.43 billion) for the scheme, amid concerns about reduced levels of bulk billing – a payment option where doctors bill Medicare for their services so patients have no out-of-pocket expenses.

On Sunday (April 27, 2025), Health Minister Mark Butler said on Australian Broadcasting Corporation television that the new hotline would deliver 24-hour access to medical staff, “intended to cover circumstances where people need to be seen immediately.”

“When illness or injury strikes in your family, 1800MEDICARE will be there – a 24/7 health advice line and after-hours GP telehealth service backed by Medicare,” Butler added in a statement, which pegged the measure’s cost at A$204 million. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is expected to announce the policy on Sunday (April 27, 2025) in New South Wales’ capital, Sydney, Australia’s most populous city and a critical election battleground.

Peter Dutton, leader of the Liberal-National coalition and Albanese’s main political opponent, has pledged to spend A$9 billion on Medicare if his conservative side of politics wins Government on May 3. Early voting in the election, which polling shows Labor holding a slim lead over the Liberal-National coalition, began on Tuesday (April 22, 2025). The campaign has been dominated by cost-of-living relief pledges and rival plans to boost housing affordability.

($1 = 1.5642 Australian dollars)