Health Minister Mark Butler has defended the decision not to keep subsidising extra psychology sessions for patients, labelling the policy “lazy”.

Mr Butler said the decision to allow the number of subsidised sessions for psychological therapy to halve from 20 to 10 was made after a review last year deemed it ineffective.

“This is a lazy policy, this is a policy that will make wait lists longer for psychological therapy,” he told ABC radio on Friday.

“It (the review) showed that those additional 10 sessions were not going to the people who needed it most.

“They were not going to people with more complex needs.”

Mr Butler said he accepted there was a strong community need for mental health support following the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We just don’t have enough workers, which is why training more psychologists was a real focus of this budget,” he said.

“Now that won’t happen overnight.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton in his budget reply speech on Thursday said the number of subsidised sessions should be lifted back to 20.

Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley was scathing of Mr Butler for his choice of words around restoring subsidised psychological sessions.

“He (Butler) actually used the word lazy twice, I’m absolutely horrified,” she told ABC radio.

“That’s something he should go away and reflect on and seriously consider about whether he really does care about mental health as the health minister of this country.”

As the centrepiece of its cost of living package, the government on Tuesday night unveiled a $3.5b boost to incentivise GPs to bulk bill more of their patients by tripling the fee they will receive.

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– AAP

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