Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Mr Acting Deputy President, and I did make an effort to indicate that it was a state matter before I made the commentary. But it is, nonetheless, in the federal Minister for Health's seat that we were given a clear understanding of the impact of the decision making and the chaotic announcements of this government on a local GP in her own town of Broken Hill. There has been a 20 per cent reduction in people seeking help from their local GP because they are so fearful of the price signal that this government has created, even as it has had to pull it back because of political pressure. The problem is that people have not been able to go ahead and seek health care when they need it.

Ms Jenny Johnson, the CEO of the Rural Doctors Association of Australia, indicates in our report—and we have quoted this in our executive summary—the complexity of the rural doctor's role:

… a rural doctor who is working in his or her general practice will also most likely be providing visiting medical officer services to the local hospital.

Her comments are very much worth having a look at, as are those of the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association, the head of the AMA and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. There is one voice decrying this government's policy making in health, and this report gives voice to those critics right across the nation.