Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, isn’t it the case that in the lead-up to the 2004 federal election the government was advised that Australia required an additional 19,000 enrolled and registered nurses? Isn’t it also the case that over the last three years nearly 10,000 applicants for nursing places have been turned away from our universities? Can the Prime Minister confirm that the government’s pre-election announcement just now on nursing schools will only provide a maximum of 500 additional nurses per year? Given the Prime Minister’s previous answer, where he said it was his responsibility to do something about the nursing crisis, why has the Prime Minister conspicuously failed to do so over the last three years?

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