Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I will pause for a moment because I think this particular statistic might be sobering for those opposite. At the time that this system came in there was some coverage of there being thousands of medical practitioners—I use that as an example—unable to be registered. It was a very large figure: 7,700. Actually, what has been determined is that, because of attrition, retirement and other factors, only 500 of those doctors were seeking to be re-registered. The fact is we never ever knew any of those statistics previously because 85 different state and territory bodies in each and every different—

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