Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It was interesting to hear the member for Herbert raise issues of alcohol abuse, obesity and domestic violence associated with alcohol abuse. I just remind him that he voted to abolish the Preventative Health Agency last night in this parliament. It was an agency that actually provided education and did exactly what he was calling for.

This Health Workforce Australia (Abolition) Bill 2014 is a very short-sighted piece of legislation. It is legislation that will have an enormous impact on health workforce planning in Australia. The member for Herbert was another member of this parliament at the time health work planning was ad hoc and led to a maldistribution of the health workforce across all health disciplines in Australia. Health Workforce Australia has addressed this maldistribution. It has planned and looked to the future of the health workforce needs of this country and the health needs of our society.

Health Workforce Australia ensures that the Australian government and the state governments work together to provide the health workforce and the services that Australians. It is a fantastic advance and it is very short-sighted for this government to seek to abolish it. Planning is an ongoing process as needs change. There is not a start and a finish date. That is particularly apparent in health. You need to have health prevention, you have got to have strategies in place and you need to look at best practice for treatments. Every Australian needs to be able to access health care.

Health Workforce Australia is an independent body that works across jurisdictions. It has responsibility for the national coordination of planning and training of Australia's health workforce. It undertakes complex planning that would otherwise fall to a state or territory. Abolishing Health Workforce Australia is a very reactive approach to health workforce planning—the kind that we saw in the past. The removal of Health Workforce Australia will lead to a return to the boom-and-bust approach to the supply of doctors, nurses and midwives because the system responds in a very ad hoc fashion.

Health Workforce Australia has provided a planned expansion of its clinical training program. It funds clinical placements of health students across Australia and allows them to complete the full clinical requirements of their training. One of my bibles on health and health workforce is The Blame Game, a report on the inquiry into health funding that was brought down in 2006. The terms of reference were given to the Standing Committee on Health and Ageing by the Prime Minister, the then health minister. That report made some interesting findings in health workforce shortages before Health Workforce Australia came into existence.

Health Workforce Australia came into existence to address the maldistribution of the health workforce across Australia, a situation where some Australians could receive health care and others could not. I have referred to this quote made by Terry Clout, the then CEO of the Hunter New England Health Service, a number of times in this place. He said:

If you are in metropolitan Sydney, or if you are in New South Wales, the further you are from the Harbour Bridge, the greater the impact of the shortage of trained doctors, nurses and allied health staff …

That was brought about by the previous policies that saw restrictions put on universities and other colleges and it impacted on the workforce. I would also like to refer to this excellent document that says, 'Health workforce shortages in Australia have developed over a long period of time.' That is what the committee found at that time. In response to a perceived oversupply, a cap was placed on the number of medical school students that could be trained. Once again it was a very ad hoc approach to the provision of GPs across Australia. It identified a number of other issues in relation to shortages, but the key message that the committee received was that it was an ad hoc process; it was a reactive process; there was no long-term planning, and every move, every decision, was made in a reactive way. That was why Health Workforce Australia came into being.

I would now like to refer to another report of the health and ageing committee; this one was brought down in March 2012. It is called Lost in the labyrinth: Report on the inquiry into registration processes and support for overseas trained doctors. This, once again excellent, document highlights that in 2008 the COAG National Partnership Agreement on Hospital and Health Workforce Reform announced that it would establish Health Workforce Australia. It states that Health Workforce Australia was established:

To facilitate more effective and integrated clinical training for health professionals, provide effective and accurate information and advice to guide health workforce policy and planning, and promote, support and evaluate health workforce reform.

That is what health workforce planning is about. I am pleased that the minister is here in the chamber now so I can say to him: this is a really short-sighted decision.

Health Workforce Australia plays a vital role in the planning of the health workforce across Australia. It ensures that we do not go back to the boom-and-bust approach that we had in previous times. It ensures that all Australians, no matter where they live, can access quality health care. Whether it is doctors, hospital nurses, community nurses, physios or other allied health professionals, you need to plan so that you can train the right number of health professionals. You need to plan to ensure that the people undertaking the training are distributed across Australia so that a situation does not exist in which the further you are from Sydney Harbour Bridge in New South Wales the poorer the service that you will receive.

Health Workforce Australia manages and oversees the workforce. It has looked at increasing supply. It has improved the capacity and the productivity of the health sector. It has worked on clinical education, because in a health workforce you need to have ongoing education. It has looked at the immigration and training of overseas doctors. It is a program that looks at the system, the funding and the payment mechanism, to support new models of care and expanded roles. It has been redesigning and creating evidence based alternatives; looking at scopes of practice and developing strategies for aligning incentives around productivity and performance. That is what health workforce planning is about. That is what we need in this country. We need a situation where we have a trained workforce and a workforce that is evenly distributed across the country.

A number of projects have been put in place under Health Workforce Australia. It has implemented actions to address health workforce shortages. It has worked very closely with the Australian Medical Council. It has worked on workforce innovation and reform programs. It has worked in five main domains: health workforce reform for more effective, efficient and accessible service delivery; health workforce capacity and skills development; leadership for the sustainability of the health system; health workforce planning; health workforce policy, funding and regulation.

It really makes me sad to think about the problems that were exacerbated by poor planning and an ad hoc approach to our health system before Labor came to power in 2007. After all our struggle, after the big input, after the effort that so many people made to address the problems that existed, it really makes me sad that we are returning to those days.

I would like to reiterate that Health Workforce Australia provides a national, long-term, coordinated approach to workforce planning and reform, to ensure that our health workforce can meet the increasing demands for health services. It has a proven track record in national health workforce planning, and that is critical for all Australians. It has provided the first national, long-term projection for doctors, nurses and midwives, with the 2012 report, Health workforce 2025: doctors, nurses and midwives. I was astounded to see that this was actually the first publication of this kind and then to learn that the body that oversaw the production of this document is now going to be abolished. It shows how short sighted those on the other side of this parliament are.

Health Workforce Australia has funded 8,400 new clinical training placements for students across 22 disciplines—once again ensuring that we have in place the health workforce that Australia needs for the future. It supported a 115 per cent increase in simulated education hours in 2012 through simulated learning environment programs. That is very, very important. It is imperative that our health workforce has ongoing training.

If this bill is passed it will lead to a situation where complex planning work will not occur at a national level, and that will place a burden on the states. It will lead to a fragmented system, a system that will not benefit Australians that rely on this parliament to ensure that we have the right type of health policy in place and the right bodies established to look at the planning and the future needs of health within Australia. This is truly bad legislation. I implore the Minister for Health to rethink this, and I encourage members on the other side of this House to cross the floor and vote with the opposition. (Time expired)

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