Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Social Services) | Hansard source

I thank the member for Boothby for introducing this topic and opening the door to shine a light on the disparity between regional areas and our metropolitan cousins. I'll give credit where credit is due: the increase in the Medicare rebate was very welcome at a time when our communities are hurting across Australia. It was getting to a point where it was almost financially impossible for some people to actually go to the doctor because of the gap. Again, credit where credit is due—particularly for remote and rural Australia.

However, that's where the kudos stops. I have to say that it doesn't make it any easier to see a doctor in regional and rural Australia. Many people know that my father was a doctor in Kempsey in the seventies and eighties, and there were more doctors in Kempsey in the 1970s then there are now. It is literally impossible to get in to see a doctor in South West Rocks, Crescent Head or our smaller communities, and there are very lengthy waiting lists to get into see a doctor—when you can—who hasn't already closed their books. This problem has been compounded by Labor increasing the distribution priority areas across the state, and what we have seen is doctors go from these regional areas to more metropolitan areas. And you can't blame them. You can't blame them because this is their business. It is their core business. Yes, they care for their patients, but, if they're raising a family and things are tough, they're going to go to areas where they can see more patients and can charge more.

Before I go on, I'll go back one step to bulk billing. We will be watching very closely in our communities, because across Cowper only two per cent of doctors are currently bulk billing. With the increase in the payment, I'll be watching very closely and hoping that those doctors accept with gratitude the taxpayers' money and allow further bulk billing across the board for those who most need it. I'm happy to pay. Most people are happy to pay, but there has to be that availability to be bulk billed for the vulnerable and those less fortunate.

I'll get back to the distribution priority areas. In our last term I spent a lot of time ensuring that the DPA applied to all of Cowper because of the problems that we were facing in Crescent Head, South West Rocks and Bellingen. Unfortunately, the decision to expand the DPA has meant that now people are no longer able to see a doctor because either the books have closed or the doctors have moved.

We should also look at Labor's decision to halve the mental health sessions from 20 to 10. People struggled through COVID. We've all heard the statistics of how it's going to affect our young people and how it's affecting those who are now going to university. Mental health is high on the priority of all governments—all levels of government—so why would you halve the mental health sessions available from 20 to 10? You don't just get to 10 appointments and go, 'I'm fixed! I'm all good!' I've spoken to many psychologist, and one of them put it succinctly: you wouldn't ration your diabetes medication. You wouldn't ration medication for another ailment. Why would you ration the amount of times you can see a psychologist to get the treatment that you need? So what I'm asking Labor to do is consider the regions when they develop their policy. Consider the people who live in the country, who are the backbone and who put the food on the table for us to all eat in the future.

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