Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Maribyrnong just spoke about a government that is focused on strengthening universal health care. I want to present a slightly different version of what's happening in a community not that far from Maribyrnong, in south-east South Australia in my home town of Mount Gambier. But, before I do, the National Health Amendment (Cheaper Medicines) Bill 2025 commendably, and with bipartisan support, reduces the cost to clients of filling prescriptions. I say 'commendably', and, of course, it has bipartisan support in this place. But those opposite spent much of the last term telling us it was a real cost-of-living saving, and it is a cost-of-living saving. It's just perhaps unfortunate that, at the same time people were being told about a saving on their prescriptions, their energy bills were doubling and tripling, not to mention their mortgages et cetera. But let's park that for a moment.

Let's talk about the community of Mount Gambier. It's in my electorate of Barker, it's South Australia's second-largest city and it's not that far from Melbourne—at least in relative terms. There are four clinics. I received a call this morning from a local journalist from the ABC, saying, 'Mr Pasin, are you aware of the circumstance where all four clinics in Mount Gambier have closed their books?' I don't know if those opposite understand what 'closing their books' in a medical clinic represents, but let me give you a real-world example. Your child's sick. You're new to our community. Thankfully, our community is strong and vibrant, and people are coming to our community. You pick up the phone and you ring clinic No. 1. The first question is, 'Are you a client of this practice?' 'No.' 'Well, we can't see you; we're full.' You pick up the phone and ring clinic No. 2. You're presented with the same question. Same response. Same outcome. Clinic No. 3.

By this stage, you're probably feeling a bit stressed. But you ultimately get to clinic No. 4, and they say 'Sorry; we've also closed our books.' And those opposite will say: 'That's fine; we've got a solution for communities like yours, Mr Pasin: urgent care clinics. We opened one of those in Mount Gambier.' And, true, you did, those opposite, to much celebration and acclaim for the relevant minister, who himself is a South Australian and who I am sure is aware of the community of Mount Gambier. But do you know what happened in June of this year? The urgent care clinic in Mount Gambier closed. It's currently closed. You can get on your device and type 'urgent care clinic Mount Gambier', and it says 'temporarily closed'. It's been temporarily closed since June. The operator that those opposite decided should run that facility fell into administration, and the administrator, after running the troubled urgent care clinic for four months—by the way, this urgent care clinic was never open for the hours that it was meant to be open—ultimately closed it. So in Mount Gambier, if you are looking to see a GP, you can't go to the four clinics. Their books are closed. You can't go to the urgent care clinic. It's literally closed. So what do you do? I don't know. When I was asked that question by an ABC journalist today, I said, 'I don't know what you do right now, but I can tell you how we've got here.' He said: 'How? Why?' I said, 'Obviously, there are issues with the urgent care clinic.'

But let me take you back to 2022. A newly crowned Labor government was elected and the Minister for Health appointed, and his very first action as federal Minister for Health—the people of Mount Gambier do want him to help, by the way—was to change the distribution priority area for GPs. Now, how is that relevant, you might say. Let me put it this way. Our nation determined over the course of this debate around GP shortages—the member for Grey has joined us, and he would know more than most. This issue is as acute—in fact, it's more acute in his electorate than in mine. When it's becoming an issue in places like Mount Gambier, it's an issue everywhere across regional South Australia. Like I said, Mount Gambier is the second-largest city in South Australia. Over the course of this debate, we have determined that certain areas in our country and, in the case of the member for Grey and in my case, in our state are in need of special assistance when it comes to attracting a GP workforce. And so we've created these special zones. They mean that foreign doctors could be encouraged to come to Australia on visas, but they would need to practise inside those zones.

As I said, the very first action for the Minister for Health in 2022 in his official capacity was to change that priority area distribution list. What he did was include Adelaide. That is in the priority list. On the day that came into effect, the office managers of two of the four clinics I mentioned earlier in my contribution rang me and said, 'Tony, we just want to tell you what the read-world impact is of the decision that's just been taken.' I said: 'Don't tell me. Doctors have tendered their resignations.' That was exactly what had occurred. Of course the only thing tying those foreign doctors to our community was the obligation that they practice in those areas. That was the point of the legislative instrument. If you make it that Mount Gambier, Millicent or any other regional town starting with 'M' that might be in the member for Grey's electorate are treated the same way as Adelaide, of course a number of the small number of GPs that we have relative to our population size are going to make that decision.

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