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

Melrose—there we go. And do you know where these doctors went? They went to Marion, in Adelaide—that very disadvantaged local community! I mean, please! But that is the consequence here.

Those opposite will get up, as the member for Maribyrnong just did, and give us a fantastic dissertation about universal health care and how important it is and how this was a great Labor legacy. What the member for Maribyrnong didn't say is that, over the term of the last government, bulk-billing rates actually went down.

Now, I'm loath to mention bulk-billing rates in my contribution because almost no-one in my electorate is able to access a bulk-billed GP consultation; they're very difficult to get hold of. The reality is that the majority of people pay gaps, and, in some cases, very substantial gaps. Personally, I think it's a real flaw in this system that I could be a well-heeled individual living in a well-heeled suburb of Adelaide and could drive 15 minutes to a bulk-billing clinic, and yet I could be one of the poorest South Australians, living in a very marginalised community a long way from services otherwise, in a community like Mount Gambier where the urgent care clinic is closed, and I could have to fork out a $40, $50, $60 or $70 gap. Someone needs to explain to me the equity of that, because it doesn't feel that equitable to me.

Far be it from me to be that member of parliament who grumpily points out all the problems. I'm going to suggest a solution, and that is to undo what the Minister for Health and Aged Care did in 2022 when he stripped Mount Gambier of its special status, and, as a result, GPs left that community—a community that, as I've said previously, is the second largest in South Australia. But I'd remove Adelaide from that distribution priority area designation. A capital city shouldn't be in that category. It is unfair to ask communities like mine to effectively compete with a city of 1.4 million people. That's the first thing the minister for health could do.

The second thing the minister could do is to expedite the reopening of the urgent care clinic in Mount Gambier. As I said, it has been closed since June. There is a tender process going on, but let's get it done and get it done quickly. As an aside, I should tell you that, as to the local PHN, when they told me that they were going to allocate it to a particular individual, I warned them that I thought allocating it to an existing GP practice with limited doctor numbers would lead to challenges, and indeed that's what happened. But he could expedite the reopening of the urgent care clinic in Mount Gambier.

The final thing is this—and this is directed at everyone in this place. There are so many young people studying in regional South Australia. I'm sure the member for Grey knows some brilliant young students in his communities; I certainly know some in mine. I know how passionate they are about health and health related studies. But too many of them, even with high ATARs, are culled away from the process of studying medicine because they're subjected to subjective testing: 'interviews', the GAMSAT testing for aptitude and these things.

Having grown up in a regional community and having left it to study because the degree I wanted to pursue wasn't available in the community I grew up in, I can tell you that the strongest links are those familial and friend based relationships that draw you back to a community. The member for Grey's one example. I'd suggest to you, the member for Barker's another. Having got my degree, I was working in Adelaide. All my friends were living in the regions. At one point I simply walked into the law firm I was working in, sat down with the partner I was working for and said, 'I'm off home.' He said, 'For how long?' I said, 'Forever.' He said, 'Don't be silly. You'll be a partner in this law firm one day.' I said, 'That's not where I want to be, champ. I want to be home, with my people.' I give that example, not dissimilar to the member for Grey's experience, because young people who grow up in a regional community are much more likely to return to it after their studies.

I appreciate that we're doing our best to educate our young people in medicine and other health disciplines in regional communities, and that is admirable and we should do more of it. But the very first thing you need to do if you want more rural generalists practising in the country is to give the opportunity to country kids. Give the opportunity to more country kids. I'm not saying that every single one of them will return and become a local GP or, even better, a specialist living in and operating their practice in regional South Australia. But I'm confident you'd massively increase the chance of that taking place. I think it's something that we need to do more of. There's no paucity, can I tell you, of young people who are smart, with the right attitude and aptitude, living in regional communities, who want to do this. So it's incumbent on all of us. We can't solve this problem long term without more GPs.

I end my contribution with what I said at the beginning: cheaper medicines have bipartisan support. I don't want to end up in a situation where the only health care available in some communities is from the local pharmacist, but that is the case right now. I began by talking about that new arrival to Mount Gambier with the sick child, ringing around the four clinics and being told there was no room at the inn. Right now, the only place they could go is their pharmacy. I'm glad they can, but it's not good enough.

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