Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you to the member and fellow South Australian for that question and for her ongoing interest in health equality, particularly considered in geographical terms. As I've said to the member a number of times, we're doing all that we can to ensure that Australians living further away from our GPOs are getting good, equitable access to affordable care, particularly primary care. If you look at the results of our first investment in bulk-billing—I haven't checked for a little while, but the member knows, I think, that the biggest increase in bulk-billing rates of any electorate in this entire parliament has been in the member for Mayo's electorate or maybe the member for Clark's electorate. You're Nos 1 and 2—I can't remember who is No. 1 or who is No. 2. That is because the bulk-billing incentives paid to GPs outside of the major cities are higher than the changes we've made to doctors who are working in our major metropolitan areas.

That's the same for the bulk-billing investments that will take place on 1 November. The increases for a GP bulk-billing in rural and regional Australia are very significant outside the major cities. They're significant in our cities, but they're more significant outside our major cities. We're also doing all that we can to encourage doctors, nurse practitioners and other health professionals to move outside of the cities and practice there. We've had a range of incentives in place to encourage doctors and nurse practitioners to do that. The Minister for Education passed legislation, which is now in force, that means recent medical and nurse practitioner graduates who go and work in the country get substantial student debt relief related directly to the level of remoteness in the area that they're working in.

We know that there is more to do. The National Rural Health Alliance is a terrific organisation I meet with and I know members right across the parliament meet with very regularly. The tyranny of distance has been one that has bedevilled our healthcare system for the entire history of our nation. Technology does help that. That's providing some relief to Australians living outside our major cities, but we're also doing all that we can to support, in particular, general practices to make sure that they can really run a thriving, viable business.

Just to give you a sense of what the impact of our bulk-billing incentives will be for a GP—a full-time GP bulk-billing every single patient that comes through their door in the major cities from 1 November will earn about $400,000 a year. In an average rural community, that rises to about $457,000 a year. That's a substantial increase, and that uses the earnings calculator that is used by the College of GPs and their supervisors. I can see some GPs frowning behind you, member for Mayo, but that is using the earnings calculator used by the sector itself.

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