Rebecca White (Lyons, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Women) Share this | Hansard source

I'm very pleased to be able to speak to the matter of public importance brought on today by the honourable member, as somebody who lives in and represents a regional electorate in my home state of Tasmania. I grew up on a farm, milking cows and feeding pigs and feeding cattle. My family still have that farm. I'm very proud to come from a community called Nugent, where our primary source of income is agriculture. I understand how important it is to stand up for regional parts of our country, because that is the whole reason I put my hand up for politics in the first place. It's the reason that I'm here trying to make a difference, and it's the reason why so many of my colleagues are here, too. We represent more regional seats in this place than any other political party, and we are proud to be able to make that contribution on behalf of our communities. This budget does deliver for them.

We have seen significant investments that improve the lives of people right across our country, including in regional parts of our country. Whether it is looking at what we're doing in health—I'm very proud, in my own home state of Tasmania, to see the increase in bulk-billing rates. That is changing the lives of people who are living in our regions as well as in our cities. In my own electorate of Lyons, prior to the changes that came into effect last year, there were just six bulk-billing practices. We now have 18, and all of those 18 bulk-billing practices are in regional parts of Tasmania. That means that people in my own town, in my own home community, are finally able to go and see a bulk-billing GP and have their healthcare needs met without any out-of-pocket expenses. We have invested in Medicare urgent care clinics right across the country. There will soon be 137 of these delivering urgent and free health care for people, no matter where they live. These are making a profound difference to the lives of people living in regional parts of the country.

One of the challenges I note the member raised is about workforce. There's no doubt there can be challenges in supplying the workforce that we need to support the delivery of health care and other essential services right across the country, particularly in regional parts of our country. Our government has made a concerted effort to invest in additional supports, particularly in health, to ensure we can build that workforce, but it does take time. There's a number of investments that we've made to attract healthcare professionals to our regions.

We are also investing in GP training. In my own home state of Tasmania, we now have end-to-end training of medical professionals in Launceston, Burnie and Hobart. This has also seen an increase in the number of places. What this means—and you would know this as well as I—is that, when you can train young people in their own communities, they are more likely to stay there and work there. These are going to be the doctors of tomorrow, working in our regional communities, and that will help more Australians access the health care that they need. We have a goal of training 2,000 GPs each year by 2028. This year, the government funded 1,600 places, and we expect more than 1,750 places to be filled, which is the largest cohort ever. This includes more GP and rural generalist training through the Remote Vocational Training Scheme, which supports training in rural, remote and hard-to-fill locations. We've also waived HECS debts for doctors and nurses that work in our regions for five years, to attract them to the areas outside our big cities.

We are using incentives to try to address the workforce challenges that do exist across some of our tougher-to-staff places, including in our regions. We've provided more than $600 million to grow our health workforce, supporting hundreds more GP and rural generalist training places, as well as 100 Commonwealth supported places for medical students a year from this year and hundreds of scholarships for nurses and midwives. There are more incentives now than ever before for doctors and nurses to work in our regions, building on the hundreds of places that we've already delivered.

The other pathway for young people in particular is through vocational education and training. Our government has invested in free TAFE, and we have made that permanent. That provides opportunities for young people living in regional parts of your electorate, my electorate and electorates right around the country to be able to pursue their dreams and get a qualification that helps them remain in their local community, contributing to their families and to our economy.

We are investing in study hubs in regional parts of Australia to support young people who want to pursue a university qualification. In my electorate of Lyons, in St Helens and in Sorell—which are in the northern and southern parts of my electorate—our government has funded study hubs. I've met with the young people who are studying in these locations, and they've told me that, because they can do this in their local community and not travel two hours or more to go into the university, it's actually given them an opportunity to pursue a tertiary qualification. We are doing what we can to invest in our regional communities for our young people to provide them the education and training pathways to build our regional workforce, so we can deliver those services that support Australians who live outside the cities.

We have been investing in housing. I'm sure your community is just like mine. When you go and have conversations with people about some of the challenges—about young people being able to enter the housing market but also the challenges attracting workers to our regional communities—housing is often a key barrier. We are investing in increasing supply. The minister just spoke in question time about some of the new investments that are contained within this budget. Across the course of our government, there's been a $47 billion commitment to housing for Australians. We are making the tax system fairer, and that will help 75,000 young people put a key in the door of their own home. That is going to transform the lives of Australians not only in our cities but in our regional and rural communities too.

The honourable member spoke about some of the challenges that we see not only in her electorate but also in other parts of regional and rural Australia and mentioned, of course, the fuel supply challenges we're seeing because of the global insecurity caused by the war in the Middle East. Our government has responded swiftly. We've obviously halved the excise, and that is delivering some relief at the bowser for people who rely on a car to get around, which is very true for people who live outside the cities, where public transport may not be reliable or may not be available at all. That's also why we're doing what we can to bolster our fuel security for the future. We delivered a $10 billion Australian fuel security and resilience package to safeguard our nation's energy sovereignty because we can't just have a response for the here and the now; we have to be thinking about the medium-to-long term as well. This is a package will secure the fuel and the fertiliser supplies that Australia needs.

I understand as well as anybody else who grew up in the country how vital it is to have those critical inputs available when you need them. If we don't have fertiliser, we can't grow the food that every person here and across the country eats every single day. That's why the honourable member for Franklin, the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, has worked so hard to secure those fertiliser supplies to continue to come into our country. It's also why our government has invested in these initiatives as part of this budget—because we understand how vital our farmers are for our country's prosperity, for the strength and the fabric of our community and for the health of our nation. It's not lost on me that we have a responsibility when we come to this place, as representatives of regional electorates, to make the case on their behalf, which is what we've been doing.

In addition to the initiatives across those areas I've just described I do want to touch on some other the points. I know the honourable member has an interest in aged care. This is a budget that has continued to add to the investment our government made in the last budget and that we saw through the changes to the Aged Care Act. This budget adds an additional $3.7 billion to strengthen Australia's aged care system. This will mean that more than 500,000 older Australians in regional, rural and remote areas who can currently access aged care services are supported by more than $2 billion in annual government investment. This is so important, because I know that, in my own community, there are lots of people who want to remain in their home community. They don't want to move to the city to access these services. They need to stay close to their families, and, for their own health and wellbeing, they want to stay in their local communities as they age. This budget includes measures to support the construction of up to 5,000 new aged care beds each year. This will also help more older Australians stay in their local communities, including regional communities.

These reforms are designed to support regional providers, who face higher operating costs and care for some of our country's most financially vulnerable older Australians. This budget has kept regional Australia in mind as we have worked to deliver a fair outcome for all Australians, no matter where they live. I want to assure the House that, on this side of the parliament, every day when we're having conversations with ministers and in our community, our ambition is to make sure we deliver equity and opportunity for Australians, no matter where they live.

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