Kate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to present a further 1,086 signatures on my petition calling on the Minister for Health and Ageing to grant an exemption under section 19AB of the Health Insurance Act and allow a doctor to practise at the Nailsworth surgery in my electorate. The doctor shortage which is crippling our nation’s health system is no longer confined to regional and rural Australia. It is hitting metropolitan areas, such as the one that I represent, and hitting them hard.

Surgeries such as the Nailsworth surgery in my electorate are victim to the government’s absurd policy of determining need based on postcodes, not on people. I and the people who have signed this petition call on the minister for health to recognise the health needs of people in my community, to grant an exemption and to provide some long-term solutions to help ease the doctor shortage. I have risen to speak on this matter on several previous occasions and I will continue to do so until the minister for health starts taking the health needs of Adelaide seriously.

The petition read as follows—

To the Honourable Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives Assembled in Parliament.

This petition of certain citizens of Australia draws to the attention of the House, the doctor shortage affecting our community an in particular the devastating impact it is having on the Nailsworth Surgery.

Your petitioners therefore ask the House to:

• call on the Minister for Health to grant an exemption under Section 19AB of the Health Insurance Act (1973)
• urgently consider long-term solutions to ease the pressing issue of doctor shortages in this country; and
• to fight for a quality, accessible health system for all Australians

from 1,086 citizens.