House debates

Tuesday, 23 February 2010

Questions without Notice

Health Workforce

2:28 pm

Photo of Ms Anna BurkeMs Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. How is the government building a more sustainable health workforce and how is this an improvement on past approaches?

Photo of Nicola RoxonNicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | | Hansard source

I thank the member for Chisholm for this question. She comes from an electorate which has a very large number of health professionals and has always been interested in making sure that the workforce needs of the country are well met.

Of course, since coming to office the Rudd government has been working very busily to clean up the mess left by the previous government and the previous health minister in the workforce area. For example, we have increased the cap that the Leader of the Opposition left on GP training places by 35 per cent, to over 800 places. We have increased the number of junior doctors to experience working in general practice by 10 per cent this year. We have invested in an extra 1,000 nursing places at university. Health Workforce Australia has been established to plan for the future needs and development of the health workforce, backed up by a $1.1 billion investment in clinical training. We have introduced new incentives to rural doctors, and this week I will introduce into parliament legislation which supports the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme for 10 health professions, delivering for the first time a single system for states and territories to make sure of something that the previous government, under the Leader of the Opposition, was unable to deliver: that doctors, nurses and allied health professionals are recognised across the country, saving their resources and time and allowing them to move across the country.

Contrast our record of action in the last two years with the previous government—the good old days that the former Minister for Health and Ageing, the opposition leader, talks to. He ripped a billion dollars out of our hospitals, as we know. He capped those GP training places. The result was a nationwide workforce shortage stretching across 74 per cent of the country, affecting 60 per cent of the population.

What members—certainly on this side of the House—might not know is: as ‘closed for business’ signs were going up or GPs were telling patients their books were full and they could not be seen, what was the opposition leader’s response as the minister? Did he have a grand plan to deal with the medical workforce shortage? You would think that, after four years, he might have had some plan. But I have been able to—

Photo of Peter DuttonPeter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | | Hansard source

Where’s Kevin Rudd’s plan from 2007, Nicola?

Photo of Harry JenkinsHarry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

The member for Dickson is warned.

Photo of Nicola RoxonNicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | | Hansard source

I have been able to uncover—and the member for Dickson will particularly enjoy this—the centrepiece policy that the Leader of the Opposition introduced to deal with this growing workforce crisis. He went straight to a hole-in-one solution. You might think that that is sort of a strange description, but his solution to the workforce shortage was golf balls. Golf balls might sound like a strange thing to do, but the minister—I have this here with me—produced, in response to the workforce shortages covering 74 per cent of the country, a golf ball—a golf ball which says ‘doctor vacancy’. A great help to finding doctors for every regional town across the country that needs a doctor!

Photo of Harry JenkinsHarry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

Order! The minister has made her point.

Photo of Michael JohnsonMichael Johnson (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

Mr Johnson interjecting

Photo of Harry JenkinsHarry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

Order! The member for Ryan!

Photo of Nicola RoxonNicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | | Hansard source

Let’s encourage them to go and play golf! Obviously, when there was a shortage, encouraging them to go and play golf was going to be a good idea!

Photo of Harry JenkinsHarry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

The minister has made her point.

Photo of Nicola RoxonNicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | | Hansard source

This cost $6,000 of taxpayers’ money.

Photo of Don RandallDon Randall (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Roads and Transport) Share this | | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on a point of order: as a golfer who got 43 Stableford points last Saturday, I do not find the relevance in her using golf balls in this argument.

Photo of Harry JenkinsHarry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

Order! There is no point of order. The minister is responding to the question, and she has made the point with her prop, so that’s for that.

Photo of Nicola RoxonNicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | | Hansard source

It might be difficult to technically meet the relevance requirements of the parliament, because it is difficult to see how a golf ball—

Photo of Harry JenkinsHarry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

The minister will put the golf ball down, please.

Photo of Nicola RoxonNicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | | Hansard source

could solve the medical workforce shortages across the country.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting

Photo of Harry JenkinsHarry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

The minister is responding.

Photo of Nicola RoxonNicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | | Hansard source

But, of course, what we have seen is that the former health minister, as the Leader of the Opposition—

Photo of Michael JohnsonMichael Johnson (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

Mr Johnson interjecting

Photo of Harry JenkinsHarry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

The member for Ryan is warned.

Photo of Nicola RoxonNicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | | Hansard source

has now finally teed off with a health policy. This health policy is that there should be some local hospital boards in some hospitals in some states across the country. Obviously this is not a policy that is going to make the cut. I think that my colleagues over here might have to tell the Leader of the Opposition he will be playing minigolf with our children if this is the sort of approach that he is going to take to health policy rather than dealing with the problems that we are fixing—the problems he left us.

Government Members:

Government members interjecting

Photo of Harry JenkinsHarry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

Order! Those on my right will come to order.