Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Minister, what are the government’s plans to boost the health workforce and tackle the doctor shortage, and how does this differ from past approaches?

Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Page for this question, because she has actually been campaigning for a very long time on health issues in her electorate, and I know that since the plan was announced 10 days ago she has been on radio and meeting with her doctors and nurses and at her local hospital, where there has been a keen interest in how this package will deliver benefits for regional communities, including regional hospitals. But, to add to those benefits, today the announcement that the Prime Minister has already mentioned is delivering significant changes through our health workforce into the future: more GP training places for all those communities across the country who cannot provide access to a GP for ordinary working families who just want to get some assistance and are forced to turn up at emergency departments across the country because they cannot access their GP. This is going to help ease that problem by doubling the number of GP training places. But, importantly, in rural and regional Australia—where it is actually those very same GPs who are working in our country hospitals—it will provide assistance to have more of those people available to service those very rural and regional hospitals.

Importantly, we are also doubling the number of places the Commonwealth supports for medical specialists, and we have unapologetically said that those places will go where there are shortages in a particular specialty, like obstetrics and gynaecology, pathology or general surgery, and where there are shortages in particular regions. We have had very supportive comments from the colleges to indicate that they are very keen to work with us on these sorts of initiatives. We are also increasing the number of training places for junior doctors to make sure that they are getting experience not just in hospital clinical settings but also in general practice.

This could not be a stronger contrast to the past. Of course the Leader of the Opposition was the health minister for many years. He did not tackle these problems; in fact he kept a cap on GP training places.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

But there is something that was similar. I do not think this is what they are interjecting about, but I did realise there was a similarity in the number. The 6,000 number is something that is common, and the choice is: would you like 6,000 doctors or 6,000 golf balls? That is the choice between our side of the House and yours. Our answer is: actually tackle the shortage of doctors; do not just print some paraphernalia that does not help solve the problem. This package is us providing funding to support more than 6,000 GPs and specialists and more than another 5,000 places in training for doctor places.

The Leader of the Opposition can say this is trivialising it, but what it highlights is the stark contrast between us and them. When presented with the very same problem, our answer is to do something about it; their answer is to pretend that this can be solved on the golf course. That is not how it can be solved, and we are taking real action to make a real difference. It is already underway. A hundred and seventy-five extra doctors are working in communities across the country because we have already invested. We have announced today that we are investing even more, and we will compare our record with theirs any day he chooses.