Yvette D'Ath (Petrie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister update the House on how the government is addressing the challenges of the workforce shortage in the health system after years of neglect and inaction?

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I always like that fact that when a question on health and hospitals is asked in this parliament those opposite have one response, which is to laugh. Those opposite do not actually have a lot to laugh about when you reflect upon their 12 years of inaction in office. The government yesterday announced that we would be investing in more than 6,000 new doctors on the ground: 5,500 new or training general practitioners, 680 specialists and 5,400 pre-vocational general practice placements. Can I also say to those opposite that this follows on the 35 per cent increase in GP training places already in this government’s first two years in office.

Those opposite should pay some attention to the indications of support which the government has received in response to the announcement it made yesterday. Firstly, from the AMA president:

This is a very strong investment in medical training and an acknowledgement by the Government of the vital role that GPs will play in meeting the future health needs of the Australian population.

Furthermore, from the President of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners:

This is a very important investment by the government into general practice …

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The evidence is clear that more GPs will lead to better health outcomes, enhanced health prevention, better management of chronic illness and lower rates of unnecessary hospital admissions.

Furthermore, we have a statement from the Australian Medical Students Association:

Medical students around Australia, especially those set to graduate from 2012 onwards, will breathe a collective sigh of relief when hearing these announcements and will now be more optimistic and certain about the future of their training in Australia.

This is the action the government has undertaken in its first two years in office and our planned proposed action when it comes to additional GP training places and specialist training places for the future.

On the question of health workforce shortages, I draw the attention of the Leader of the Opposition to the number of warnings he received in the four years plus that he was health minister of Australia. In 2005 there was a Productivity Commission report warning him of the acute emerging shortage in the health workforce of Australia. This followed a 2003 warning by the President of the AMA, who said:

The workforce shortage is a direct consequence of restricting the number of medical students and medical provider numbers - together with the underfunding of Medicare - especially since the mid-1990s.

But these are just two warnings. If you go to the entire list of the warnings which the Leader of the Opposition received when he was health minister, it is a staggering length of warnings that he received in those four years plus that he was minister. He got seven warnings on the shortage of doctors, nine warnings on the shortage of nurses, three warnings on the shortage of specialists, four warnings on the shortage of funding, two warnings on the shortage of surgeons and three warnings on the state of the health system but, despite all of that, what is the sterling defence used by the Leader of the Opposition today as to why he did nothing? He said today when asked this question, ‘We were about to start tackling the public hospital system when we lost office.’ He had been in office for 12 years and he had been the health minister for four or five years, and the one line of defence he comes up with today of all days, fifteen years later, is, ‘We were about to start tackling the public hospital system.’

Is it any wonder that no-one in the public believes the Leader of the Opposition on health and hospitals? His record is appalling. He gouged a billion dollars out of the public hospital system, he froze GP training places and his one line of defence is, ‘I was going to do something about it on the eve of the last election.’ We are interested in what you are going to do now as well!