Santo Santoro (Queensland, Liberal Party, Minister for Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Scullion for his question, knowing that he has a very special interest in matters that affect rural and regional residents, particularly in the area of health care. The Howard government has invested money to make the health system certainly a better one than it was when we took over from the Labor Party, and rural and regional Australians have benefited tremendously from the policies implemented by the Howard government.

The Minister for Health and Ageing announced last month that the number of qualified doctors and nurses has significantly increased during the years as a result of Commonwealth government initiatives. Since Strengthening Medicare began, approximately 750 practices have begun to employ nurses. There are 480 additional students in university medical schools, an extra 189 doctors are GP registrars, there are 549 more overseas trained doctors practising in Australia, there are 1,860 more temporary resident doctors who have accessed the new four-year visa, and bulk-billing rates in rural and remote areas have increased by 15.8 percentage points to 68.6 per cent.