Steve Fielding (Victoria, Family First Party) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Health and Ageing, Senator Ludwig. Given that Australia’s health system is in crisis and we have an ageing population, an obesity epidemic and a public health system buckling at the knees under increasing pressure, and that we know that doctors are under enormous stress, working intolerable hours, and that there is a doctor shortage and the federal government in its forward planning is continuing to rely on importing overseas doctors rather than training our own kids to be doctors, is it not crazy that each year we turn away more than 7,000 of our own kids from studying medicine because the government refuses to fund more medical places? And is it not crazy that the government prefers to take doctors from other countries when it knows these countries desperately need to keep their own doctors? Why is the government continuing to rely on importing overseas doctors rather than offering opportunities to Australian kids who want to become doctors?