Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Minister for Regional Services) Share this | Hansard source

The Rural Health Commissioner, Professor Paul Worley, has been doing a great amount of work since his appointment by our government in ensuring that rural and regional Australians have access to high-quality domestically trained rural health professionals. He has been a key component of developing the rural health strategy, our $550 million commitment at last year's budget that will see over the next decade an additional 3,000 doctors and 3,000 nurses practising out in rural, regional and remote areas. We know there are key areas that you need to focus on if you're developing a rural workforce to practise out in the regions. The greatest indicator are the trainees and those people from regional communities, because they're much more likely to return. They don't see it as a negative. Additionally, we aim to actually train them out in the regions. So part of our strategy as a federal government has been focused on training places in rural, regional and remote communities. (Time expired)