Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Finance (Senator Gallagher) to a question without notice asked by Senator Ruston on distribution priority areas and health.

The Albanese government's recent decision to expand the classification of a distribution priority area to include suburbs of state capital cities is more bad news for regional Australia. Regional communities from my home state of Western Australia, who were already struggling to get doctors, will now have to compete with large metropolitan areas.

The whole idea of the DPA was to identify areas experiencing lower numbers of GP services and provide unique channels and incentives for them to be able to attract GPs and be able to retain them in these areas. Three areas in Western Australia where the Labor government have now granted full or partial DPA status include Kwinana, Kalamunda and Brigadoon. For those not familiar with Perth, these suburbs are hardly even considered outer metropolitan suburbs. In fact, I live just north of one of these places, and it is hardly a regional area, and certainly not a remote area.

What is the government doing? It's just going to draw in people to work in these areas. I'm not at all disputing the fact that there would be a need for GPs and GP services in these localities across Perth and, indeed, across Australia, where the other locations are. We know that Fyshwick is listed, which is just down the road from here. Tuggeranong is another one which is just down the road—not too far at all. There might be need for GPs in these areas, but you need to come for a drive around Western Australia to some of the regional communities that are in desperate need of adequate services provided by GPs. You don't even have to go that far.

If you go out to somewhere up in the Kimberley, across to Halls Creek and Fitzroy Crossing and Kununurra. How do these places attract staff, GPs and GP services if you're providing in the capital cities the same incentives and initiatives that are designed to support those communities and regional areas? I've got no doubt that these locations may be struggling to attract and retain GPs, but it should not be at the expense of GPs leaving regional and remote areas of Western Australia, which are already battling to ensure that they're able to access sufficient health services. It's not too difficult to work out that, in general, the health status of people declines the more remote they are, the further they are from capital cities. Therefore, it's hard to imagine that the changes the government has made will strengthen the ability of Western Australians in regional and remote areas to access GP services, and how they will be improved.

What we know is—and I'm wondering if we're going to start to see a pattern here—that when the Labor Party was last in government, they started to really tinker with health services. One of the things they tinkered with a lot was the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, where we saw the delisting of medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Yet while we were in government—the whole time that I was in this place sitting on the other side—we listed an equivalent of one new medicine for every day of the last term. I don't know about you, Senator Rennick, but it is one of the great things that, as a new senator in this place, I am proud that we were able to achieve—to see that happen, to see that track record.

We know that this mob on the other side don't have the ability to manage the books. They don't have the ability to manage the affairs of this government appropriately. Australians need a government that is sensible about their needs and about the services required and are prepared to stand up and do what is necessary and not just rob Peter to pay Paul to provide the services that are required—and that's exactly what we're seeing here. We need services in the bush, and all this is doing is taking it away from them. (Time expired)