Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) Share this | Hansard source

Given the hour, I don't intend to go over all of the elements of the Health Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures No. 1) Bill 2025. I thank very much, though, senators who have made contributions about different aspects of this bill which ranges across quite a broad range of areas in the health system.

I do, however, want to make a number of remarks in relation to schedule 4, given the amendment that has been circulated by the opposition. Schedule 4 to the bill amends part VD of the Health Insurance Act 1973 to enhance elements of the Bonded Medical Program. The intention of this bill is to ensure that the consequences for participants who withdraw from the program or fail to complete their return-of-service obligations are fair, and the changes balance the personal circumstances of the bonded participant with the broader interests of the community. I need to address a number of issues which have been incorrectly asserted in the contribution made by the opposition earlier in the debate in relation to the Bonded Medical Program—in particular, the impact of this bill on that program. Senator Sharma made the contribution on behalf of the minister yesterday. I note that Senator Sharma is in the chair as we speak, but he said this:

Despite the Bonded Medical Program being designed to address the shortage of medical professionals in regional, rural and remote areas of Australia, the government's changes to distribution priority areas now allow doctors to work in major metropolitan cities and still meet their obligations under the program, further worsening doctor shortages in truly underserved areas and obviating the intent of the program.

This is not correct.

The current Bonded Medical Scheme was established by amendments made by the Morrison government in 2019, and the explanatory memorandum to that bill describes the operation of the return-of-service obligations. It says:

The statutory scheme provides a legislative basis for the Bonded Medical Program; that is, it requires participants to complete a return of service obligation (i.e. working in regional, rural and remote areas and areas of workforce shortage as defined in the Bonded Medical Program rules to be made under the Act) in return for a bonded Commonwealth supported place in a course of study in medicine at an Australian university.

The key thing in that quote is its reference to the rules to be made under the act. The rules affecting the eligible areas for the return-of-service obligations under the Bonded Medical Program have not changed since 2020. The eligible locations for the Bonded Medical Program are defined at section 10 of the rules, and there has been no change to that section of the rules since they were introduced in 2020. I wanted to get that on the record because I don't wish people who may be listening to the debate or other senators to be uncertain about the intent of the legislation that we're considering this afternoon. With that, I note the thoughtful contributions from various speakers over the course of the debate. I thank senators and commend the bill to the chamber.

Question agreed to.

Original question, as amended, agreed to.

Bill read a second time.