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

I simply wish to indicate that the government does not support the amendment that's been circulated by the opposition. That's essentially because, as I indicated in my contribution at the end of the second reading debate, these amendments are important to make sure that the obligations placed on participants in the Bonded Medical Program and some of the programs that preceded it are fair and in the national interest—that is, aligned with the public health interest that the program overall seeks to support.

I want to particularly draw senators' attention to the consequences of the current arrangements for students who commence a medical degree but withdraw. This bill seeks to change that to make it fairer. Currently, a student must withdraw before the census date in their second year of study and, if the student withdraws after that date, they incur a debt to the Commonwealth equal to the full cost of their Commonwealth supported place up to the date of withdrawal. This bill seeks to extend the existing grace period from the HECS census date in the second year of study to the awarding of the medical degree.

I want to put on the record for senators and anyone else who may be listening to the debate the reason that the government doesn't think that is currently fair. I have with me an email that's been recently received by ministers in our government from a participant. I will name this fellow. His name is Sharath. He says he is writing in strong support of the amendment that's currently before us and is the subject of a further amendment by the opposition. He says: 'I started doing medicine in 2020 at Western Sydney University. However, I soon realised that medicine was not the career for me. I made the difficult decision to leave medicine to pursue civil engineering at the start of 2023. Unfortunately, I had accepted a spot in the Bonded Medical Program in 2020. This meant that, upon leaving medicine, I would become liable for the full Commonwealth contribution for that part of the degree I had completed and this amounted to a total of $78,000 over three years. The purpose of this program is to give students a CSP in medicine and, in return, they will practice as a doctor rurally upon graduation for a fixed number of years. Penalties are intended to make sure qualified doctors do not try to evade their obligations to work rurally. Crucially, the intention is not to penalise students who decide to leave medicine. These students, like myself, are not depriving rural areas of a qualified doctor because they will never become a qualified doctor.'

He goes on in his email to talk about this further. He says: 'This has caused me undue amounts of distress. Since February 2023, when I deferred my medicine degree, I dreaded the day that I would need to begin repaying the amount I owed. To avoid triggering repayments, I've deferred my degree ever since 2023. Of course, I knew I could not defer my degree forever. I was delaying the inevitable.'

We want this program to work well for prospective students. We want it to deliver a workforce that can work in underserved areas across our community. But we don't wish to punish people or make peoples' lives unnecessarily difficult. I think that that email sets out the scale of the challenge that is in place under the current arrangements. It is one of the reasons why the government does not support the amendments that have been circulated by the opposition and are before the chamber at this point in time.