Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration) Share this | Hansard source

I'm very pleased to rise in support of this motion. And, through the chair, perhaps I can say to Senator Lambie: it's good to see you back, good to see you in fighting form, fighting for our veterans. So, thank you very much for raising this issue.

I've had discussions with the Australian Medical Association in Queensland, and I am very disturbed by a number of matters they've raised with me. So I hope the minister's staff, or the minister, are listening to this discussion. We've got Senate estimates next week. Please expect some probing questions in relation to some of the information that was conveyed to me by the Australian Medical Association in Queensland. Get your briefs ready. I'm going to give you some topics that you need to prepare on.

Why is it that there are preferential arrangements in terms of fees with some service providers over other service providers? And I'm not just talking about small differences; I'm talking about orders of magnitude in relation to service providers that are providing the same services. Why isn't there an equality of fees paid in relation to the provision of the same service? So, Minister, minister's staff: please do some digging; get on the department, because I'm told there are huge discrepancies in relation to what a psychiatrist in a particular organisation may charge as opposed to a psychiatrist in another organisation, based on the particular tender. So, get digging, Minister; get ready, because you're going to be asked questions about that.

You're also going to be asked questions about how it is sustainable. It is not sustainable that people who are providing specialist services, including psychiatrists, to veterans are not paid at rates that are paid in other situations. The NDIS has been spoken about, but let me talk to you about WorkCover. Let me talk to you about the difference in WorkCover. I'm advised that the psychiatrist fee for a standard assessment is $805 under the current DVA arrangements and is proposed to go up to $1,082. South Australia WorkCover lists a fee of $2,047—twice as much. A complex assessment costs $1,500 under the DVA current schedule, and this is proposed to go up to $2,800. And additional reading time, under South Australia WorkCover, is charged at $618 per hour. There is nothing from the DVA, and here we're talking about extremely complicated conditions.

The same applies in terms of WorkCover, where you get paid for each condition, not a global amount. Quite recently I met a veteran who has multiple conditions, as so many of them do. With the DVA, it doesn't matter whether you've got one condition, five conditions or 10 conditions; the multiple-condition assessment fee is the same: $754. But, under WorkCover Queensland, it's $927 for one condition; DVA, $754. For five conditions, WorkCover Queensland specialists are $4,600; DVA is $754. For 10 conditions, WorkCover Queensland specialists are $9,270; DVA proposed $754. It's the same amount whether it's one condition, five conditions or 10 conditions. How can they get in the front door with that sort of fee arrangement? It's absolutely appalling.

The last point I want to make is the way that health practitioners in this area are being treated. I've been told that specialist health practitioners in this space, who do it out of love for trying to help veterans, are sometimes treated like criminals when all they're trying to do is work their way through very complicated fees. They're getting mixed messages from the department, and then they get hit with letters that basically accuse them of fraud, and they've had a gutful. We need to do everything we can to support these specialists to continue to work for our veterans. They deserve nothing less.