Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Before I continue the remarks I was making when I addressed this place in the last sitting week on the appropriation bills, I take this opportunity, on behalf of my soccer-crazy electorate, to congratulate the Socceroos on their 3-1 victory against Japan this morning, and wish them luck. I am sure that we will all be watching their progress with great anticipation and excitement.

On my last opportunity to speak on the effect of the federal budget on my electorate, I made reference to a number of areas that remain of great concern to the people whom I represent. I made the point that, unfortunately, there were no measures in the budget to address those areas. I want to refer now to the area of health and the delivery of health services, which continue to be major issues for my electorate. There are three problems with regard to health. The first is the rising cost of health. The out-of-pocket costs to see a GP in my electorate have risen by almost 18 per cent since December 2005. The second issue is the great shortage of doctors, which is being strongly felt in the electorate of Calwell. The third and most pressing issue is the ongoing crisis in public dental health services that has been exacerbated intensely since the abolition of the public dental health scheme by this government. I would like to take this opportunity yet again to lament the fact that the government has not seen fit to restore this very vital public health service. Clearly, there is a serious problem in my electorate as a result of this failure.

As I said, there is a significant shortage of doctors in my electorate and the effects are widely felt. Some relevant statistics would be of interest to illustrate just how difficult it is for people to see a GP in Calwell. For every 1,700 people in my electorate, there is only one full-time GP available. The national average is 1,451 people per GP and the recommended figure is around 1,200 people per GP. As you can see, we are well above the national average.

This is not atypical of doctor shortages in other electorates. The number of GPs is dwindling as a result of the consistent underinvestment by this government in university and GP training places and the failure of this government to recognise the implications of an ageing GP workforce. I do not think there is enough talk about the ageing general practitioner workforce. More than 30 per cent of GPs are now aged over 55 years, with only a 10 per cent increase in new GPs under this government. The number of GPs aged under 35 years has also decreased by 70 per cent since the Howard government cut GP training places by some 400 per year. There is an urgent need for Australia to train more young people in medicine and, as the current workforce prepares for retirement, it is imperative to address this issue. The government does not seem to be aware of the urgency to address the issue. The Labor Party certainly has a plan to address what is a vital failure of this government in the delivery of health services.

As I also mentioned, the implications of doctor shortages are being felt in the Dianella Community Health Centre in my electorate, which I have spoken about on a number of occasions in this place. As a result of a shortage of doctors, Dianella has had to cut back its after-hours GP service, which has been at great cost to the community. I would like to make the point—and I am conscious I do not have very much time left—that Dianella did apply to the federal government for funding under its round-the-clock Medicare program and that application was rejected. In a letter that the parliamentary secretary sent to us, no reasons were cited as to why Dianella was rejected; we just simply did not make it in the top 50 candidates. If we could not make it in the top 50, with the huge shortage of doctors that we have and the huge waiting lists for dental care services, then I would like to know which areas were deemed to have been more important for welfare and service delivery than the electorate of Calwell.

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