Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I take the interjection from the member for Hume, who sat there as a member of the government for 12 years. What did that government do about the proper provision of GPs to country areas across Australia? Absolutely nothing! Are you seriously suggesting that the GP distribution across rural Australia was better a year or two ago relative to what it was 12 years ago? We all know that this is a national problem requiring a national solution. Part of the solution lies in increasing the number of training places for GPs in Australian tertiary institutions, and that was the announcement made by the minister for health in Launceston at the community cabinet just recently. Part of it also goes to providing proper incentives and equitable incentives across the country to locate GPs in rural and regional areas. My commitment to the honourable member, because he properly seeks to represent his constituents in Lyne, is that the health minister and I will work with him on dealing with the challenges of proper GP delivery in his area.

See this speech in context