Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I hear an interjection opposite: what if we don’t have one? This is the whole point. This is actually why we are investing millions and millions of dollars in training more GPs, because your leader, when he was the health minister, put a cap on GP training places. That is why we are investing in funding for more than 5,500 new GPs, because electorates like those of the member interjecting do not have enough GPs. He perhaps might ask the Leader of the Opposition why he neglected this issue for so long and left it for us to pick up the pieces.

Of course, those opposite might say, ‘What happens if we don’t have a GP in our electorate right now?’ That means that the constituents—the mums and dads who are worried about a child with a temperature or someone who perhaps does not drive who gets sick at night—will be able to phone up and get advice from a nurse and a GP immediately. Those opposite might be dismissive of this, but anyone who has young children knows that having someone on the end of the line to give them a bit of quick advice—to tell them that it does sound serious and they should go to hospital or that they need not worry and a bit of Panadol might work—is important. These issues are day-to-day issues for our constituents and for all Australians, and those opposite neglected these issues.

What has also been a very significant investment is another $355 million into infrastructure for GP services—more GP superclinics and of course 400 general practices that will be able to expand their own services. I thought that perhaps I might take the opportunity to ask members on the shadow frontbench, as we are progressively opening these superclinics across the country, whether they might have more guts to turn up and represent their electorates than the shadow minister for health did!

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