Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

My part of the world is a great place to live, but one of the things we're trying to do is attract more doctors to come and live there. The township of Kerang, which I've been working very closely with, have been working very hard. They've done a great YouTube video, set to a Queen song. Instead of 'We want to break free', it's 'We want a GP'. I encourage people to watch that. It is actually really, really funny. Communities are looking at whatever way they possibly can to get more people to come and live and work in our communities.

The people in my patch don't ask for much. They want to be able to drive on a decent road. They want to be able to make a mobile phone call. They want to know there are good educational opportunities for their kids. In our patch there are 128 primary schools, and each one of them is better off with the government's reforms. But one of the things we're having difficulty doing is attracting general practitioners. The federal government has done a lot in this space. We had Minister Hunt come to visit. We had the Minister for Rural Health, Senator Bridget McKenzie, come and visit. We have worked with RWAV. We have community groups working together, and we have educational opportunities where we're going to have an end-to-end medical school where a person can train in regional Australia and have employment. We also have a district workforce shortage status—that's been a good thing.

But, even with all that, we're having difficulty attracting general practitioners. I want to highlight the lifestyle you can have. You can afford a very nice house for not a lot of money. You can go down to the Murray River and hop on a boat and ski. You have a community with great sporting facilities. You have flights direct to Melbourne. You have good opportunities for public transport, with rail to Melbourne from Kerang. It still worries me that we can't attract those people that we need. I don't think it's unreasonable that people who live in regional areas should have access to good health. It's a reasonable thing to say that, if you live in a regional area, you should be able to go to see a doctor. You might have specialist services somewhere else, but you certainly should have access to a general practitioner.

So I want to use this chamber just to put the word out to GPs that the Wimmera and the Mallee are beautiful places to live. We want your skills. We want you to go and live there. We want doctors in our patch. You will have a community that will support you. You will have a community that will let you have your time off. You will have a community that will really value what you do. If you're a doctor out there and you're thinking about a great place to go and live, consider the Wimmera and Mallee. We'd love to have you.

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