Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Defence Personnel) Share this | Hansard source

Across my electorate of Blair GPs are under pressure. There is a critical shortages of doctors across Ipswich, the Karana Downs region and the Somerset region. The COVID pandemic has exacerbated the issue. Patients are being turned away from GP clinics, and I've spoken to many local doctors who have told me that they are exhausted. We've had doctors come out of retirement or defer retirement during COVID. There is no reprieve, and it's come to a head and been exacerbated by this government's change to the GP workforce classification system distribution priority area from the district workforce shortage area, which has reclassified large parts of my electorate. That means foreign trained doctors are no longer available to many of our GP clinics.

I've written to the former minister about this issue, and he came out to my electorate. I've also written to the current minister about this issue, and they've said to me in correspondence that, until you get a worse health outcome in your area, you will not get it reclassified. That's simply not good enough in my electorate. The government need to change their classification system to ensure better outcomes in regional and rural areas like my electorate. On the eve of the election the government has begun a review of the GP shortages—a review, not action. Labor has announced a major shift in the classification system, if elected. I'm asking this government not to wait until we have a Labor government. Do the right thing right now: change the DPA classification system and reclassify areas of need accordingly.

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