Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

I'm delighted to take a question on what this government is doing to make it easier to see a doctor. I'll tell you the position we inherited from those opposite, which is that it had never been harder and never been more expensive to see a doctor than it became under their government after nine long years of cuts and neglect to Medicare.

For context, let me run through what exactly led to the decisions I've been asked about. Back in 2019, the former government ripped away the ability to recruit overseas trained doctors from 140 GP regions which for years had depended on overseas trained doctors to fill their consulting rooms. That was removed with the stroke of a pen. I can tell you that a number of MPs on this side organised discussions with patient groups and with doctors to run through what that meant to those local communities. Members in the Hunter Valley, like the new member for Hunter, the member for Patterson and the member for Shortland, as well as the candidate for Leichhardt and the senator for Far North Queensland said to me what that meant for the people of Cairns and what it meant for the Hunter Valley to have those consulting rooms hollowed out—utterly hollowed out—with the stroke of a pen by the former government.

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