Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health) Share this | Hansard source

ER () (): As the shadow assistant minister for regional health, I have many questions in this portfolio—more than time will allow today—and my questions are unashamedly focused on regional Australia, where we have poorer mortality and morbidity rates than metropolitan and suburban Australia. That is only going to get worse due to the political changes Labor made to the distribution priority areas. Rural doctors constantly tell me this has created a vacuum effect. It is not just a vacuum created in regional Australia with filling positions but an actual suction of those who were filling those gaps in regional Australia to peri-urban or outer suburban distribution priority areas.

My question to the minister is: who did he consult prior to making the DPA change? What was the resulting impact that he saw in the regional health workforce and the subsequent increased cost to government in helping to fill the vacuum they created with locums and agency staff and the inevitability of higher—and atrocious, I might add—morbidity and mortality rates in regional Australia as a result? Was it a targeted consultation, or did they consult with, say, the Rural Health Commissioner or peak bodies representing doctors, nurses and allied health professionals, particularly those like the Rural Doctors Association of Australia and the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine?

How can the government justify the DPA policy change when the number of international doctors moving away from rural and remote areas to regional cities or peri-urban suburbs increased by 57 per cent in the first six months of this policy change? The figures show that, in the last six months of 2022, there were 72 GP movements from rural and remote areas classified as modified Monash 3 to 7 to areas categorised as modified Monash 2, which includes the larger regional cities and peri-urban centres such as Frankston or Parramatta. This is compared to 46 movements in the same six-month period in 2021 or 40 in 2020. How does the Minister for Health and Aged Care plan to rectify this disastrous outcome for rural areas so that we receive our fair share of doctors? What is the shortfall of doctors in rural areas, and what is the minister's plan to resolve this?

The situation with the regional health workforce is so bad that in March I convened a regional health workforce summit in Mildura, where those at the coalface told their harrowing stories of the urgent need to mitigate the health workforce crisis. The DPA changes I mentioned earlier have only exacerbated the crisis. Will the minister for health ensure investment in regional training to increase the supply of doctors, nurses and allied health into the future?

The government is clearly aware of the Nationals' position on regulating vaping. Has the government modelled the human health and economic cost of its own policy versus that put forward by the Nationals?

The budget made significant changes for pharmacies, especially regional pharmacies, with a 60-day dispensing policy which drew pharmacists from my own electorate of Mallee, and beyond, here to Canberra in the last sitting to raise their distress about it. Did Minister Butler discuss the likely impacts of the 60-day dispensing policy with regional pharmacists? Indeed, who did the minister consult with, and where were they based? Did the government model the impact it would have on small businesses, given that regional pharmacists are telling me this policy could well force their closure, resulting in locals having to travel long distances to get their medications—if they can get them? Will the government enter a new agreement with regional pharmacists before the 60-day dispensing policy commences on 1 September, so that cost-of-living relief can be delivered without bankrupting community pharmacies?

Last, but certainly not least, how will the minister guarantee that aged-care residences in rural areas can remain open? What modelling has he completed to ensure the sustainability of these facilities? Noting that the government will not reach its pledged deadline on the royal commission recommendation for 24/7 registered nurses in aged care, will the government share its modelling on the impact of its approach for that policy in regional and rural Australia? (Time expired)

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