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

This government is bold in claiming their health policies are improving outcomes for patients, because nothing could be further from the truth, notably in regional Australia. In fact, I want to take this opportunity to call out what seems like a severe case of absenteeism on the part of the health minister. I meet with healthcare providers, peak bodies, pharmaceutical companies every week. They tell me time and again that the minister simply refuses to meet with them. What is going on? They might get a meeting with an adviser, but seldom with the minister in person. I met with one of the medical colleges recently, and they told me that, of the 16 medical colleges in Australia, Minister Butler has so far only met with one of them. In their experience that is unprecedented. What health minister worth his salt won't even sit down and listen to the key organisations who contribute to policy in his portfolio?

What exactly has this government been doing on health for the last 16 months? I can tell you one thing they have done. They have jeopardised the viability of hundreds of pharmacies right across this country, especially regional pharmacies, with the 60-day dispensing policy. One regional pharmacist has done the calculations and told me he will suffer a net loss of $141,000 this financial year, despite the minister introducing a regional pharmacy transition allowance, which actually doesn't impact those in Modified Monash 3 to 7 in many cases. While the government modelling purports a $300 million annual saving for patients, it will actually result in a collective loss of $1.4 billion for pharmacies each year.

You know what that means? It means we will see more regional pharmacies close or reduce their services because they cannot afford to pay their staff and their rent. That in turn puts more pressure on already beleaguered regional GPs and other health services. But does the government care? If their response to the advocacy of the pharmacy industry is anything to go by, then apparently not. True to form, they announced this policy without consulting the industry—shock—and have only been dragged to the negotiating table kicking and screaming after the fact.

I feel like a broken record repeating over and over again the catastrophic policies enacted under this health minister, but since they're wreaking such havoc, especially in regional areas, I'm compelled to do so. The same can be said of this government's policies on regional GP distribution. In what was nothing more than a cynical political move to appeal to metropolitan Labor voters, shockingly they expanded the priority areas to include, as we heard from the member for Lalor, MMM areas 2 and parts of 1. This has seen a 56 increased percentage of international medical graduate doctor going to urban centre clinics from regional areas where communities are crying out for them. So while the member for Lalor is shouting hallelujah, I'm saying this has been a terrible policy for regional Australians, on top of the data showing that upwards of 200 GP clinics have closed their doors over the past year. Yet the Labor government asks us to acknowledge they're making it easier for patients to see a doctor. I don't think so.

As for the urgent care clinics, where are they? They've opened nine in Victoria so far and not one of them is in my rural electorate of Mallee. My area covers over a third of the geographical space of Victoria, and there is not one. You might be okay in Melbourne, Shepparton or Ballarat, but if you're in Mildura or Horsham forget it. There's no help there. Of course if we ever do get one of their clinics in Mildura, they will just rebadge the existing primary care clinic, as they've done everywhere else. No extra services will be provided. That doesn't matter. No extra doctors will arrive. In fact, in the case of the state clinic in Mildura we haven't seen any material increase in health care services at all, because GPs and nurses have just been pulled from their current practices in to staff the new clinic. It's just a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul so that Labor can look good. But they don't, and regional people know it. There is nothing to celebrate about the performance of this government on health. Certainly not if you live in regional Australia.

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