Chris Trevor (Flynn, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Indigenous Health, Rural and Regional Health and Regional Services Delivery. Would the minister inform the House of what the government is doing to increase the health workforce in rural and regional areas?

Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Indigenous Health, Rural and Regional Health and Regional Service Delivery) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Flynn for his question and note that I was recently with him in Gladstone as part of our consultations on the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission report, when we had a very successful meeting with the health professionals from the Gladstone region as part of the national program of consultations which we have been undertaking. Today we will have had our 61st consultation, of which at least 20 have been in regional and rural areas, areas as diverse as Gladstone, Shepparton, Wagga, Whyalla, Bunbury, Derby, Alice Springs—and the list goes on.

Patrick Secker (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What about Murray Bridge?

Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Indigenous Health, Rural and Regional Health and Regional Service Delivery) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Barker pipes up about Murray Bridge. The member for Barker knows that the Prime Minister and I were in Murray Bridge as recently as last week in a consultation at which he was present, and I am sure he will agree that it was a very successful and positive meeting. There was a lot of support for the proposals within the Health and Hospitals Reform Commission report and recommendations and a great deal of favour for the government by the community because it was the very first time in the history of the community that a sitting Prime Minister had visited the place. That in itself is something to be remarked upon. I know the member for Barker will know about the private practice at Murray Bridge, the Bridge Clinic rural general practice, which the Prime Minister and I were privileged to attend and to discuss with the medical practitioners and the health staff within that practice their ideas about how we might improve health care for people who live in regional and rural areas.

The government has been and will continue listening carefully to what rural Australians have to say with regard to the health system and the NHHRC recommendations in particular. But I should say that it is important to acknowledge that the government has done a great deal already in addressing issues to do with rural health. There has been a 45 per cent increase in funding for rural health programs since the last full year of the previous government, 2006-07. This year’s budget delivers $200 million to help tackle the shortage of doctors and health workers in rural and remote Australia. Significantly, as part of that package—and this was commented on by the Prime Minister in Murray Bridge—we are introducing $134.4 million for incentives and reforms to encourage doctors to work in some of Australia’s most isolated and rural areas. The encouragement is based on a very, very simple principle, something I know all members will accord: the more remote you go, the greater the reward.

These reforms mean that across Australia around 500 communities will now be eligible for rural incentives for the first time and more than 2,400 rural practitioners will become eligible for grant payments to remain in rural and remote areas. The retention payments will also be heavily geared, as I said, towards remoteness—and we make no apology for it. As a result of the reforms, more than 260 doctors who practise in the most remote locations will potentially have their maximum retention incentives increased from $25,000 per year to $47,000 per year. But it is not just about money. We acknowledge there are many issues which confront the rural workforce, in particular how to retain people in location. For many, this depends on getting adequate support. As part of our rural incentive program the government will establish a locum brokerage service to link doctors willing to do rural locum work to rural doctors and provide subsidies to cover some of their costs.

These are very important initiatives. While the government are listening to the rural workforce and health professionals across Australia in relation to the recommendations of the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission report, we are actually on the job. Not only are we listening but we are doing the work that was not done by the previous government.