David Feeney (Batman, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Justice) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Recently I had the opportunity to meet with a young woman from my electorate named Simone Allen. Simone is a hardworking medical student at the University of Melbourne and she came to me deeply concerned about her future prospects as a medical graduate. So motivated was she by the issues concerning her that it was the first time she had come to see a politician. Simone adds her voice to the growing number of medical students and health professionals who are appalled at the recent announcement to open a new medical school in Western Australia without there being any plan for additional supporting training places. Last year 800 young doctors missed out on GP training places nationally, and the Australia's future health workforce report predicts that another 1,000 speciality training positions need to be funded and accredited to fill the training deficit Australia will experience by 2030.

Without ongoing support for additional training places, medical graduates like Simone will find it increasingly difficult to qualify and specialise, and Australia will be without an increase in the number of trained doctors available to meet the needs of the community. And what has the Abbott government done? They have cut $75 million from health workforce programs, abolished the Prevocational General Practice Placements Program and scrapped Health Workforce Australia, axing another $100 million. These measures will only worsen the training bottleneck. When these concerns were raised by doctors and medical students, the only thing the Abbott government did was make very clear that they were unwilling to listen to their advice, the Treasurer going so far as to insult the head of the AMA, Brian Owler. The government cannot continue to ignore the advice and expertise of doctors as they did with the GP tax and the $60 billion worth of cuts from health. (Time expired)