Russell Trood (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Taken independently, Senator Wong, of any decisions made within the Labor caucus—Ms Macklin standing there on her own making this decision. Not surprisingly, she found some opposition among her colleagues in the caucus about the decision. So what happened next? The interesting thing was that various senior members of the caucus came out in opposition to the decision taken by the shadow minister for education. The member for Lalor, the shadow minister for health was quoted as saying:

The only body that can determine this is federal caucus ... Currently there is not a federal Labor Party position on this matter.

As far as I know, there is still no federal Labor Party position on the matter.

This might have been an occasion where we might have expected the Leader of the Labor Party to invest himself on the matter and become involved in trying to sort out the confusion which exists between the Premier and the Labor Party caucus here in Canberra. What did he do? He certainly did invest himself in the whole matter, to the point where, rather than take what might have been a logical course of action, to assemble the caucus and try to sort out the matter and sort out the differences between Canberra and Queensland, he decided to support his shadow minister for education. In some respects, that might have been regarded as a useful and loyal thing to do, but it of course put him at odds with the Premier of Queensland, who specifically requested this kind of decision. Hence we find ourselves in this rather bizarre situation where a decision specifically sought by the Premier of Queensland is opposed today by Senator Wong—coming into the chamber and asking for a disallowance of this particular declaration. That is the reality of the decision making in relation to this situation.

The reality is that the Premier of Queensland is desperate to find some new doctors. And one can sympathise with him, because there is a need for new doctors in Queensland—indeed there are shortages across the country. This COAG decision is designed to provide the opportunity for more people to be trained in the medical schools across the country so that we can increase the number of doctors who are available to treat people—in this case, the citizens of Queensland in particular.

As Senator Wong said, the decision is to increase the cap on fee paying places from 10 per cent to 25 per cent. The expectation is that, if this opportunity is taken up, there would be an increase of around 400 new places in medicine in public universities by 2007. The decision to increase the cap may not necessarily be taken by all universities. Universities will not be forced to make that decision. They will make choices about whether they increase the cap. Some universities across the country at the moment choose not to have full fee paying students. Universities such as the ANU, the University of Western Australia, Flinders and, I understand, James Cook University do not have full fee paying students, and they may decide to continue with that policy and not to implement this decision. But if the university system were to accept this opportunity, there would be in the vicinity of 400 new places, new doctors, for the country.

Senator Wong said in her remarks that there was only one way the Howard government would ever be prepared to increase the opportunities for medical training in Australia, and that would be through full fee paying places. She seems to have neglected the fact that, during the press conference after the COAG meeting, the Prime Minister made it clear that, if there is a need for additional Commonwealth places in medicine, that would be considered at the next COAG meeting later this year. So there will be an opportunity, Senator Wong, to specifically address this question later in the year when COAG meets again—and there is a likelihood that there may be further places made available later in the year.

The important thing to note is that this decision does not represent a decline in or the removal of some of the places already existing in medicine. This means that an additional number of people will be able to train in medicine. In a couple of years from now, there will be something in the vicinity of 2,195 new Commonwealth supported places, as Senator Wong wanted, in medicine in Australian universities. That is a very considerable number. It represents precisely the policy that Senator Wong is happily advocating.

There are other aspects of this matter which I think should encourage Senator Wong. For example, there is an increase in the FEE-HELP loan limit available to students, which rises to $80,000 as a result of decisions taken by the government. So those students who choose to take this course from the full fee paying places will have an opportunity to get access to a loan scheme which will make that easier for them.

The point has been made, again by Senator Wong and by others in this debate, that people should only be allowed into medical schools—and, indeed, people should only be allowed into universities as a whole—by maintaining standards. Merit is important; I agree with that proposition. I agree and I particularly agree with it in relation to medicine. I am not the person who would look with enthusiasm upon being operated on by yet another Dr Patel in Queensland, whose particular medical talents perhaps are better suited to a knackery or an abattoir than an operating theatre.

There is no sign, there is no indication, there is nothing which suggests that this decision is going to result in a decline in the standard of people entering medical schools. There is nothing, Senator Wong.