Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

In dealing with, in part, all of your issues, I will try to home in on the relevant points that you have made. Australia of course is experiencing a shortage of medical practitioners, with the recent audit of the regional and rural health workforce highlighting that this shortage becomes greater with increasing remoteness. We do know and understand the statistics that, as you go further into regional and remote Australia, the shortage becomes more acute. I am aware of the comments made by the RDAA in respect of the need for more GPs and agree that rural communities are at a significant disadvantage when compared to their city and outer-metropolitan counterparts.

The government are well aware that there is a national shortage of doctors, including GPs. We are also aware that the members opposite—if I could use the term ‘the Liberals’—by their own admission, failed to adequately plan for the health workforce needs of the community. Overseas trained doctors are highly sought after and a scarce resource, and they have proven to be one of the most effective means of providing medical services to outer-metropolitan and rural areas. They provide much-needed medical services to the Australian community, in particular in our rural areas, where they make up 41 per cent of the medical workforce.

I am not aware of any evidence that the current arrangements are impacting on the attractiveness of Australia as a destination for overseas trained doctors. Overseas trained doctors do play—and I know you mentioned, Senator Fielding, our reliance on attracting overseas trained doctors in your question—a valuable role in meeting the needs of our communities, particularly our rural communities. But one of the issues, of course, is the long-term planning that goes to meeting the current shortage of GPs—one of the things that the coalition did not plan for or look at in any serious way when they were in government.

The government are aware of the shortage of doctors in urban areas as well, but I note that residents of cities do have access to a range of alternative medical services that are not available to rural and remote area residents. In urban communities, there are allied health professionals. There are a range of other ways to meet health needs. We also welcome the fact that new graduate doctors will now be coming online following the increase in the number of medical student places, with the number of graduates doubling from 1,335 in 2006 to 2,887 in 2012. One of the things this government is also looking at, as you indicated in your question, Senator Fielding, is how we can increase the number of graduates so that we can bring more doctors through the system—shown by that figure of 2,887 in 2012.

In addition, there are the GP superclinics, which will bring together a range of health professionals, such as GPs, nurses, allied health professionals and some specialists. These will provide an ideal environment for GPs looking to practise in a team based environment. Through GP superclinics, this government is trying to bring allied health professionals and GPs into clinics to provide services to communities in urban areas but also in remote and regional Australia. Other features of the GP superclinics which may be attractive to GPs include the potential for both flexible working arrangements and opportunities to undertake primary health care research— (Time expired)