Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Health Practitioner Regulation (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2010. This bill is the final stage of what has been a long and much debated process, particularly for the professionals covered by the legislation. The bill amends the Health Insurance Act to streamline the recognition of health professions under the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme for the Health Professions. The national registration and accreditation scheme is a significant reform commenced by the coalition government. There has been strong in-principle support for a nationally consistent registration and accreditation scheme for health professions. Jurisdictional differences for registration and accreditation requirements have hampered workforce mobility and made it difficult to monitor the small number of practitioners who have been under scrutiny or facing disciplinary action in a given jurisdiction.

The guiding principles of the scheme are stated as:

• To provide for the protection of the public by ensuring that only practitioners who are suitably trained and qualified to practise in a competent and ethical manner are registered;
• To facilitate workforce mobility across Australia and reduce red tape for practitioners;
• To facilitate the provision of high quality education and training and rigorous and responsive assessment of overseas-trained practitioners;
• To have regard to the public interest in promoting access to health services; and
• To have regard to the need to enable the continuous development of a flexible, responsive and sustainable Australian health workforce and enable innovation in education and service delivery.

The process commenced with the Productivity Commission recommendations in January 2006 for a single national registration board and a single national accreditation scheme. The coalition government acted on the recommendations by reaching a COAG agreement in 2006 to establish a national registration scheme. In April 2007, COAG agreed on a single national registration and accreditation scheme to start in July 2008.

The health workforce underpins our health and hospital system. Health workforce issues are prominent in political debate and in the media. The coalition has a strong record and commitment to improving the quality of Australia’s health workforce, despite this government’s best efforts to rewrite history. The coalition government delivered nine new medical schools, including in regional areas such as at the University of Wollongong, which I was very pleased to support. There was a 50 per cent increase in medical school places between 2003 and 2007. Additional funding was provided in 2006 for some 605 additional medical school places being phased in from 2007 to 2011. The coalition government also provided 3,700 additional nursing places between 2005 and 2007. It was the coalition government that introduced funding for practice nurses through the Nursing in General Practice Initiative and later with additional MBS rebates.

Following the election of the Rudd government, the national registration and accreditation scheme stalled. The implementation has been delayed by two years and the start date is now July 2010. A key motivation for a single national scheme for registration and accreditation was to reduce bureaucratic red tape across the jurisdictions. Regretfully, it seems there has been bureaucratic influence and interference with the establishment and proposed functions of the boards.

It was only after the first Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee inquiry that a requirement was included for the ministerial council to give consideration to the potential impact of the council’s direction on the quality and safety of health care. A provision has been included for the council to first give consideration to the potential impact of its direction on the quality and safety of health care. A number of professions, including physiotherapy and psychology, have experienced delays with or expressed frustration at the process for specialisation recognition under the registration scheme. Clearly, the process has not been without difficulty and there remain some issues to be resolved before implementation in July.

The bill also provides consequential amendments to section 19 of the Health Insurance Act relating to Medicare benefit ineligibility for medical practitioners that are not authorised to render certain services under the practitioner’s registration. The coalition will not oppose the bill.