Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Assistant Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

One of the things the government recognises is the importance of teaching and training medical students in rural and regional areas. There are a number of provisions in the budget that address that. One of these is the $238.4 million of funding over five years that will double the Practice Incentives Program teaching payment. This will double the rate for general practices that provide teaching to medical students. That is recognition by this government of how important the job is that those general practices do. There is also a rural loading for that of 50 per cent for rural and regional areas. We have provided $52.5 million over three years for the existing general practices for infrastructure grants so that they can improve their capacity to teach those medical students. We have also provided $13.4 million over three years for an extra 500 scholarships for nursing and allied health, recognising that across the health sector in rural and regional areas it is vital that we take into account all of those professions that are providing such an important service for our rural and regional people. There is also an additional $6 billion in the budget that those opposite may or may not know about for the very important work of the Royal Flying Doctor Service to expand their essential services, to ensure they can proceed as they need to. (Time expired)