Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Minister for Regional Services) Share this | Hansard source

Thanks to our record funding in health year on year and as far as the eye can see for each and every state and territory, we're determined to drive real change in the way we train our medical cohort. We've invested in general practice training through the Stronger Rural Health Strategy, but there's still more to do to increase the number of doctors practising out in the regions. It's a long-term plan and it's only able to be delivered because Australia's economy is in a strong position. That allows us as the government, state governments and, indeed, medical junior trainees to make career decisions and life-changing decisions about where they're going to train, where they're going to practise, where they're going to run a business and where they're going to raise their families. Our rural medical specialist training summit was the start of replicating the transformational approach. It will help us develop the national medical workforce strategy that we're looking forward to taking to the COAG Health Council in the near future.