Tammy Tyrrell (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Hansard source

This is not my first speech. It's my first opportunity to put on record how frustrating I find this. Maybe I'm the only one who is sick to the gills of it, but we're spending an hour making speeches about how big a problem the rural GP shortage is. Couldn't we spend an hour actually doing something about it? It's hard to put into words how disconnected this all feels. The Liberals are getting up and saying that this problem is all Labor's fault. Labor is getting up and saying it's the Liberals' fault. Does it matter? This isn't about you. The big parties see every problem as the fault of the other side. Nobody ever stands up and says: 'This is our mess. This is our problem to fix.' Everybody here thinks they're cleaners sent in to tidy up after somebody else. It's painful to watch.

When regional communities lose doctors, they don't survive for long. If you're sick and you need a doctor and there isn't one where you are, you leave. You go where you need to go. And, if you need to see the doctor again, you leave again. Sooner or later, you move closer to where you need to be. That's when you leave for good. That's what we're seeing in Tasmania. It's happening in Rosebery, it's happening in Ouse and it's even happening in Dover. The song is the same across Tasmania: doctors are leaving and nobody is replacing them. Communities are crying out for help. People are flying to the mainland because that's the only way they're going to see someone quickly. What are you supposed to do if you can't afford a return airfare? What if you're too sick to get on a plane in the first place? And all we hear from the major parties is arguments over whose fault it is. The Titanic is sinking around you, and you're arguing about who's supposed to be on the lookout for icebergs.

We've got a well-intentioned policy to attract GPs to rural and regional areas, but it's obviously not working because it doesn't push GPs to work in areas where they're needed the most, and the slack is falling on local councils to pick up. Local councils are paying doctors to work in their area. They're paying to upgrade medical centres. They're offering free houses to GPs. They're paying for their office equipment, their cars, their fuel and even their phone bills. Not every council can afford to do this, and if you can't afford to compete with the larger councils, if you can't afford to offer the same benefits to GPs, you just don't get a doctor. You go without, and that's not good enough. This is not good enough. How are we supposed to pat ourselves on the back and say, 'Job done, move on,' when only wealthy communities can afford a GP? There's a word for that, and it's failure. It's a failure of everyone here, on every side of the debate—major party, minor party and independent. Until it's fixed for everyone, it's at the feet of everyone to fix it.

I want to start fixing it. I'm open to how we do it. Maybe we can offer full scholarships to young people in areas that need GPs the most, so long as they commit to returning home when they graduate with a medical degree. Maybe we can let pharmacists do more in high-need areas to take some of the burden off existing GPs. Maybe the way we classify the needs of communities has to change. In rural Tassie, about four in five doctors have been trained overseas. When we try to attract new doctors, we're competing with the rest of the world. Maybe the federal government needs to get into our corner and help us win the race for the talent.

If you've got ideas, if you want to work with me, my door is open. We can do it quietly—you can even take the credit. I don't care. Senator Lambie doesn't care. Just work with us. My office might be on the other side of the building, but it's not impossible to find. Knock on my door; I'll open it. I want to have a chat.