Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

It is a pleasure as always to rise to make a contribution to the debate, on this occasion, on the Higher Education Support Amendment (2022 Measures No. 1) Bill 2022. At the outset I want to commend the work that my colleague the Hon. Alan Tudge put in, in the other place, to the coalition's response to this bill. To begin with, the purpose of this bill is to give effect, broadly speaking, to two legislative changes which were introduced before the last election by the coalition government and lapsed at the dissolution of the parliament. They were the Education Legislation Amendment (2022 Measures No. 1) Bill 2022 and Higher Education Support Amendment (2021 Measures No. 1) Bill 2021.

The bill before us today gives effect to the HELP for Rural Doctors and Nurse Practitioners measure announced, as I've already said, by the coalition in the 2021-22 MYEFO. The measures contained herein provide a partial or full higher education loan program, or HELP, debt reduction for rural doctors and nurse practitioners who reside and practise in regional, rural or remote Australia. This measure was previously included in the Education Legislation Amendment (2022 Measures No. 1) Bill 2022. The bill also changes the definition of a grandfathered student to clarify grandfathering arrangements under the Job-ready Graduate package of reforms to higher education, and we've referred to them as the HELP grandfathering measures. These changes correct an unintended consequence of grandfathering provisions to ensure that honours students remain eligible for grandfathering where their course commenced before the year 2021, and the changes were previously included in the other bill I referenced earlier, the Higher Education Support Amendment (2021 Measures No. 1) Bill 2021.

With regard to some of the specific elements, I'd like to turn first to the HELP for Rural Doctors and Nurse Practitioners measure. The measure was announced by the coalition, as I've already said, in the MYEFO 2021-22. This measure was aimed to encourage the relocation or retention of eligible doctors and nurse practitioners by reducing their outstanding HELP HECS debt. The measure allowed for the waiver of indexation on outstanding HELP debts for eligible doctors and nurse practitioners while they were residing in and completing eligible work in a rural, remote or very remote area. HELP HECS debts for doctors can be up to the value of $100,000, which is no small sum. The value of the debt reduction will be guided by the location eligible doctors and nurses locate to, using the Modified Monash Model.

The Modified Monash Model depicts the remoteness of the location, with the MM1 representing a major city through to MM7 representing a very remote location. The eligible locations for this measure will be in areas for MM3 to MM7. For example, doctors and nurse practitioners who choose to work in a remote area will need to provide a minimum of 24 hours a week of MBS billed services for a period equivalent to half the duration of their degree to have their full HELP HECS debt waived. For doctors and nurse practitioners who choose to work in rural or regional areas, they'll need to provide a minimum of 24 hours a week of MBS billed services for a period equivalent to the duration of their whole degree. The measures will be backdated as per the coalition's announcement in MYEFO, and eligibility will be retrospectively applied with commencement from 1 January 2022.

The program is expected to encourage up to 850 eligible doctors or nurses to relocate to a rural, regional or remote area each year, and this bill establishes the program eligibility requirements for the target health practitioners and the nature of the work to be undertaken to achieve the benefits of the program. It also provides for secondary legislation, which is the HELP debtor guidelines for health practitioners, to articulate the specifics of eligible participants, eligible locations and eligible work, and to support the administration of the program. The legislation to enact this measure was previously included in the Education Legislation Amendment (2022 Measures No. 1) Bill 2022. It was introduced by the coalition in February of last year and lapsed at the dissolution of the parliament.

Why is there a focus on doctors and nurse practitioners? It's because individuals living in regional Australia, as we know, experience poorer health outcomes than their city counterparts, and this is attributed to less access to preventative health services, such as the services of a GP. According to the General PracticeHealth of the nation2022 report, GPs living and working in regional Australia experience greater job satisfaction than those living in urban areas. Yet there's still a chronic shortage of GPs, particularly those in country communities. With only one in seven graduates in medicine choosing the path of general practice, securing doctors in rural and remote Australia is becoming increasingly difficult.

According to Richard Colbran, the CEO of the New South Wales Rural Doctors Network, there isn't a town in rural New South Wales that isn't at risk when it comes to being able to sustain primary care in their communities. Without general practice, patients will turn to the already overstretched emergency departments and won't seek medical treatment at all, leading to poorer health outcomes.

As I've already said, this is coalition legislation, in essence. It was introduced before the last election; we, therefore, support the bill. There will be an amendment during the committee stage and I look forward to speaking to it at that point.