Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Tyrrell for the question and for the work she does around health care and healthcare provision in Tasmania. And Senator Tyrrell is right. The health workforce is under a huge amount of pressure in Tasmania but also around the country—in particular GPs, who are the first point of contact for many, either for getting a health check or if they have a health problem.

I know that Senator Tyrrell frequently engages with the health minister on the matters that relate to Tasmania. I'm not here to commit to a review of the Monash model, as the senator has asked me today, but we have done a range of things to invest in the health workforce since we came to government. The health workforce delivers all of the health care, so when you're looking at measures like trying to increase the bulk-billing rate and all of those things we need health professionals to be able to do that.

The health minister has been very clear about the pressures on the GP workforce, as has the college and others. It's not just a matter of incentivising. The bigger problem we've got to fix is the supply of GPs more broadly. Whilst it is a significant issue in Tasmania, there are also quite a number of other areas around the country where this is an issue too. How you can support and incentivise the primary healthcare model is something that this government is focused on. We're looking at a range of ways to do this. One of them is how we make sure that we've got more doctors coming through the system. We're also looking at scope-of-practice issues for nurse practitioners and others, but they can't do all of the work of a medical professional.

We remain committed and indeed happy to work with Senator Tyrrell on ideas to support Tasmanian health— (Time expired)