Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2025-2026
Mr BOYCE (Flynn) (11:39): You don't have to look very hard in the Flynn electorate to see evidence of the failures of the Albanese Labor government, and it's even more obvious if you focus on the health and aged-care sectors. Workforce shortages, particularly for GPs, have been ignored by the Labor government. Hospitals are struggling to attract and retain doctors or even locums to serve our hardworking people of the Flynn electorate.
Flynn constituents are the people who keep the lights on. They keep your heaters and air conditioners running, keep your phones charged and put food on your table via our large agricultural sector. They are the ones who suffer most under Labor's poor management.
Our regional areas feel the brunt of poor policy by the Labor government, and it's lack of medical services that really drives home how badly some of our residents are treated. Every time we travel to a specialist the dollars go out of our regional towns. The flow-on effect increases the impact on small businesses, with at least $1,000 removed from the local economy if families travel to a larger centre for medical services, and that's just for one day.
Those who need to wait in a bigger city—for example, for the birth of a child—can expect to spend two to three weeks and thousands of dollars all because of the lack of doctors and service specialists. These people are still dealing with Labor's cost-of-living crisis. The Flynn residents know that it's never been harder or more expensive to see a doctor than it is right now.
The coalition has pledged to fix this situation, and we recognise that it takes eight to 10 years to train a GP. This needs to include giving incentives to junior doctors who choose to be a GP in country areas. We know that becoming part of a regional community can lead to a lifetime of connections where families can thrive in a country lifestyle.
This helps to permanently fix these workforce shortages. It took the Albanese government 282 days to finally commit to matching this plan. It is another example of how Labor doesn't understand or care about rural and regional Australia.
It wouldn't be right to discuss health issues without mentioning a constituent of mine who had a fall recently, resulting in a broken lower lumbar. She was approved for domestic assistance through My Aged Care, but because she lives regionally—less than an hour from a large city near the coast—she has contacted no less than 11 providers, and not one can help her.
She is now on a waitlist, and it may be six weeks or more before she can get any assistance at all. What's the point of funding if services simply aren't available in rural and regional areas? I've also heard from constituents where their home-care-package providers simply don't show up, even for an entire month.
This treatment is unacceptable. When you're battling through an aggressive cancer or you've made it through the system to be approved for home-care assistance, you need this to make your life manageable. It gets worse than that.
It turns out that a family member who has tried to become a carer has only failed because they couldn't tick the box for being First Nations or culturally and linguistically diverse. How can we possibly penalise this carer for being a white, English-speaking Australian in an industry where we desperately need more qualified and suitable people? Another major issue in the regions is the Patient Travel Subsidy Scheme.
I understand this is a state issue, but this is to subsidise travel and accommodation costs for patients who travel over 50 kilometres to specialist health care. The subsidy of 34c per kilometre barely goes anywhere when you look at the cost of fuel. There's an accommodation allowance of $70 per person per night.
Where can you stay for $70 in a capital city? It's impossible. This is the reality of the current health system.
Returning specialist services to the regions would go a long way towards easing these additional costs for patients, and it wasn't that long ago that you could see a specialist in Gladstone, removing the need for travelling to Rockhampton or Brisbane. It is actions not words that matter, and Australians are feeling the cost of Labor's actions in their hip pockets.
While Albanese waves around his Medicare card like he was bidding for a new beachfront apartment, Australians have paid more than $2 billion in out-of-pocket costs, and that's in the past year alone. The reality for many Australians is that 25 per cent of GP clinics do not bulk-bill. The reality is that, since the election, more Australians are having to wave around their credit cards to visit the GP.