Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2025-2026
Ms TRISH COOK (Bullwinkel) (11:44): Today I rise to speak in support of the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2025-2026, and I do so not just as the member for Bullwinkel but as somebody who has spent their entire professional life on the front line of our health services. Before I entered this place, I spent my career as a nurse and midwife. I have cared for people when they're sick and injured, I have comforted worried families and I have seen firsthand the incredible pressure on our doctors, nurses and allied health professionals.
I know what a strong, properly funded public health system looks like. Over the last decade, I saw what a decade of cuts and neglect from the opposition did to it. I saw money taken out of hospitals.
I saw dedicated GPs struggling to attract and retain the healthcare workers that they so desperately needed. When we came to government three years ago, Medicare was in the worst state of its 40-year history. That's why I'm so incredibly proud to be part of the Albanese Labor government that is turning this around.
We are not just patching up the damage; we are rebuilding our health workforce and strengthening Medicare for generations to come, and the results speak for themselves. In the last two years, more doctors joined our healthcare system than at any time in the past decade. An extra 17,000 doctors have registered to practise across Australia.
That is the strongest workforce recovery in memory. We are seeing many junior doctors training to become GPs, primarily because they can finally see a government that values and invests in primary health care. This budget builds on that momentum, with a $617 million investment to deliver even more doctors and nurses where they are most needed.
We are expanding GP training, with an extra 400 places from 2028. Crucially, we are creating powerful incentives for junior doctors to choose general practice, bridging the pay gap that they face when they leave the hospital system and also providing them with paid parental and study leave. This funding is a game changer for regional and outer urban areas like the electorate of Bullwinkel.
For too long we have struggled to get young doctors to make a life in the country, but initiatives like the Single Employer Model trials, which give medical registrars the security of a single employer while they train in rural general practices, are making that choice easier. Speaking as a nurse and midwife, I'm particularly thrilled by our government's commitment to my colleagues.
We are funding an additional 400 scholarships for nurses and midwives to extend their skills and become nurse practitioners or endorsed midwives. These highly skilled clinicians are the backbone of regional health care, and supporting them to work within their full scope of practice means better care for everyone. But we know that one of the biggest barriers for young health professionals wanting to work in regional areas is the burden of student debt.
That is why our HELP for Rural Doctors and Nurse Practitioners initiative is so crucial. This policy means that a doctor or nurse practitioner who chooses to live and work in a rural town like Beverley, Toodyay, Northam or York or in an other country or remote community could have their entire HELP debt wiped clean through this policy. But it's not just a policy; it's a powerful statement that we value our regional workforce and we will back it in.
After a decade of neglect, we are delivering doctors and nurses to regional areas and we are providing the support our system needs. We have more doctors and more bulk-billing, and we have urgent care clinics that are taking the immense pressure off emergency departments. We said we would deliver 50 in 2022; we delivered 87, and now we're committing to another 50.
When people are too sick or can't wait for a GP but it's not an emergency department issue, they have the option of going to the urgent care clinic, where they just need their Medicare card. We believe that the investment in this is not just numbers on a page; we're committed to helping people, particularly in rural areas such as those in my electorate.