Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee [Part 2], , 0:01 to 1:02:33
The hearing begins with an inquiry into the government's strategy for medical school places and the capping of positions for Australian students.
Topics: Education, Health
Speakers: Senator Jess Walsh, Senator Malcolm Roberts, Speaker 5, Unknown Speaker, Speaker 2, Ms Dominique Lowe, Speaker 1
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>> resume and we're returning um with higher education. Um, I'm going to return the call to Senator Roberts and then I'll come back to the opposition. Senator Roberts, you have the call.
>> Thank you, Minister. Every year, thousands of qualified Australians are turned away from medicine. MES University alone has 12 to 15 eligible applicants for every place. Meanwhile, overseas trained doctors are projected to reach 38% of the workforce and supply 64% of registar growth by 2048. and the National Medical Workforce Strategy names this dependence as a risk. Why is the government capping how many Australians can study medicine while that risk keeps growing?
>> Uh thank you, Senator. Um I I [clears throat] understand that um since coming to government we've announced more than 300 new places in u medicine degrees every year uh and established eight training facilities um for um training students. I wonder if the department has has further data as well.
>> No, thank you. Thank you minister. So absolutely um before the break we talked about the the budget measures that have increased the number of um commonwealth supported places for medical students. Obviously there has also been the introduction of the demand driven medical places for first nation students that started this year all of which are looking to increase the pipeline of medical students. Um I will I'll throw to um Ms. Lo in a second but I think it's also worth knowing and I think uh Ms. Morton talked earlier about the talking to the department of health about the workforce plan. CSP is a really important part of the pipeline for doctors but obviously once they leave university there needs to be places for them to train in hospitals. A and that is why um medical places are managed carefully because we need to make sure that once they leave um university they're able to continue on their learning journey because there's usually a number of steps after that which involves working really closely with the states and territories to make sure there's places in our hospitals for these graduates. But Miss Lo, did you want to add anything else?
>> Uh thank you uh Dominique Low, assistant secretary payments and engagement branch. I can confirm the number is 358 new commencing CSPs per year. Senator,
>> we have a risk, pretty high risk of bogus degrees from overseas. Not all overseas doctors have bogus degrees. I'm not saying that at all. Some have very good degrees, but we have higher quality degrees in Australia. Australian patients deserve high standards of care. So, I think we need to do whatever we can to get more Australian doctors. The government spend $90 million speeding up entry for overseas health professionals. Yet, medical students get no placement support, including students from rural backgrounds who are about six times more likely to want to work in rural communities. Wouldn't taxpayers money be better spent supporting Australian medical students? Minister
>> uh [clears throat] Senator, so I think um you know the government is supporting um more uh local students to study um medicine by providing those Commonwealth supported um places um that I mentioned in my previous answer and that the official uh also um spoke to an additional 358 uh new commen enhancing medical commonwealth supported places each year. Uh when those plans are fully rolled out, it'll mean an extra 1,800 people studying medicine uh each year. [clears throat] Um more broadly, the government's investment in the GP workforce um has delivered a record um 2100 um doctors commencing government funded training to become a GP. Uh, and that is part of a historic billiond dollar 5-year grant agreement with the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine uh and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. Um and Senator, we're also investing 1.36 billion over five years in the rural health multidisciplinary training program to support the next generation of doctors, nurses, midwives, dentists and allied health professionals to train, live and work in rural, regional and remote Australia. Um so there is significant support there. Senator,
>> there's a long way to go. Minister, thank you. Thank you, Chair.
>> Thank you, Senator Roberts. Can I just confirm that concludes your questions for higher [clears throat] education?
Yes, it does.
>> Thank you very much. I'm coming back to the opposition. Senator,