THE HON SUSSAN LEY MP

DEPUTY LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION
SHADOW MINISTER FOR INDUSTRY, SKILLS AND TRAINING
SHADOW MINISTER FOR SMALL AND FAMILY BUSINESS

SHADOW MINISTER FOR WOMEN

FEDERAL MEMBER FOR FARRER

SENATOR THE HON ANNE RUSTON

SHADOW MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE

SHADOW MINISTER FOR SPORT

MANAGER OF OPPOSITION BUSINESS IN THE SENATE

TRANSCRIPT

PRESS CONFERENCE

ADELAIDE

Monday, 23 January 2023

E&OE……………………………………

SENATOR ANNE RUSTON, SHADOW MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE:

Look, it's fantastic to be here in Adelaide today with the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Sussan Ley. We've had the opportunity this morning to visit the Gawler area and to speak to businesses up there about some of the unique challenges that they're facing. This afternoon we'll be heading up to the Adelaide Hills and tomorrow, we're heading up to Clare and the York Peninsula. It's been fantastic as the Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care to have the opportunity for Sussan to be able to meet with providers on the ground to see the unique challenges that are currently being faced by our health and aged care sectors.

Disappointingly today, we've seen the Health Minister here in Adelaide stand up again and talk about the problem. What we're asking from the government is actually some tangible solutions to address the real issue that is before us right now. And that is workforce shortages. We've had much talk. We've had very little action.

We had a Jobs Summit last September, with promises about dealing with the issues of workforce shortages in aged care, disability and healthcare. And so far, we've seen a government that seems to be very good at the headline announcements, but very poor at delivery.

So, we would welcome to see what comes out of the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce report. But so far, we've seen very little apart from talk. But it's really important that we've had Sussan here today and tomorrow for her to have the opportunity to see the unique challenges around health and aged care that we're facing here in our communities in South Australia.

SUSSAN LEY MP, DEPUTY LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION:

Thanks very much, and it's great to join you, a fellow colleague in the leadership team in Canberra. A strong female voice for the great state of South Australia. And thank you for hosting me on these important few days, particularly to look at the issues that regional South Australia faces. And of course, South Australia has relied on its manufacturing base over many years and I'm incredibly worried as the Shadow Minister for Industry, about the hundreds of millions of dollars that are on the table right now for manufacturing jobs and manufacturing industries in South Australia.

I'm incredibly worried about the hundreds of millions of dollars of manufacturing money that was promised by Industry Minister Ed Husic, he claims he has unlocked that money, which was granted by us in Government, but it's going nowhere. His comments have clearly been disingenuous. South Australians are relying on that money, on those jobs and on those innovative new industries. We've got dollars ready through our Modern Manufacturing Initiative waiting patiently for investments right here in South Australia. Investments waiting in space, in defence, in innovative plant proteins for agriculture. And that money is nowhere.

Now we've spent some time today in regional communities and Anne's outlined where we're going to go. I'm really worried about another regional community in Australia. The regional community of Alice Springs. And Peter Dutton as our leader, he was in South Australia recently too, has said to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, he will accompany him to Alice Springs to see firsthand, as Peter Dutton has seen firsthand, the issues that are causing such despair in this community. And for ordinary Australians to hear of the challenges that young children face, unable to feel safe in their own homes, that alcohol fuelled violence is causing on the streets, that people are retreating behind gated communities.

This is in Alice Springs, a beautiful northern territory town, which used to host and be part of so much that is quintessentially Australian.

I don't know why Anthony Albanese refuses to show the leadership that every Australian expects of their Prime Minister. He has abandoned Alice Springs, and the people of Alice Springs, and the desperate need that those people have for leadership from their Prime Minister. Where is he? He has simply stepped away.

And I'd just like to back in Senator Ruston on her comments on health. This government gave Australians a promise when they went to the last election to strengthen Medicare. But they've made Medicare weaker, they have made it weaker. Bulk billing has collapsed, they've taken money away from mental health supports. As Senator Ruston, a regional member of our parliament has noted frequently, their actions have taken doctors away from regional communities. And where are the urgent care clinics that they promised as they came into government? But most importantly, bulk billing is collapsing under a government that promised to make Medicare stronger but is making Medicare weaker. Happy to take questions.

JOURNALIST:

A few questions for Senator Ruston. Senator, do you support broadening the Medicare funding model to cover nurses and paramedics?

SENATOR RUSTON:

Well, obviously right now we have a real challenge before our health care workforce and the ability to make sure that that Australians who are trained in healthcare are able to operate to their full scope of practice is something that is very, very important. And one of the ways that I know that when Sussan Ley was the Minister for Health, actually introduced the Health Care Homes model, which very much looked at making sure that we looked at the broad scope of all of our medical professionals to make sure that people were able to get access to care. So of course, we're very supportive of actions that will enable Australians to be able to get easier access to primary care. Very supportive of actions that enable our preventative health to be a very, very strong part of the health solution in this country, but right now we haven’t heard anything about solutions, all we’ve heard is about the problem that is before us. We understand the problem. We've got to stop admiring it, we actually have to put some solutions in place.

JOURNALIST:

So, what should the government be prioritising in terms of the Medicare overhaul?

SENATOR RUSTON:

Well, I think the first thing that this government needs to do is it needs to demonstrate that it really is going to take a tangible response to go back to the workforce shortages that we're seeing right across the care sector. It's not just healthcare, it happened in aged care, and it's happening in disability care. So, until we address the fundamental driver of the challenges right now, and that is workforce shortages, it's going to be very, very difficult for us to address some of the other downstream issues that that we're talking about at the moment. So, I would call on the government, please tell us and the Australian people, you owe it to the Australian people, to tell them how you are intending to address workforce shortages, so that the strengthening of Medicare can actually be delivered right now. We have seen nothing.

JOURNALIST:

What sort of incentives would entice a stronger workforce?

SENATOR RUSTON:

Well, there will be no silver bullet, no one solution to this. I mean, there's obviously going to need to be a raft of different things that are put in place, but we have to listen to the people on the ground and that's why it's been so important to have Sussan here for us to get out into rural and regional Australia because they are the canary in the coal mine every time. You'll see that the kind of challenges will always show up first in our more remote communities. We've seen that with the distribution priority area changes that were brought in as one of the first measures by this government that actually has made the situation around getting access to primary care in rural and regional Australia worse than it was before.

We've also seen as the Deputy Leader has mentioned, I mean on Urgent Care Clinics they went to an election with a promise of delivering 50 Urgent Care Clinics across Australia. Today, we do not even know where one of those clinics is going to be located. And yet this government promised that they would be up and running by the middle of May this year. So, in the space of four months, they've somehow got to turn around 50 urgent care clinics.

But one of the most devastating things that we have seen done and the action that's been taken by this government in relation to making Medicare weaker was the removal of the Medicare subsidised supports for people with mental, serious and complex mental health challenges. The cutting of those sessions from being eligible for 20 to 10 which is the most vulnerable and in often many cases, young people and women in our community is reprehensible.

And so, we would be calling on the government to make sure that they make the kind of supports, that we took as a given, that Australians should be able to get access to mental health support, particularly when you're still in the middle of a crisis with COVID. We've seen natural disasters and many other challenges, including cost of living challenges impacting on Australians. Why would this government think it was a good time to remove mental health support?

So, I think we do need to look at a range of different issues, but we need to make sure that we're actually putting tangible things on the ground we can actually deliver, instead of just talking about them

JOURNALIST:

What sort of feedback have you heard from the places that you're visiting?

SENATOR RUSTON:

Well in the case of aged care, the challenge that is before them, particularly in rural and regional Australia is how are they going to get access to registered nurses to be able to meet the mandated requirements that have been legislated by this government?

Of course, every Australian wants to see older Australians being able to get access to the kind of support and care that they need in their journey of aging. But to put a requirement on an aged care facility, that is not able to be met because there simply is not workforce to do it, will only mean that aged care facilities are closed.

We already know and I've already spoken to the major care facilities. In fact, I spoke to one in Sussan's electorate a few weeks ago, that is going to have to close because they cannot get access to workforce. So, from an aged care perspective, great headline and we all support care for older Australians, but it has to be deliverable. And this clearly isn't.

So, it's been a very strong message. And in the terms of health care, rural and regional communities wanted to have some sort of support to be able to get access to doctors, particularly overseas trained doctors, which we rely very heavily on at the moment. But the changes to the distribution priority areas means that those doctors are now moving to the city and leaving our country towns without any doctors at all. They would be the two strongest messages I have received in the last eight months traveling around regional Australia.

Thank you.

ENDS