Mr HENDERSON - 1999-08-12
The recent health ministers’ conference in Canberra was attended by all health ministers except ours. Many critical issues were addressed. One of particular importance to the Territory was strategies to get more doctors into remote areas. I ask the minister why he didn’t bother to attend. And since he was unable or unwilling to perform this duty as minister for health, why didn’t he ask the would-be health minister, Dr Richard Lim, to attend on his behalf?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker,I am pleased to get a question from the new shadow, and I hope he takes the opportunity to learn the portfolio a little better than his predecessor. I was interested when the polls were declared and the Leader of the Opposition said: ‘Yes, this is a good man and he’s going straight to the front bench’. Well, they all are! Look at what’s happened to the very important portfolio of health services. It’s gone from the top to sixth. So it shows you how importantly those opposite see health.
A point I’d like to clarify is that his senior member, at No 5, is actually responsible for the question he asked me, which concerns community health. I suppose it’s going to be a little confusing to have two members over there who carry health issues ...
Mrs HICKEY: A point of order, Mr Speaker! My colleague’s question was a simple one. The minister should answer the question. Why didn’t he go to the conference, and why didn’t he send the member for Greatorex?
Mr SPEAKER: There is no point of order, but I ask the minister to get on to the answer as quickly as possible.
Mr DUNHAM: Okay. The point is that he seems to be fudging into his next door neighbour’s portfolio area.
It is very important that we get doctors into the bush. It’s been debated in this House long and hard, and there are a variety of strategies in place to address it. The health ministers in Canberra did discuss a Western Australian proposal that has the potential for doctors to have a provider number restricted to a remote geographical area. While this is a very interesting strategy and it may have some capacity for us to use it, we believe it is not a strategy that would be well used in the Territory. We do not believe that there will be significant numbers of overseas-trained doctors lining up to go to places like Ramingining, Port Keats and Papunya. We suspect that the strategy will service towns such as Northam and Geraldton that consider themselves remote and do believe they have a shortage of doctors.
We have many, many strategies in place. This is not the only one. We would be foolhardy to rely only on this, because I do not ...
Mr TOYNE: A point of order, Mr Speaker! The question concerned his attendance at the conference in Canberra, not the current ...
Mr SPEAKER: There is no point of order. The minister does have some leeway. But I ask him to get on to the specific answer as quickly as possible.
Mr DUNHAM: There are two parts to the question, Mr Speaker. One is why wasn’t I there, and the second was that this was a particularly important initiative that was being discussed. I’ve chosen to talk about the latter first, in the hope of providing some education to the new shadow for health.
I wasn’t there because I had asked the Chief Minister if I could stay in the Territory for an important thing called a reshuffle, and he kindly allowed me to do so. In spite of that reshuffle, I am very pleased to have been given responsibility for Territory Health Services again. I believe it is an area where there is a lot to do. I believe it needs enthusiasm and energy and I hope I can offer those.
I also can assure the House that the Territory was well represented in Canberra. The chief executive officer of the department went down, as did a senior staffer from my office, and they contributed significantly to the conference, as one would expect from Territorians who go to these conferences and stand up very parochially for the interests of this place.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker,I am pleased to get a question from the new shadow, and I hope he takes the opportunity to learn the portfolio a little better than his predecessor. I was interested when the polls were declared and the Leader of the Opposition said: ‘Yes, this is a good man and he’s going straight to the front bench’. Well, they all are! Look at what’s happened to the very important portfolio of health services. It’s gone from the top to sixth. So it shows you how importantly those opposite see health.
A point I’d like to clarify is that his senior member, at No 5, is actually responsible for the question he asked me, which concerns community health. I suppose it’s going to be a little confusing to have two members over there who carry health issues ...
Mrs HICKEY: A point of order, Mr Speaker! My colleague’s question was a simple one. The minister should answer the question. Why didn’t he go to the conference, and why didn’t he send the member for Greatorex?
Mr SPEAKER: There is no point of order, but I ask the minister to get on to the answer as quickly as possible.
Mr DUNHAM: Okay. The point is that he seems to be fudging into his next door neighbour’s portfolio area.
It is very important that we get doctors into the bush. It’s been debated in this House long and hard, and there are a variety of strategies in place to address it. The health ministers in Canberra did discuss a Western Australian proposal that has the potential for doctors to have a provider number restricted to a remote geographical area. While this is a very interesting strategy and it may have some capacity for us to use it, we believe it is not a strategy that would be well used in the Territory. We do not believe that there will be significant numbers of overseas-trained doctors lining up to go to places like Ramingining, Port Keats and Papunya. We suspect that the strategy will service towns such as Northam and Geraldton that consider themselves remote and do believe they have a shortage of doctors.
We have many, many strategies in place. This is not the only one. We would be foolhardy to rely only on this, because I do not ...
Mr TOYNE: A point of order, Mr Speaker! The question concerned his attendance at the conference in Canberra, not the current ...
Mr SPEAKER: There is no point of order. The minister does have some leeway. But I ask him to get on to the specific answer as quickly as possible.
Mr DUNHAM: There are two parts to the question, Mr Speaker. One is why wasn’t I there, and the second was that this was a particularly important initiative that was being discussed. I’ve chosen to talk about the latter first, in the hope of providing some education to the new shadow for health.
I wasn’t there because I had asked the Chief Minister if I could stay in the Territory for an important thing called a reshuffle, and he kindly allowed me to do so. In spite of that reshuffle, I am very pleased to have been given responsibility for Territory Health Services again. I believe it is an area where there is a lot to do. I believe it needs enthusiasm and energy and I hope I can offer those.
I also can assure the House that the Territory was well represented in Canberra. The chief executive officer of the department went down, as did a senior staffer from my office, and they contributed significantly to the conference, as one would expect from Territorians who go to these conferences and stand up very parochially for the interests of this place.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016