THE HON TANYA PLIBERSEK MP
MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

TELEVISION INTERVIEW

SUNRISE

MONDAY, 10 OCTOBER 2022

SUBJECTS: STRENGTHENING MEDICARE TASKFORCE; FORMER ESSENDON CEO ANDREW THORBURN.

NATALIE BARR, HOST: Thank you very much, Sam. Well, there is pressure on the Federal Government to cut the red tape slowing the accreditation of overseas trained doctors to practice in Australia. New South Wales Health Minister Brad Hazzard is calling on the Commonwealth to work with states to speed up the process in a bid to boost the health system. Hundreds of foreign doctors are forced to work in jobs like taxi driving while they wait for accreditation, which can then take up to twelve months. Joining me now are Labor's Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek and Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce. Good morning to both of you. Tanya, is the government going to consider cutting this red tape to make it easier for foreign trained doctors to practice in Australia?

TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: Look, I'm sure our Health Minister, Mark Butler, will be very happy to work with State Health Ministers, including Brad Hazzard, to deal with doctor shortages. We know that there are shortages, particularly of GPs and particularly in regional and rural areas. And that's why we've got a billion dollars to invest in strengthening Medicare. We've got a Strengthening Medicare program that will address some of these issues, including doctor shortages, making sure that people have access to the health care they need wherever they live.

BARR: Barnaby, we have a serious shortage of healthcare workers. It's not new. What do you think about this issue?

BARNABY JOYCE: Well, I acknowledge what Tanya said. I'm happy, but I'd like her to flesh out a little bit more exactly what that billion dollars in Medicare is actually going to do to put a doctor into Tenterfield, into Glen Innes. There's so many regional towns around here that just don't have a doctor. You get sick, there is no doctor. Even in some of the major centres there, they don't have the doctors that you'd get in Double Bay or in Sydney. So, if Tanya wants to tell them exactly what exactly that billion dollars does to put a doctor in Tenterfield, I think our listeners would love to know that. What exactly does it do, Tanya?

BARR: Yeah. And Tanya, this is not a new issue. This has been -

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, hang on a second -

BARR: Many, many months people have been crying out for this.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: It's not many, many months, it's many, many years. And Barnaby's talking about where are the doctors in Tenterfield? Barnaby, you were the Deputy Prime Minister for some of this time. What were you doing to put doctors in Tenterfield? We've hit the ground running to make sure that we're investing in strengthening Medicare. Your government actually cut rebates for GPs, froze them so that it became unaffordable to work as a GP. So please, I mean, come on we’ve been in government for 2 minutes and you're ignoring the -

JOYCE: Come on Tanya, you've been there for about half a -

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Nine years you've had to fix this.

JOYCE: Tanya, you've got to take responsibility for the fact that you are now the government, right?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: We are.

JOYCE: You can't keep saying oh well something.

BARR: Barnaby, how long hasn't there been a doctor in Tenterfield for?

JOYCE: You are the government and there's been periods of months where we haven't had a doctor. We've had a hospital without a doctor. In fact, if the nurse falls over and breaks her arm, we have to take her to another hospital cause there's no doctor there.

BARR: Well, hasn't Tanya got a point though? That this should have been addressed earlier, it’s been continuing?

JOYCE: The Labor Government. They're the government. They've been the government for quite a while now. They've actually got to fix things. They can't just throw up their hands, put them in the too hard basket or go back to weasel words like they're doing with these tax cuts, which is just ridiculous. Weasel words are a sign of weakness.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: We're not. That's why we're investing a billion dollars.

BARR: But on the issue Barnaby, it sounds like it's been an issue for longer than they've been in government. Isn't that the fact?

JOYCE: Yeah, it definitely needs to be fixed and I acknowledge the Australian people made a choice. But now the Labor government is the government and they can't just say for everything, "oh, well, because in the past we weren't the government, therefore it's not our responsibility". So, what exactly are you doing, like now you've got the mantle, right, you're a very senior Minister and what exactly are you going to do to put a doctor in Tenterfield? You can't just say, well, you were there before, but what are you going to do now Tanya?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, we're investing through our Strengthening Medicare Taskforce close to a billion dollars. And that includes things Barnaby like changing the areas that are considered areas of workforce shortage. So, for example, Newcastle that you cut out of that program is back in

JOYCE: That made it worse -

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Under Barnaby's Government -

JOYCE: That's amazing -

BARR: It's been a problem for -

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: In Barnaby's Government he was pretending -

JOYCE: That made it worse because what it did is it meant that the remote areas Tanya -

BARR: Okay, we're not going to get into specific details, because we're a national show.

JOYCE: That change you made from the remote areas means that now remote areas in Newcastle are on the same level and it's ridiculous. It means they're coming out of remote areas and going to Newcastle. You actually made it worse Tanya.

BARR: We're not going to get into specific details, but it sounds like it was a problem way before they came in. Labor's been dealt with it and, yes, they now have to address it. That's the headline. Let's move on. The head pastor of the Church, chaired by former Essendon CEO Andrew Thorburn, has hit back at Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, saying his public comments on the incident were unwise. Tanya, should the Premier have voiced his personal opinion so loudly?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Oh, the Premier's absolutely got a right to his opinion. And I think the important thing here is that the fellow in question has resigned from the position, that really is a matter for the football club. It seems like they're moving on. From a national perspective the government is committed to making sure that we introduce religious discrimination laws, as we said we would. I think it's kind of time to move on now.

BARR: Opposition Leader, Barnaby, Peter Dutton has renewed his calls that were made over the weekend that Thorburn should be reinstated as the CEO. And this is the crux, he says he shouldn't be discriminated against based on his beliefs. Do you agree with that Barnaby?

JOYCE: Yes, I do. And I would also say that Mr Thorburn, when he was, with his involvement with the National Australia Bank, was actually quite broad minded and supported a lot of the so-called causes and the issues that he's now being pilloried as apparently not supporting. So, I think that Mr Thorburn has been very badly treated. I think that his personal views should be separated from the overarching views of the church that he's involved with. And to say, well, this is what the church believes, and therefore this is chapter verse what you believe in, therefore we're booting you out of your job. I think that's completely and utterly unreasonable. And if we go down that path, then any person who's in a political party who has a different view, will never ever be acknowledged as having a different view. I'm in the Catholic Church, doesn't mean I believe in every tenet of the Catholic Church no, this was completely out of order, and Mr Thorburn should get his job back but the whole thing just looks like a total mess.

BARR: Okay, well look, we accept both your views this morning. We know they're different many, many weeks, and we thank you for coming on. See you next week, guys.

END