REGIONAL Australia’s dire need for health professionals is being compounded by a broken migration system.
Medical professionals face delays of up to 135 weeks to recognise medical credentials, excessive application fees and a convoluted system.
As I raised with the now former Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs last year in my role as Deputy Chair of the Parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on Migration, our system is clunky and very slow.
I am constantly talking to doctors who are trying to come here or doctors who are trying to bring other doctors to Australia who tell me this is one of the key issues.
The system is hampered by a siloed approach where stakeholders do not communicate with each other.
In June, I challenged the Department to set up a secure portal where professionals trying to enter Australia could load all of their details such as qualifications, their skills, their visas and passports so the myriad agencies – or silos – they need approval from can access them all in the one place.
In effect, a one-stop shop, myGov-style site for professional migrants so they can get here sooner and fill our skill gaps.
I was therefore pleased to read, in response to the Kruk Review of Overseas Health Practitioner Regulatory Settings, that the Federal Government has announced a $28 million deregulation program, including making it easier for foreign health professionals to practise in Australia, through a single portal.
What a novel idea.
Streamlining the process for overseas health professionals, particularly doctors, was a key resolution of the 130 grassroots professionals from around Australia at the Regional Health Workforce Summit that I hosted in Mildura almost 12 months ago.
It is a shame that the solutions that those at the coalface and the Opposition have known and spoken about for some time is only now dawning on a distracted Albanese Labor Government.
