The Alliance has responded to the Discussion Paper published by the Select Committee on Productivity in Australia.
Our country needs rural Australia for our economic and social wealth. In fact, Australia would not be in such a great economic and social position, if it were not for rural Australia.
Yet Australians living in rural and remote areas continue to experience healthcare, disability and ageing access barriers, delayed care, increased hospitalisations, increased travel and retrieval costs, fragmented service delivery, and chronic underfunding. These all contribute to poorer health outcomes, resulting in between 12 to 16 years earlier death in rural areas compared to cities.
In this submission, the Alliance highlights that the health and wellbeing of people in rural Australia is shaped by a combination of many factors, including, but not limited to, constrained labour supply, service delivery gaps in health and aged care sectors, lower technology adoption due to lower digital infrastructure and reliability, socioeconomic disadvantage, lack of infrastructure investment and geographic remoteness and mobility barriers.
Improving health access and equity for rural Australians can be addressed through a multi-faceted approach to supporting the health system. This approach, advocated by the Alliance, addresses the many themes in the Senate Select Committee’s Discussion Paper, such as challenges in measuring productivity, productivity growth considerations across the economy, and dynamism of Australia’s labour market.
- Investing in primary care and improving workforce recruitment and retention,ensuring care can be delivered closer to home and with greater scope of practice flexibility and skills portability
- Increasing investment in education and training to bolster the workforce pipeline, enabling “grow‑your‑own” workforce solutions and rural‑based training
- Supporting localised, multidisciplinary service delivery model, such as the Alliance’s Primary care Rural Integrated Multidisciplinary Health Services (PRIM‑HS) model
- Establishing a National Rural Health Strategy to coordinate Commonwealth, state and territory funding, reduce fragmentation and duplication, and embed equity in health system planning
- Addressing the health expenditure gap between urban and rural Australia, currently equating to $8.35 billion (using the available 2023-24 data), which is an average of $1,090.47 per person per year
- Establishing baselines for access to primary health care in rural and remote areas to help measure gaps in non-market sectors to better understand overall economic performance and productivity measures
- Investing in better digital and telecommunications infrastructure, ensuring reliable and affordable connectivity to support care delivery and workforce productivity in rural Australia.
The Alliance concludes that improving health access and equity for rural Australians is not only a matter of social justice. A healthier rural population will strengthen workforce participation, reduce inefficient health expenditure, and support sustained productivity growth across the Australian economy.