Senator DI NATALE (Victoria) (12:19): Notwithstanding the government’s modest commitment to increased training places for medical interns, at the conclusion of this training year there will be approximately 240 interns who will find themselves without access to a training place, effectively rendering their medical degrees useless. If we are prepared to make the investment in training these people, we need to ensure that we also provide them with the opportunity to obtain an medical internship to give weight to that degree. It is an important workforce measure. It is also an important measure in terms of a very critical export industry for Australia—that is, the education of overseas trained students. We should ensure that every medical student trained in an Australian university is provided with an internship at the completion of their training.
Question agreed to.
Senator DI NATALE (Victoria) (12:18): I move:
That the Senate—
(a) expresses concern over the audit of the National Medical Intern Data Management Working Group’s findings that approximately 240 Australian medical graduates will not be offered a state or territory internship position;
(b) notes that completing a medical internship is an essential process for a graduate to work as a doctor in Australia;
(c) recognises that:
(i) medical internship opportunities are necessary to keep doctors in Australia and to address shortages across rural and regional Australia, and
(ii) insufficient medical internship placements will impact on Australia’s ability to attract international students to Australian universities; and
(d) calls on the Government to expand funding to the Commonwealth Medical Initiative to guarantee an internship for all Australian medical students.