"Healthcare is a right, not a privilege — and I’ll fight to make that real in Sturt."
I’ve spent 35 years as a GP, so I’ve seen firsthand how much our healthcare system is under strain. Getting a GP appointment is harder than ever. Aged care is stretched. Mental health support is too often out of reach. I’m running because I know we can do better — and I have the experience to help fix it.
My plan for better healthcare
Primary Care
- Advocate for a full structural review of Medicare, and ensure it supports quality care over rushed consultations.
- Improve bulk billing by adjusting Medicare rebates to keep up with CPI.
- Fund GP practices to stay open longer — evenings and weekends.
- Make general practice a more attractive career by improving income parity with other specialists.
- Fight for a review of GP training places to ensure appropriate numbers of training places for GPs and to ensure GP registrars are paid the same as hospital doctors.
- Ensure medical students get sufficient placements in general practice settings, not just hospital settings.
Mental Health
- Double the number of subsidised psychology sessions from 10 to 20 per year.
- Grow the mental health workforce and fund frontline service providers.
- Advocate for a Health in All Policies approach to address the root causes of youth mental health issues — including housing stress, climate anxiety, and social media harms.
- Grow the number of mental health beds and dedicated facilities.
Aged Care
- Simplify and sufficiently fund the aged care system so families can access help when they need it.
- Push for full implementation of the Aged Care Royal Commission recommendations.
- Incentivise and enable aged care homes to take patients with complex needs, and increase aged care beds for the frail and elderly in general, to reduce hospital bottlenecks.
- Fund dental care for aged care residents.
- Support Medicare funding to Allied Health professions to provide preventive programmes to prevent falls, and to treat osteoarthritis.
NDIS
- Implement all 222 recommendations of the Disability Royal Commission.
- Modernise IT systems to prevent fraud, duplication, and service gaps among providers.
Medical research funding
- Advocate for medical research funding.
Fund Women’s Health Research
- Fund more research into women’s health issues, such as endometriosis. Women’s health conditions, their occurrence, treatment and outcomes are not necessarily reflected in medical research studies due to the underrepresentation of women in many studies.
- Support the campaign led by the Australia New Zealand Gynaecological Oncology Group (ANZGOG) calling for more investment in gynaecological cancer research, including ovarian, uterine, endometrial, cervical, vaginal and vulvar cancers.
Dental
- Fund targeted access to dental care under Medicare
- I strongly support the introduction of a Seniors Dental Benefit Scheme, similar to the existing scheme for children. Such a program would help ensure that older Australians can access the dental care they need, when they need it, without financial barriers. This is a practical, evidence-based initiative that would improve health outcomes, reduce hospital admissions, and support seniors to live healthier, more independent lives. Recent research shows that more than half of Australians over 65 have put off dental treatment in the past year due to cost, and this is having a real impact on their health and quality of life. This is not just a personal health issue—it places additional strain on our public health system and affects the wellbeing of our entire community.
Trans and gender diverse young people
-
Australia must live up to its international obligations and avoid politicisation of healthcare for trans and gender diverse young people
Everyone in Sturt should be able to get the care they need — when and where they need it. I’ve worked in the system. I know where it’s broken. And I’ll fight to fix it.