Fed: Rural areas pay more due to professional regulations

AAP General News (Australia)
12-26-2000
Fed: Rural areas pay more due to professional regulations

CANBERRA, Dec 26 AAP - Rural Australians are paying more for fewer services because
of the regulation of professionals, a new report has found.

The report found GP services in regional areas were being limited because of professional
regulations which restricted the number of available doctors.

It also described the federal government's approach to deregulating the number of GP
positions available as simple minded.

The report, compiled by consultants ACIL for the Rural Industry Research and Development
Corporation, found regulations across a range of professions added thousands of dollars
in extra costs to regional areas.

It also found in many cases the regulations restricted supply, even in fields where
there would be a small number of practitioners.

"There is very little to indicate that much of this regulation is in either the general
community's or regional Australia's best interests," the report stated.

"In remote locations, where many services would in any case be relatively more costly
or more scarce, professional regulation is likely to be making a bad situation worse.

"For agriculture as a sector, professional regulation will tend to raise costs and
deny opportunities, both directly and indirectly by making life more expensive, or less
convenient."

The report found professional regulation was the greatest problem in the number of GPs.

It said an artificial, regulation-driven shortage of GPs was most keenly felt in regional
areas, despite the efforts of the government to boost doctor numbers.

Pressure from doctors to limit competition, and government efforts to reduce demand
on the health budget, were tied to professional regulation in reducing GP services in
rural areas.

It described the GP subsidy program for rural and remote areas, announced in this year's
budget, as a step in the right direction but ultimately "a drop in the ocean".

"The acute regional shortage of GPs has been partly the fault of the commonwealth's
simple-minded approach to budget management," the report said.

The report also found state, rather than commonwealth, regulations were a major problem.

In the NSW central west city of Dubbo there were just 20 licensed taxi cabs, or 5.5
per 10,000 population, while the rest of the state enjoyed eight or nine cabs per 10,000
people.

AAP sw/mg

KEYWORD: PROFESSIONS

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