CALARE MP John Cobb believes the announcement of a rural medical school to be built in Western Australia can only be good news for Charles Sturt University's bid to launch its own training facility.
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Prime Minister Tony Abbott flew to Western Australia over the weekend to announce the government would invest $20 million a year in the Curtin Medical School to be built in Midland, about 20 kilometres north-west of Perth.
He said it would ease doctor shortages in the west and reduce the number of overseas-trained doctors practising in Western Australia.
Mr Cobb yesterday welcomed the announcement, saying it proved there was merit in the rural medical school model.
CSU launched its $90 million plan to establish a rural medical school back in 2010 and last year linked with Victoria's La Trobe University to form the Murray Darling Partnership.
While last week's federal budget again included no funding for the partnership, Mr Cobb said he would keep pushing the issue with Health Minister Sussan Ley.
"I know Sussan pretty well and when it comes to regional matters, she is pretty switched on," he said.
"[The Curtin announcement] must be good news for CSU and La Trobe because it shows [the government] have accepted the case we have been pushing all along because they've announced the Western Australia medical school for the same reasons we have been backing a medical school here.
"Given that we probably started the idea, one would have to think that we'll be next cab off the rank [for federal funding]."
CSU vice-chancellor Professor Andrew Vann, in a joint statement with La Trobe's Professor John Dewar, yesterday said the Curtin announcement should clear the way for funding of the Murray Darling Partnership.
"The [CSU] proposal has been delayed by successive governments on the grounds of budgetary pressures and growing clinical training capacity," Professor Vann said.
"The announcement of a new medical school in Perth should give rural and regional communities around Australia confidence that the government no longer sees these things as barriers.
"If a new local medical school in Perth is the right answer to addressing doctor shortages in Western Australia, then a local rural medical school is surely the right answer for rural and regional communities."
