Advocacy
Our work
A unified voice for Australia’s medical colleges.
CPMC advocates for a strong and sustainable specialist workforce, high professional standards and a health system that delivers safe, high-quality specialist care for all Australians.
To shape our advocacy agenda, CPMC brings together the views of our members, comprising Australia’s 16 specialist medical colleges and representing over 80,000 specialists.
We act as a trusted adviser and influential voice to government and the health sector, advocating for policies and reforms that strengthen the specialist workforce and training, uphold professional standards and patient safety, and improve access to high-quality specialist care for all Australians.
Priorities
Our advocacy areas
Improving access and affordability
Every Australian should be able to access timely, affordable care.
Work covers:
- Access and affordability of specialist care
- Fees and informed financial consent
- Public specialist outpatient services
- Referral pathways
- Medicare and funding reform
Training the workforce where it’s needed
Every Australian should be able to access timely specialist care regardless of where they live.
Work covers:
- National specialist workforce planning
- Specialist Training Program (STP) reform
- Rural and regional training pathways
- Rural recruitment and retention
- Specialist International Medical Graduate (SIMG) pathways
Maintaining high-quality care
Every Australian deserves safe, high-quality specialist care delivered to the highest professional standards.
Work Covers:
- Professionalism and culture
- Clinical governance and patient safety
- Scope of practice
- Ethical billing and fee transparency
External Representation
We sit at the table for key health reform conversations, shaping policy and contributing solutions to improve access and affordability to high-quality specialist care.
Our current priorities include:
- national specialist workforce planning
- access and affordability of specialist care
- rural and regional workforce reform
- specialist training reform
- regulatory reform affecting specialist medicine.
Department of Health, Disability and Ageing (DHDA) representative bodies
Medical Workforce Advisory Collaboration (MWAC)
- Clinical Supervision Working Group
- Generalism Working Group
MBS Policy & Specialist Programs
- Specialist Affordability Working Group
Private Health Strategy
- Out-of-Pocket Costs ‘Transparency by Default’ Consultation Forum
- Out-of-Pocket Costs ‘Transparency by Default’ Working Group
Medical Benefits and Veterans Division
- Stakeholder Consultative Group
Health Workforce Taskforce (HWT)
- Improving/Streamlining Junior Doctor Selection and Recruitment Working Group
Medical Board of Australia (MBA)
- Specialist International Medical Graduate (SIMG) – Advisory Group
- Expert Specialist Pathway Working Group
- Medical Training Survey Consultative Forum
- Late career doctors’ Advisory Group
Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra)
- Professions Reference Group
Submissions
As the unified voice of Australia’s medical colleges, we also work to formalise agreed positions into submissions to government.
