Mr CIOBO (10:44 PM) —At this time of the evening, many Australians are winding down and their work pressures are being taken away from them. I was sitting recently in the member for Barker's office discussing with him, the member for Dickson and the member for Fisher the need for the Gold Coast to have a medical school. I am delighted to see that the Minister for Ageing is in the chamber this evening, who as the member for Menzies also represents the Minister for Health, the minister of whose portfolio medical schools are a central component. I have had a number of discussions over the past seven or eight months with the Vice-Chancellor of Griffith University, Glynn Davis, and the Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Griffith University's Gold Coast campus, Max Standage. I have gone out of my way to have a number of meetings with the business advisory board of Griffith University, as part of their quest to increase the number of tertiary places available to Griffith University but also as part of the campaign to try to snare, in the future, a medical school for the Gold Coast.

It is an issue that is very popular in the electorate. It is an issue that was resoundingly hammered home to me throughout the campaign. Gold Coast City is Australia's sixth-largest city and Australia's fastest growing city. It is a city with unique challenges and unique needs. In particular, the proposal to develop a medical school is one that all Gold Coasters feel is long overdue and certainly very well deserved. Griffith University, as the key university and the key regional university on the Gold Coast, has been pursuing the issue of a medical school for our local community for many years. I am aware that centres such as Newcastle, Canberra and Wollongong—centres much smaller than the Gold Coast—have medical schools, but the Gold Coast does not. It is part of the perception that the Gold Coast has to battle against. It is a perception that I have been keen to break down in the months—nearly a year now—that I have been in this chamber.

I have had the opportunity to have a number of discussions with the minister for health and the minister for education about the proposal to develop a Gold Coast medical school. I certainly believe the case is very solid. As I said, the Gold Coast, with its booming population, has a unique set of criteria that is now falling into place to justify very strongly the development of a medical school. Most recently, we had the release of the census data, which highlighted that, unlike virtually every other place in this country, the Gold Coast population is getting younger. Unlike virtually every other city and rural town in Australia, the Gold Coast population is also growing incredibly fast. In an average year, we have an additional 5,000 to 10,000 people moving into Gold Coast City. It is a unique challenge; it is a challenge that I believe has to be met. One way of meeting the growing demand that comes from having a population that, contrary to the rest of the country, is getting younger is through the implementation of something such as a Gold Coast medical school.

Too many students from the Gold Coast have had to make the decision to travel to or live in Brisbane to undertake their medical studies. Very few of them make the transition back to the Gold Coast. The development of a Gold Coast medical school would mean that those students could then stay on the Gold Coast and benefit the local Gold Coast community. In addition, education represents for the Gold Coast a tremendous industry that we can continue to develop. Export of education is most certainly an industry of the future and is most certainly an industry that I am very keen to get behind. The establishment of a medical school on the Gold Coast is certainly one way that we can continue the strong advances that we are making in the export of education to not only interstate students but also foreign students.

It would be remiss of me if I did not speak about another proposed medical school on the Gold Coast, a model being put forward by Bond University, one of Australia's most successful—if not the most successful—private universities today. Bond University has put forward a fully privately funded medical school proposal. I most certainly would be very willing—and I have been working closely with Bond as well—to try to facilitate the development of a medical school on its campus. Either way, I will continue my push to establish a medical school on the Gold Coast, whether it is a publicly funded or privately funded model. I know the state health minister, Wendy Edmund, has announced her support for such a proposal. I am not certain how much the state government can actually do. (Time expired)