Brendan Nelson - Medical Career

Medical Career

Nelson then relocated to Hobart, Tasmania, taking up practice as a medical practitioner from 1985 until 1995. In 1986, he married for a second time, and became a father to twins. In 1987, he and Dr David Crean, brother of Labor politician Simon Crean and later a Tasmanian state Labor minister, established an after-hours locum service which he worked in until 1991.

In 1988, he joined the Australian Medical Association, and in 1990 became the Tasmanian State president of the organisation, taking a reformist approach to the role, and assisted the State branch in growing its membership. In 1991, he replaced Dr Michael Jones, a former AMA president from Western Australia, as federal AMA vice-president. He took a strong public stand against sponsorship of sports events by cigarette companies, lobbying politicians directly for legislative change, and also encouraged airlines to increase the number of non-smoking seats.

On 30 May 1993, Nelson was elected unopposed as federal president of the Australian Medical Association, at 34 being the youngest ever holder of the office. He came to the office after significant hostility between the AMA and the federal Labor government, which peaked at the 1993 election under former AMA president Dr Bruce Shepherd and former Health Minister Brian Howe. Nelson attempted to establish better relations with the government and its new Health Minister, Graham Richardson, and pledged to make Aboriginal health and the effects of unemployment on health a high priority during his term, and would appoint a full-time worker based in Canberra to look after these issues.

In an address to the National Press Club on 30 September 1993, acknowledging the AMA's reputation for conservatism, he said he would not "lead the AMA safely", but believed doctors should "lead the way in showing that national progress can be made by placing the welfare and consideration of other human beings ahead of their own," asserting their obligation to speak out on issues for the public good. In the address, he advocated gay law reform, greater concern for the environment, more attention to Aboriginal and unemployed health, and greater co-operation between the medical profession and politicians of all sides to build a better health system. In November, he told a national Aboriginal conference in Sydney that he was ashamed of the medical profession's track record on Aboriginal health, arguing that "doctors need to ask themselves how a person can be well when they've been denied their land, their hunting grounds, their citizenship and freedom and even their own children. Of course Aboriginal people's health has suffered when you look at this litany of misery". As president, while personally opposing euthanasia, he supported the right of doctors to withdraw treatment from consenting critically ill patients, and supported euthanasia campaigner Dr Philip Nitschke's case against the Royal Darwin Hospital.

The role of private health in the health care mix, Aboriginal health, the AMA's ongoing campaign against cigarette sponsorship of sports events, and the size of the Medicare levy were other significant issues which occupied a lot of Nelson's time and attention as federal president, as they did the various Ministers for Health in the final years of the Keating Government. Nelson took ministers and shadow ministers around Central Australia to view Aboriginal communities. In October 1994, the World Conference on Tobacco and Health in Paris unanimously adopted an AMA resolution calling for a formal United Nations strategy on tobacco control.