La Trobe and Charles Sturt universities have been pushing to establish a rural school in the region for a number of years.

The network that received $95.4 million in Tuesday’s budget expands past their original proposal to include five other universities.

Rural Health Minister Bridget McKenzie said $60 million would be spent on infrastructure across the network at Wodonga, Wagga, Shepparton, Bendigo, Mildura, Orange and Dubbo.

“We know from evidence that there’s two things that will ensure you are more likely to practise in regional Australia, if you grow up in regional community … (and) if you train in regional areas,” she said.

“This network will ensure over 140 students will be able to undertake their training from year one right through to finishing their specialisation in the regions, only heading back to capital cities to do some particular areas of study.

“We’re going to see 3000 doctors over 10 years as part of this initiative.”

Students will be able start a Bachelor of Biomedical Science, a completely new course, at the Wodonga or Bendigo La Trobe campus, and upon completion will be guaranteed a spot in the University of Melbourne’s Doctor of Medicine program, also new, at Shepparton. 

The first full intake will be 2021, though the Wodonga campus is anticipating their undergraduate course to begin next year, bringing an influx of students.

Melbourne University’s Julian Wright said the pathways between universities bridged a gap.

“We’ve been graduating medical students for the last 15 years from Shepparton and various other cities around regional Victoria, but we’ve had bits of the jigsaw missing,” he said.

“We’ve had students that have had to go back to Melbourne for their undergraduate degree … in our partnership with La Trobe, students will not have to go to Melbourne at all.”

Medical student Kadison Michel said many of his peers had to spend their undergraduate degree and first year in a capital city.

“There are heaps of medical students who are passionate and driven to study in regional areas and it’s quite clear that a lot of us would have taken this opportunity, had it been available to us.”

Charles Sturt University Vice-Chancellor Andrew Vann said the evidence proved that theory.

“Seventy-five to 80 per cent of our allied health graduates and two-thirds of our dentists go on to work in regional practise and that’s made an enormous difference to regional workforce supply,” he said.

“I think this has grown to be something even larger than we initially thought it was going to be.”

Minister for Regional Communications Bridget McKenzie has defended a lack of budget provision for mobile blackspot improvements.

In Parliament on Wednesday, Indi MP Cathy McGowan asked what the government’s long-term was for improving mobile phone coverage, with no further funding for the blackspot program beyond the next financial year.

“Unfortunately the budget overlooks the challenges of mobile connectivity in regional areas,” she said.

“What message do you have to the 200-plus communities in Indi and the rest of regional Australia forced to go without this essential service?”

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull referenced a review into connectivity, echoing Ms McKenzie’s response to the media earlier that morning.

“Every three years, no matter who’s in government, we have to examine whether rural and regional Australia has access to telecommunications and how that compares with urban service provision,” she said.

“I’ve brought forward the review from the end of the year to the start, so I can then look at the recommendations and get on with implementing them at the end of the year. “We’ve done a lot in this space … we’ve got 870 mobile phone towers that will be rolled out by the end of this year, we’ve put Sky Muster satellites in the air and 87 per cent of regional Australia now have the NBN.”

Ms McKenzie also said she would “fight” to ensure the ABC did not target regional service delivery in its efforts to work with an annual funding indexation freeze.

“The last time the ABC had a cut they took it out of local radio … in anything the ABC does to ensure they meet their efficiency dividend target … I’ll be ensuring service delivery to the regions is not targeted,” she said.