Next to the USA, Australia provides some of the highest earning opportunities for medical specialists thanks to its very well-developed private sector. A doctor might clock AU$300/400k for a 0.5FTE role at a public hospital, and then bring in another AU$500/600k+ from their private practice (and that's a very low figure for a lot of specialities). As a result, Australia can attract and retain extremely high-quality doctors with the public sector essentially riding the back of the earning potential provided by the private sector. Interestingly, I think the reason you don't often see full private specialists is that due to lack of market forces applying to public healthcare, the public system crowds out the private system on complex/innovative care -- so as a specialist you need to retain a public presence to get access to the high-profile work that you use to support your private billings.