Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

She was not elected, as the Minister for Ageing, who is at the table, has suggested. I appeal to her as the leader of the Queensland government to look at the forced amalgamation issue of those local shires in Queensland. Think of the health care of people in communities where the federal government has put in medical infrastructure, including dental surgeries, such as Charleville and Birdsville in my electorate. I hope the list will soon include Bedourie, where there are many Aboriginal families who certainly need good dental health care. At present, the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia services these areas. I ask Anna Bligh, the Premier of Queensland, as she travels into western Queensland this week to look at these communities, to think of the people outside the south-eastern corner of Queensland and then to go back to the drawing board on the forced amalgamation of local shires because it is going to have a dramatic impact on them. If you continue to proceed with that foolish plan it will affect the mental health of people and will put stress and strain on many small Queensland families. I commend the bill to the House.

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