Kay Hull (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Over the years, I have risen in this House on numerous occasions on the issue of health across rural and regional Australia, and tonight is no exception. I rise to speak on the Health Care (Appropriation) Amendment Bill 2008. I have raised many of the issues and concerns of rural and regional Australia for a long time in my role as part of the government over the last three terms. It has taken an enormous amount of effort. Sometimes there is success; sometimes there is no success.

I look at the appropriation bills and I read through the health areas with great interest because of course I am always looking for the rural perspective on health. I am pleased to see that there is certainly some rural perspective. Some would criticise and say, ‘Not enough’—I am probably one of those people. But, hope-fully, over the three years, more resources will be made available as they are required. I have always said the test of a government is how they respond to issues when required—such as when we were determined to build a Riverina Cancer Care Centre and there was no funding made available for that. The community raised $3 million in a very, very short period of time to build the centre.

Eventually, the minister funded the linear accelerator in the Riverina Cancer Care Centre. When it was realised that we were a sustainable unit, the last government, of which I was a part, went on to fund the second linear accelerator, which has seen an exceptional workload coming to the Riverina Cancer Care Centre, to deal with many Canberra people and people from many other areas who come to the community funded Lilier Lodge accommodation centre and also avail themselves of the fabulous services of the Riverina Cancer Care Centre. There is another community fundraising operation taking police now to extend the Riverina Cancer Care Centre. I went to a cocktail party last Friday evening. Again the community are being asked to dig deep into their pockets to expand the centre. I am sure there will be times in the future when we will require government help to match community cooperation and funding attempts being put into delivering cancer care services to rural and regional areas, particularly in my area of the Riverina and beyond.

I lobbied the last government. That government came to an end far too quickly for me to be successful in getting a PET scan in Wagga Wagga in order to give a comprehensive cancer care service to the people in my electorate who are dealing with cancer and certainly to make life a little easier so that they are not forced into city areas for diagnosis and then back for some of their treatment. They can get the majority of their diagnosis on the ground and can then undertake treatment. The Riverina Cancer Care Centre is a wonderful place and I am sure the minister will consider modelling other options for rural and regional Australia on this community-government-public sector model which has seen the delivery of excellent services to rural and regional people, giving them equity when confronting cancer.

Also, I fought long and hard to have mental health addressed. I have long been an advocate in this House for mental health services. We established Sunflower House in Wagga Wagga but it could not get the funding required from the New South Wales state government over long periods of time. Eventually last July, under the Howard-Vaile government, we were able to provide more than $1.3 million for Sunflower House to open its doors and to provide critical mental health services in and around the Wagga Wagga district. It was a sensational outcome. Mental health sufferers now have access to services and assistance in the mental health issues that confront not just our region but certainly regions right across Australia. Many of these people have been associated with previous drug use. That could be previous marijuana use, which has led to an enormous rise in schizophrenia and a whole host of mental health problems due to the THC content in cannabis, which is obviously rising with an enormous amount of hydroponically grown cannabis now. We were able to establish in the Riverina for the first time a rehabilitation service for those recovering from illicit drug use.

When I was the chairperson of the Standing Committee on Family and Human Services, in the report of the substance abuse inquiry entitled The winnable war on drugs we sought more money on the ground for services, particularly detox. Detox is sincerely required before rehabilitation can proceed. People who do not have adequate detoxification from illicit drugs, alcohol or pharmaceutical or prescribed drugs really cannot access a rehabilitation centre. The requirement for detox is significant. While I was able to achieve a lot from the past government and delivered a lot to my region, including funding for the Peppers rehabilitation program back in April 2000, which was re-funded in 2003 and again in 2007, I would sincerely ask the ministry to consider looking at the availability of detoxification in order to access rehabilitation centres. That is a way in which money can be put to very good use, not just in city areas where the service is still quite scarce, but it is almost impossible to find detox if you live in a rural and regional area. I encourage the minister to look at these detox issues.

In addition, the divisions of general practice delivered extraordinary services in the 10 years of the last government. I would hope they will continue to deliver fantastic services. They have rolled out rural palliative care services in my Murrumbidgee Division of General Practice. We funded them to roll out rural palliative care, to get GPs involved in the delivery of palliative care, ensuring that people who had terminal illnesses were able to stay in their home longer as a result of GPs entering a palliative care program which enabled them to look after sufferers at home longer than they would normally, having quality of life at home before being moved to a hospital. When I looked at the budget lines, I was quite happy to see international medical graduates proposed in the budget, but when I was looking through the appropriations I could not see any money allocated to the training and encouraging of the 5,000 international medical graduates into general practice, which we are in desperate need of doing.

Many of the speakers here today have talked about the decline in the availability of GPs and doctors in general across Australia. If we want to enhance our workforce with these 5,000 IMGs, we need to acknowledge that they require an enormous amount of assistance to traffic them into options for rural GP service. We have many training providers right across the nation. I know I have a very effective training provider in Wagga Wagga—CityCoastCountry Training—that assists internationally trained graduates into service that can provide great benefits to rural and regional communities. I applaud the 5,000 international medical graduates initiative, but I also ask that the minister look into the provision of funding to encourage, train and support these graduates through the process and into general practice. That is certainly a costly experience and one that requires some financial resources.

I move on to an issue that I have been most passionate about since entering parliament. I speak in particular of HIV-AIDS and hepatitis C. When I came into parliament, I chose to go on the HIV-AIDS committee, which was under the then Minister for Health and Aged Care, Michael Wooldridge. Each time we have had that committee re-formed I have volunteered for it. It has been a difficult task over the years to get that committee re-formed. It is essential that there be another parliamentary committee on HIV. We really need to understand that HIV-AIDS management has fallen off the radar. Over the past years, we have seen HIV-AIDS start to decrease in its importance or recognition or action. I stand here this evening speaking on this health appropriation bill not to criticise the previous government or the current government but to put forward the need to recognise that we have over 1,000 new infections taking place in Australia per year. There are more people living with and responding to HIV-AIDS than we have ever experienced before in Australia. We require a new way of thinking about HIV-AIDS. We should be motivated and innovative in ensuring that we in Australia are keeping up with world’s best practice. In the past, we have always been recognised as absolute leaders in this field, and I have always been very, very proud of that. Compared to sub-Saharan Africa and many of our island nations, including PNG, we have a very small incidence of HIV. Nonetheless, it requires a very significant strategy so that we do not have larger numbers to deal with and so that we manage lifelong health problems for HIV sufferers, because they in turn are entitled to have equity of services available to them.

It is very, very difficult to get access to services if you are an HIV sufferer in rural and regional Australia. It is almost impossible. We have moved a long way in antidiscrimination, we have more understanding and we are a more educated population now than we were back in the Eve van Grafhorst days. Many of the young parliamentarians may not remember the case of Eve van Grafhorst—a premature baby who acquired HIV-AIDS from a blood transfusion. The discrimination that she and her mother were subject to was extreme. We have moved a long way in those areas, but we have not kept pace with what is required in order to lead the world in HIV management—to lead the world with programs that will provide long-term treatment for those suffering from HIV as well as prevention of and reduction in HIV. We tend to want to put it to the side and deal with it in a less public way, but I believe that that can no longer happen. I am very conscious of the fact that we need a new international strategy. We need to be involved with the management, prevention, reduction, treatment and recognition of the new and emerging issues that are facing our communities as a result of HIV. We tend to want to isolate HIV. We are particularly lucky in Australia where we are in a controlled environment. We seemingly have controlled outbreaks whereas in the international environment epidemics are generalised. They are not the contained epidemics that we have in Australia.

So it is very important that attention is paid to this critical area of health funding, because it is not something that people stand up and champion all of the time. If you suffer from cancer, or from any number of different illnesses, you can garner an enormous amount of support around you for lifelong treatment and a quality of life experience through the health budget. But it is much more difficult when you are a sufferer of HIV or are working in agencies associated with assisting HIV sufferers, their families and the community. It is a very difficult place to be; it is not a sexy place that immediately grabs everyone’s attention and they want to run to fix the problem, as happens in many other areas.

The more people in this House who are involved with ensuring equity of access for all Australians to health services, quality of life and lifelong treatment services the better. Once HIV-AIDS was a death sentence—nothing was surer; you could bet on it. But now things are different. I supported a hospice in Kenya, called Nyumbani, which cared for children who had lost their parents to AIDS and were HIV-AIDS affected themselves. At one stage they went to Nyumbani to enjoy some quality of life and die peacefully. Now, through the introduction of antiretroviral treatments, Nyumbani has become an orphanage and the children are now being adopted by many countries, including Ireland and Scotland.

So we have to deal with HIV in a totally different way internationally, but it starts by us being very aware of the needs within Australia. The mental health aspect of HIV is also important. Once you are a sufferer of HIV, access to mental health services is key to your survival and your success, because stress can be a dangerous factor in reducing your immune system and driving your CD4 counts down, putting you at risk of toppling over into full-blown AIDS, which requires far greater treatment.

This evening I have covered quite a few areas of health that I believe need constant attention. Each area is very important, and some are not as highly favoured in the health budget.

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