John McVeigh (Groom, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support very strongly the Health Insurance Amendment (National Rural Health Commissioner) Bill 2017. The city of Toowoomba in my electorate of Groom is a significant health services centre for the regional areas of southern Queensland and northern New South Wales. We have excellent health and allied health services and facilities, including the Toowoomba base hospital, St Vincent's hospital, St Andrew's hospital, other professional medical centres, numerous specialists and, most particularly, a wide range of general practitioners who are dedicated to servicing their patients and our community.

The health outcomes of regional and rural Australians, as we have heard during this debate, are quite often diminished due to their remoteness and reduced access to health services. But our health sector in Toowoomba not only supports local residents but also steps up to its responsibility in servicing these far-flung communities throughout Queensland and New South Wales of which I speak. Toowoomba based health professionals cannot, however, do that on their own. Our region recognises that addressing the distribution of a professional and dedicated health workforce in regional, rural and remote areas—in our case, southern Queensland and northern New South Wales; our larger catchment area, if you like—is a very high key priority.

As the Assistant Minister for Health said in introducing this bill, its aims include: opportunities for regional and rural medical students to train and live locally and for other students from elsewhere to experience the benefits of living and working beyond the major cities; the new commissioner working with communities, the health sector, universities, specialist training colleges and across all levels of government to improve rural health policies and to champion the cause of rural practice; the development of a national rural generalist pathway that recognises the extra skills needed, the longer working hours and the required courage for general practitioners in these rural areas to meet all kinds of challenges; and also giving consideration to the nursing, dental health, Indigenous health, mental health, midwifery and allied health needs in these rural and remote areas.

The bill is therefore a very important step forward for regional, rural and remote health throughout Australia, particularly in my electorate of Groom and, might I say, the wider electorate of Maranoa—represented by my good friend and colleague David Littleproud—which forms part of the catchment area of the health services provided in our region, especially in Toowoomba.

The coalition government recognises the value of our rural communities, the special place they hold in this country, the enormous national wealth that they generate for all Australians and the special place that they have in our history and culture as well. People living in these communities, such as in my electorate and regional Queensland, make an enormous contribution to our national economy and to our character, as I said. Access to a high-quality standard of health care is therefore what they deserve and are entitled to expect. As I said, often, though, we know that that is not the case—that they often receive services that are not quite up to par with those received in a metropolitan area. The key is to recruit and retain more doctors and health professionals outside of those major cities, and that certainly, I am pleased to note, will be the focus of the National Rural Health Commissioner in this move led by our government.

In Toowoomba I am so very proud of: Griffith University's Queensland rural medical education stream, which is based in our city and led by a good friend of mine, Professor Scott Kitchener; the University of Queensland's Toowoomba Rural Clinical School; the University of Southern Queensland's Bachelor of Nursing program, based in Toowoomba; and the focus of the Darling Downs Hospital and Health Service on rural medical needs throughout our region.

I note in relation to Griffith University, the University of Queensland and the University of Southern Queensland that I have had the good fortune to meet and work with senior academic leaders, including Professor Janet Verbyla, a senior deputy vice-chancellor at the university of Southern Queensland and at present the interim vice-chancellor of USQ, which is based in Toowoomba. She and her colleagues get this. She and her colleagues understand that academia needs to join with those in practice to ensure the provision and planning of medical and health services throughout these regions in the years to come.

I also note the Darling Downs and West Moreton Primary Health Network led again by a good friend of mine, Chairman John Minz, and CEO Simone Finch. It was the PHN which stood with me to make an announcement on behalf of Greg Hunt, the health minister, at Sunrise Way in Toowoomba just last Friday. Sunrise Way is a drug and alcohol rehabilitation service. From an allied health perspective, it was tremendous to stand with the leaders of the PHN to announce $5.5 million of funding for Sunrise Way and a couple of other local agencies to implement initiatives under the coalition government's ice strategy, announced at the last election just last year. That is the sort of focus we have in our community and we simply want to maintain in our community. I am very much looking forward to the role of the National Rural Health Commissioner supporting that move going forward.

I commit myself to continuing to work with all of them to champion the incredible and rewarding opportunities of a career in rural medicine. I have had the great fortune and honour to be a guest lecturer in some of these programs, particularly at Griffith University's Queensland rural medical education service in Toowoomba, to talk to students about life in regional communities and the risks in agricultural industries they should be aware of. I have been able to share my experience as that is the sector from which I come and emphasise to them that, should they take up opportunities in rural and remote areas, not only will they be able to ply their trade to become medical and healthcare professionals but they will take up a position in those communities as a respected community leader alongside other regional community leaders. I say to those students and to those we need to attract and train in the future: we need to hear from you, we need to listen to you and we need to take the necessary steps in our health system to ensure that it works better for you, regional communities and patients throughout our region now and those you will hopefully encounter in your professional lives in the years to come.

That is what this bill ensures significant progress towards. That is why I very much welcome and look forward to working with the National Rural Health Commissioner in relation to the needs of patients now and in the future throughout the electorate of Groom.

See this speech in context