Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Australians who live in rural and remote areas, the outback of this wide, brown land, are often referred to in romantic fashion as 'hard as nails' or 'tough as teeth'. These terms of reverence are given as a sign of respect by those of us who live in the plush surrounds of the city. But there's one thing that none of us can deny, and that is that the people in the bush are made of exactly the same stuff as the rest of us—they grow, they eat, they break and they get sick, just as we do, often without the necessary level of health services to get them through. Compared to their city cousins, those living in the country are 44 per cent more likely to die from a heart attack, 70 per cent more likely to die from heart failure and 31 per cent more likely to die from a stroke.

The Heart of Australia's service is magnificent in theory and it is changing the practice of cardiology services for hundreds and hundreds of rural Queenslanders. This service brings fortnightly cardiac and respiratory services to rural communities right across Queensland. It does it in a 25-metre-long, custom-designed clinic on wheels, driven by a big, shiny Kenworth K200 prime mover. This service is bringing real specialist services into remote areas that desperately need them and it is changing the lives of the patients as they go. I salute the whole team at Heart of Australia and declare I'm behind them all the way.

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