Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker, Minister for Regional Health, Regional Communications and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Mallee for her question. Like me, she understands that this government backs regional Australia.

The regions have handled this coronavirus pandemic very well. We've had some outbreaks, but those have largely been managed quite well. And so the future for regional Australia is strong. Only last Friday at the summit in Cooma, the Regional Australia Institute recognised that there are 40,000 job vacancies in regional Australia now.

But we also have a plan to manage COVID in the regions. It's important to note that many of the 140 GP-led respiratory clinics around Australia are in the regions. The member for Mallee has actually been very active in her electorate, as have many other members right across the House, in identifying the role that these clinics have in testing and keeping up-to-date with the information that's required.

We understand that, in some cases, more unwell patients will need to be moved to other areas. That's why we've upgraded the retrieval capacity of the Royal Flying Doctor Service and CareFlight, with an injection of another $52 million there, so that we can remove those people. There is the $74 million rural health package. Probably the success story has been telehealth. As we speak today, there have been 27 million consultations by 10 million Australians on telehealth—so, for a policy that was developed very quickly, it's been very effective. In more remote areas the $5.8 million for point-of-care testing in remote and Indigenous communities under the leadership of the minister has also kept those communities safe.

I'd like to give a shout-out today to the rural health stakeholders. I've been meeting with them since February on a regular basis—all the peak bodies from the Rural Doctors Association, the RACGP, the AMA, pharmacies, allied health and Indigenous health—and that's been a vital tool for them to pass on information, on behalf of their members, to the government so that we can react and respond in a timely fashion.

Regional Australia is showing very strong tendencies for the future. That's why this government has invested $550 million in the rural health strategy. Since 2018 we have seen 800 nurses and 900 doctors added to the rural workforce because of these programs. Regional Australia is the future. (Time expired)

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