Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

I'll take you out to Brewarrina, Bourke, Warialda, Broken Hill. I'll show you what the bush is. For the member for Shortland, it's 10 minutes in a taxi and he's in Newcastle. Seriously, we are talking about really regional areas, and now they are competing with peri-urban and regional centres for doctors.

This is a backwards step. This shows—I'd like to say it's not disregard—lack of understanding of the issues of delivering health service in the bush. I think we are going to overcome this by following on with positive measures—not these kneejerk, quick responses that actually have negative impacts on the people that need it the most.

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