Marion Scrymgour (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are more likely to live in urban and regional areas. The proportion of First Nations people living outside these centres increases with remoteness. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make up just 1.9 per cent of people living in major cities but 32 per cent in remote and very remote areas of Australia.

Access to quality health care shouldn't be dependent on where you live. My electorate of Lingiari includes all of the Northern Territory's regional and remote Aboriginal communities, making up around 61,000 people and representing 26.3 per cent of the Northern Territory's population. A priority for me is increasing access to culturally safe and appropriate health care for all constituents in my electorate that is delivered in true partnership with local people and communities. These partnerships not only build a stronger health system for rural, remote and regional Australia; importantly, they ensure the system is equipped to better meet the complex and multilayered health challenges facing people living in these locations.

A good example of effective partnership at work was the rollout of the Medicare urgent care clinics across Australia. The Albanese Labor government is increasing the number of Medicare urgent care clinics, including six new clinics announced for remote regions in my electorate. The six new clinics will be at Ali-Curung, Galiwinku, Alyangula, Wurrumiyanga, Lajamanu and Maningrida—very remote communities but with big populations. These are in addition to the two new clinics that have already been established in Palmerston and the regional town of Alice Springs, or Mparntwe, which has been ranked No. 1 in terms of visitation and usage by any urgent care clinic.

The locations of these remote clinics were chosen in partnership with the Northern Territory Department of Health and the Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance Northern Territory. Their involvement ensured that these clinics are best placed to meet the priority needs of remote Aboriginal communities.

The new clinics are also being adapted to local circumstances and will operate differently from other Medicare urgent care clinics in Australia. Innovative workforce models have been designed and new service delivery approaches are being developed to help reduce the number of aeromedical retrievals from these communities. The cost of air evacuations out of these communities can be in excess of $50,000 for just one emergency medevac. This will ease the burden on existing primary healthcare services.

There are also a number of dialysis units in remote and very remote communities, which will allow a lot of Aboriginal people to stay closer to home and be treated on country. Four communities in my electorate have also been invited to apply for grants under Labor's $73.2 million investment in better renal services for First Nations people. These communities were chosen based on the number of people requiring dialysis and their distance from existing services. I have to applaud our federal Minister for the Environment and Water for putting substantial investment toward stable and reliable water supply services in these communities so that these renal dialysis machines can operate effectively.

If we can keep people on country, it means that their families can stay and be part of their broader healthcare and treatment. Labor's investment in better water security under the National Water Grid Fund will ensure good-quality water, which most of us take for granted, can be available in remote First Nations communities, which is vital for dialysis treatment. Better renal services are about increasing access to life-saving dialysis treatment for First Nations people in remote communities. It shows true partnership between two federal government programs and is a very practical example of working in tandem to close the gap for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people by improving the livability of remote and very remote communities through safe, secure and reliable water. That supports better health and well-being outcomes.

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