John Cobb (Calare, National Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On 23 August 2007, almost exactly a year ago, the then Leader of the Opposition, Kevin Rudd, made his first big policy announcement. He stated:

When it comes to improving Australia’s health and hospital system, as Prime Minister, if elected, the buck will stop with me. I’m sick and tired of one level of government blaming the other.

Well, Prime Minister, have I got a buck for you! If you live west of the Blue Mountains in New South Wales and are seriously ill or have a major accident, your life expectancy will take an official drop. I have here a leaked document which highlights the fact that, if you get injured or fall sick, out of business hours, west of the Blue Mountains, you should not expect the helicopter rescue service, based in Orange, to be of any help. The only help available will be a helicopter, if weather permits—and it quite often does not over the Blue Mountains—coming from Sydney and that will add at least two hours to any rescue.

This situation is outrageous. If you live west of the Blue Mountains you must not inconvenience the New South Wales government by getting injured out of business hours. You must not be so selfish as to get injured in a place where a helicopter cannot conveniently land on flat country because the New South Ambulance Service will not pay for a winch on that helicopter. Apparently, the New South Wales health service—and it is stated in this report—do not believe that the land west of Lithgow is dangerous or is not flat. They have obviously never been to Hill End or the Goobang National Park or any one of the thousands of places in the central west where it is hard to get to. Time is essential. It simply is not good enough that people living in Orange, Forbes, Parkes, all the way out to Bourke—anywhere in the west and the central west—are having their lives put at risk because they do not live in Sydney or Wollongong.  Wollongong is 12 minutes flying time from Sydney, yet it has its own 24-hour service helicopter. Who decided that accidents only happen west of the mountains during daylight hours?

In the last six months I believe there have been 100 cases where helicopters have had to come from Sydney to the central west because accidents were out of business hours. That normally adds at least two hours. There are cases where it has taken six hours to get somebody to hospital. A girl fell from a balcony, suffering horrific injuries. Because it was late at night, it took six hours for her to reach treatment in Sydney. If the same accident had happened during the day, the Orange rescue service could have been in Sydney in less than two hours.

In another case, it took a helicopter 2½ hours to reach a critical motorcycle accident which was only 20 minutes flying time from Orange. Two people reached Sydney five or six hours after the accident and one had an arm amputated. We can assume that may not have happened if the local helicopter at Orange had been able to get to work because it was not at night-time and could have got them to Sydney a lot quicker. If Wollongong has a 24-hour base service and it is only 12 minutes helicopter flying time from Sydney, why, when you consider the distance from Sydney to Orange, can’t the Orange base central west service operate 24 hours?

As the buck stops with the Prime Minister, can he explain why the New South Wales Ambulance Service does not have a winch capacity on the Orange based rescue helicopter? Do the government really think there is nowhere in the central west that you cannot easily get to? If that were the case, you probably would not need a helicopter at all; you would only need an ordinary land ambulance. It is a ridiculous situation.

I have been told about a case where the Orange based service was forced to circle a major crash for an hour waiting for the Sydney helicopter to come because it had a winch and the New South Wales helicopter did not. To date, the only response from the New South Wales government to that leaked report is to try to find out who leaked it. They have done nothing about addressing the issues which are putting our lives at risk all the time.

But does this sound familiar? In 2006 the Australian Local Hero of the year, Toni Hoffman, blew the whistle on Bundaberg’s ‘Doctor Death’ and all the government wanted to do then was find out, like the New South Wales Ambulance Service is now doing, who actually leaked the report rather than deal with the issue. I applaud the actions of the person—whoever it might be—who has leaked this report, putting their career and their job at risk. I think it is an absolute disgrace that at this point in western New South Wales we have to take risks that nobody else does. (Time expired)