Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wish to congratulate West Moreton-Oxley Medicare Local on the publication of its Comprehensive needs assessment 2014-2015 report. The West Moreton-Oxley Medicare Local has provided the highest possible service to the Ipswich and Somerset Region during its tenure and I commend them for their wonderful partnership with me and many other people in our community. WMOML, as it is affectionately called, works in partnership with the community and provides primary health care, including GPs, pharmacies, practice nurses and allied health professionals, and has improved the availability, accessibility and appropriateness of care.

WMOML have delivered better health services to my electorate, to Oxley, to Ryan and to Wright, delivering better access to after-hour GP services, including Fernvale's first after-hours service, delivering better access to mental health support through local management of the Access to Allied Psychological Services, the Medicare Better Access and the Partners in Recovery programs and delivering better support to local primary health providers.

Crucially, WMOML's work is data driven, identifying current and future areas of health need. This commitment to data is apparent in the needs assessment report, the most complete assessment of the health needs of our community ever undertaken. It highlights the challenges we face now and those we will face in the future. It underlines that we are a rapidly growing region. The population of our region is projected to increase by more than 90 per cent by 2031, well above the Queensland average. Most of this growth will occur in the Springfield, Ripley Valley, Rosewood and the eastern-Ipswich corridor. That growth will place demands on the health services in the region.

The needs assessment report highlights our relative social disadvantage compared to other Medicare Local regions. This is apparent on measures of unemployment, high school completion rates, median income and the number of people receiving income support. Of the 61 Medicare Locals, we rank 12th nationally for the number of families with children who are welfare dependent, 14th in unemployment and it goes on. We rank 14th highest nationally in terms of obesity with 71 per cent of adults in the region obese or overweight and we rank sixth poorest for physical inactivity. The needs assessment report is damning. We have real challenges in terms of high-level priority areas, including mental health, child development, chronic diseases, population growth and the health of our Indigenous people and those with disability. That is why WMOML's work is so important.

That is why it is so shameful that the current Prime Minister said, 'We are not shutting any Medical Locals.' He promised no cuts to health. He has cut $50 billion from hospitals. He promised no new taxes. He wants $7 for a person to visit a GP. He wants to increase the PBS co-payment and the PBS safety net thresholds.

The needs assessment report notes that the availability of GP services varies across our region but our region only has 82 GPs per 100,000 population, lower than the Queensland average of 92 per 100,000 population. This drops to as low as 48 per 100,000 in the Somerset region, which I represent. The Abbott government has no plan to address this shortfall. Shamefully, it abolished Health Workforce Australia, created to remedy the Howard government's systematic health workforce planning failures as identified by the Productivity Commission.

What of the Prime Minister's promise he wouldn't shut any Medicare Locals? All 61 will shut from July 2015, to be replaced with 30 new health bureaucracies, Primary Healthcare Networks. This is a blow for primary health care in our community and a blow for the budget. It is estimated it will cost $200 million just to close down Medicare Locals and create these new health bureaucracies. What a waste of money. In my region, the proposal is grossly inadequate and inappropriate. It covers an enormous region—south from Goondiwindi, north to Nanango and to the west of Miles. That will be the Darling Downs West Moreton PHN—totally inadequate. It is much bigger and out of touch compared to WMOML. I urge the government to reconsider its position.

I want to congratulate Sue Scheinpflug, CEO of WMOML, and her terrific team on the Comprehensive needs assessment 2014-2015 report and for their tireless work in our region. I wish them well. I hope they do bid for the opportunity to run the PHN in collaboration with Darling Downs. I think the government's attitude in this area needs to be reassessed.