Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about the ongoing operation of the Aboriginal Medical Service Western Sydney, or AMSWS. Earlier this month I met with two coordinators who were desperately concerned about the operational future of this vital body. It is a service operated by the Aboriginal community for the Aboriginal community. According to the latest census, Western Sydney has the highest urban population of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in Australia: 8,200, or 40 per cent, of Sydneysiders who identify as being of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent live in the Blacktown local government area, and a further 5,400, or 26 per cent, live around neighbouring Penrith. But the AMSWS's yearly budget is $5.3 million, a little over $3 million of that federal funding. Its submission suggested it needs close to $12 million to cover all the vital services it provides. Compare the $5.3 million and the services it has to cover—general health, mental health, dental, health education, clinics, drug and alcohol services, social and emotional wellbeing ventures—with the funding received elsewhere around the nation. For example, there is $18 million in Brisbane and between $8 million and $12 million for equivalent services in Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Darwin. You know the Western Sydney service is being left grossly short-changed. They certainly do need greater support per head of population, and I urge the government to do so.