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

My question is to the Minister for Regional Health. Will the minister update the House on the success of the rollout of the Morrison-Joyce government's vaccination program in rural, regional and remote areas?

David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party, Minister Assisting the Minister for Trade and Investment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like to thank the honourable member for Parkes for his question and I would like to compliment him on the tireless work that he has done for his electorate of Parkes, which is as big as the country called Germany. I'd also like to compliment him on the great work he did when he was in the Health portfolio, with his work on the single-employer model for GP registrars and the innovative models of care which are really kicking goals in the workplace dilemma in the Health portfolio. He's also lived through the cyclone of delta arriving in his own electorate, and he and his contacts have been liaising with the Flying Doctor Service, the New South Wales local health districts, the GPs and the pharmacies. That has meant that western New South Wales has gotten through it.

Regional Australia was at the forefront of planning back in 2020. There was a special plan that was put in place for vaccine delivery amongst Indigenous people, back in March, before this delta wave hit. That model is being used around the country now—in places like northern Victoria, around the fine city of Mildura, which the member for Mallee looks after—and that model is working. There was a full-court press of expanded vaccines powered into the area at short notice. There were extra GPs brought on board, extra pharmacies rolled out, Commonwealth vaccination clinics, Defence vaccine administration teams and AUSMAT teams. And, of course, the net result is that there are now no more active cases in Wilcannia that anyone is aware of. The New South Wales Department of Health turned up with 30 motorhomes to supply isolation accommodation for those cases, so it was really a full-court press.

We have seen that around other places. In regional Australia, there has been a lag in Indigenous vaccination rates, but, because of the ACCHOs engaging with their own local leadership teams and counteracting all the misinformation on social media, they are catching up. When I visited Tobwabba, my own electorate's Aboriginal medical service, their vaccination rate was 62 per cent double vaxxed, which is a great achievement. Regional Australia has been at the forefront of planning, implementation and delivery. If you're in the most far-flung regions of Australia, Commonwealth plans—either the flying doctors or all those primary-care people doing a wonderful job—will look after you and keep you safe.