Fiona Phillips (Gilmore, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is has been an exciting few weeks on the South Coast, and I am delighted to be delivering on the promises I made to the people of the Eurobodalla at the last election. Just in the last couple of months, two of my key election commitments have been finalised, and it's really exciting news. Firstly, I'm proud to say that the South Durras community is now benefiting from disaster-resilient power and telecommunications thanks to funding from the Albanese Labor government and the tenacity of local campaigners.

To understand why this has been so important to local people, we need to remember—and for local people it is hard to forget—what happened in the summer of 2019-20. The devastating impact of the bushfires on South Coast communities cannot be overstated. It is still being felt today. We are still recovering, and front of mind for every local person is how we can ensure our communities are better prepared and more resilient should the worst occur again.

While there were many devastating things that happened during that terrible summer, one that sticks in people's minds is the loss of power. That's because when you lose power you lose telecommunications, you might lose water, and so much more; you are vulnerable. Across the South Coast, local people want to know that we are doing everything possible to stop that happening again. To help ensure the South Durras community is better prepared for future disasters, I have delivered $221,000 in funding to replace 30 timber power poles between the village and the Princes Highway with fireproof composite poles and to relocate power cables to the local NBN fixed wireless tower underground.

In the wake of the bushfires, members of the South Durras community—in particular, Durras Community Association stalwart Trevor Daly—sounded the alarm about how close their key power and communications infrastructure came to being destroyed. I worked closely with local community stakeholders and I promised at the 2022 election to ensure their local power and telecommunications would be more resilient. In January I had the pleasure of joining with Trevor Daly and representatives from Essential Energy to celebrate the completion of the last component of these important upgrades in South Durras. The NBN cables were moved in August, and the final power poles were changed over in December—just fantastic news. I'm focused on improving natural disaster resilience across the South Coast and I'm proud to be delivering these improvements. Thank you to Essential Energy, NBN, the Durras Community Association, Trevor and everyone who worked hard to make this a reality.

The South Durras project isn't the only exciting update in the Eurobodalla area recently. In early December I joined with representatives from the local health district, the primary health network—COORDINAIRE—and provider ForHealth to celebrate the opening of the Batemans Bay Medicare Urgent Care Clinic. It's no secret that people living in regional areas like ours face challenges in accessing quality healthcare services. We have been experiencing an ever-increasing GP shortage for far too long, with more and more pressure on our local hospitals as people either struggle to get in to see their GP or struggle to afford the cost. That's why, before the last election, I promised to deliver an urgent care clinic for Batemans Bay so that local people needing urgent critical care could get it with just their Medicare card, and so our hospital emergency departments could continue to focus on providing care in life-threatening situations.

I've proudly delivered on this commitment to the people of Batemans Bay, and what a success it has been. Just last week the provider gave me an update on how things are going. I cut the ribbon on the Batemans Bay urgent care clinic on 5 December last year, and by 5 February this year, just two months later, the clinic had seen nearly 1,900 patients—1,900 people who walked into the clinic with their Medicare card and received the critical care they needed; 1,900 people who avoided a trip to the emergency department, who didn't have to wait to see their GP for treatment of conditions like cuts and breaks, and who didn't have to open their wallet to pay for that care. That's success by anyone's measure, I am sure.

It's moments like this that I like to celebrate—years of hard work by the community, supported by me as their local member, to deliver real improvements for local people. I am incredibly delighted to have delivered on this promise, just as I did in South Durras and just as I am continuing to do all along our South Coast.