Ursula Stephens (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to take note of the answers to the questions asked of Senator Nash today and, particularly, the questions that I asked Senator Nash about the future of Medicare Locals.

There has been a bit of argy-bargy across the chamber this afternoon about the issue of broken promises. We are all very conscious of the campaign that the government ran during the election campaign and straight after, where the Prime Minister looked straight down the barrel of the camera and promised that there would be no broken promises, and that his was going to be a government for all Australians.

I suppose that the question that was asked today of Minister Nash really goes to the touchstone issue of health care in Australia. It is the concern that we, as parliamentarians, hear most when we are travelling around our states as senators or in our electorates as m members of parliament. That is, the fear and concern that our constituents have about having access to appropriate and timely health services—particularly if you are regional senator, like all of the members of the National Party sitting here today. They know the challenges there are in combining thin health markets, distance, access to services and particular populations that have particular health needs. I asked Minister Nash today about whether or not she actually supported the Murrumbidgee Medicare Local, which covers a population of almost 200,000 people across south-western New South Wales and across a geographic area of more than 100,000 square kilometres.

She was reluctant actually to commit her confidence to the work of the Medicare Local in Murrumbidgee, and that is a shame because they do an extraordinary job while challenged by some very important and difficult demographics. There is the fact of the density of 4.1 per cent of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations of Australia living in that region, as opposed to the national average of about 2½ per cent. So there are really important health challenges that the Murrumbidgee Medicare Local has very strategically and very cleverly made out to address by decreasing the rates of chronic disease and treatable and preventable mortality by expanding the current preventative health and chronic disease services and programs. These are really innovative and locally developed programs to address the specific needs of those communities. They have fantastic prenatal and antenatal services, outreach services that challenge the issues of distance across those regions.

When the government came in, the Australian Medicare Local Alliance issued a release which said the Australian Medicare Local Alliance welcomed the decision by Prime Minister-elect Tony Abbott to appoint Peter Dutton to the position of Minister for Health and welcomed Senator Fiona Nash as Assistant Minister for Health because she understands the issues affecting people in rural and remote communities and will be an asset in the health portfolio. She has an interest in equity of access to health services that taps right into what Medicare Locals are working to deliver across Australia. The Australian Medicare Local Alliance was also pleased that the federal government has continued to recognise the importance of mental health.

Medicare Locals have been systematically, across the country, addressing these issues and are now waiting with bated breath for the announcement of this budget. So trying to actually reassure the patients and participants in Medicare Local programs across the country that Medicare Locals are not for the chop is absolutely okay—they will survive the review and they will survive the budget. We fear greatly for Medicare Locals and we fear that the dislocation and the disruption to quality health care in the regions will suffer immensely from what we know are the Prime Minister's cuts to health.

Question agreed to.