Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'd also like to speak to the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee's report in support of Angel Flight and the service that they provide to so many rural and regional families across this country, including the support that they provided to my own family for a number of years.

When my son was diagnosed with autism back in 2012, at that stage—pre the NDIS—we were reliant on assistance through state government. It took 12 months for the state government to get in contact with us in Moree to see how they may be able to offer assistance to my son through disability support programs. Thankfully we had not waited 12 months to help our son, because the key with autism is intensive and early intervention—the key to that being 'early'. Unfortunately, many families at that point in time were forced to wait.

We had endeavoured to start on a very good, high-quality early intervention program out of Sydney, but that was requiring us to travel to Sydney every month—my son, myself and, at times, therapists who we were training to conduct the in-home element of the program. The cost, when it was just my son and me, was often up to $2,000 return from Moree to Sydney because of the $500 per person each way that was required to be paid. As you can imagine, $24,000 a year that is not even for the therapy, let alone accommodation and other costs while you're in Sydney for four to five days a month, is not sustainable for many families. It certainly wasn't sustainable for us for a very long period of time.

Facetiously suggesting to the state government that they might be able to help fund my son's program, and them not being able to do that, their suggestion was that they could offer a referral to Angel Flight. Angel Flight was an absolute godsend to our family. It was the only service that we were able to access that we did not have to personally fund. The insinuation that I have heard over the last couple of months in what would appear to be an almost determined act by CASA over a sustained period of time to somehow strangle this absolutely vital community service, for reasons that are absolutely beyond me, that they are trying to take away a service that provides a vital lifeline for families is just absolutely incomprehensible. And the most offensive part that I have heard is the suggestion that somehow rural and regional families do not understand that these flights are being conducted by non-commercial pilots. I can assure you that we understand that. Angel Flight does an exceptional job in educating the people who use the service. We are spoken to by Angel Flight and we are given lots and lots of information to read. We are signing pieces of paper, not only when we first use the service but every time we use it. We are aware that we will be flying in various types of aircraft. We had one flight in a wonderful, brand new, incredibly impressive aircraft that had just been purchased by the managing partner of a very large consulting firm. We also had trips in much less salubrious, smaller aircraft, in which we had a much less-comfortable flight to Moree, but these flights were equally gratefully received by my family and particularly by my son and I.

It is offensive to suggest that people in rural and regional communities are somehow unable to make an educated decision about using the service. Whilst any accident that results in the death of anybody is tragic, the fact of the matter is that there are more deaths on our roads than have ever been caused in accidents by this service, and we do not see cries to shut down the transport via road of people with chronic illnesses or those requiring care and access to therapy. People need to be able to access these services. At one stage we flew on a quite large plane from Moree via Brewarrina with a number of families, including people who were suffering from breast cancer who could not make the trip via road. This was a vital service for helping these people to continue their lives and prolong their lives for as long as possible. So it is incredibly important that Angel Flight receives the support it can get and that it is not overly burdened by regulation, such that it is put in a position where it is unable to provide this service, which is so vital to so many families across rural and regional Australia.

I particularly would like to commend Senator Rex Patrick, Senator Susan McDonald and Senator Slade Brockman. All of us share a passion for this service, and we appreciate the important role that it plays within the communities we live in and represent. We understand the important work that it does. I, for one, wish Angel Flight a very long existence. To all the families currently utilising the service, I hope you don't need it for very much longer, but for the families that may require it in future, I hope the service is there for you far into the future.