Sunraysia Daily deputy editor Simon Cameron sat down with Member for Mallee Anne Webster to discuss the big issues she will be fighting for in 2020.
IMPROVING health services and water issues remain the highest priorities in 2020 for Member for Mallee Anne Webster.
Dr Webster said she was motivated to find enduring reform for regional and rural health delivery and wanted the Mallee electorate to be at the forefront.
“We need to look structurally at how we’re delivering aged care, urgent care health services, primary and allied health care services, ambulance services,” she said.
“We should be looking at a combination model that has arteries out to our smaller districts.”
The Medicare Benefits Schedule Review should be finalised this month and Dr Webster is hopeful it would provide extended rebates for nurse practitioners.
“They are a very under-utilised set of professionals,” she said.
“I would dearly love to see nurses incentivised to upskill to nurse practitioner level where they are already working successfully, such as Di Thornton in the Murrayville and Mallee Track area.
“She is doing an incredible job and the community really values her work there.”
Dr Webster sees the Mallee as a prime electorate for pilot projects such as the Integrated Health Care Network, which is about to be rolled out in the Gannawarra, Loddon and Buloke shires.
The Murray-Darling Medical Schools Network, which includes funding for programs through Monash University in Mildura, was also vital.
“I want to see that Mildura once again becomes a major training hospital because if we have the clinical workload, then there is no reason why that shouldn’t happen,” Dr Webster said.
“The Murray-Darling Medical School should thrive in Mildura and therefore provide regional and rural GPs to then spread out in the electorate.
“For Mildura to become another major training centre, such as we have in Northern Territory for example, the Mildura Base Hospital needs to be developed far more than it is and of course I am going to be very interested to see how it all plays out.”
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Water management will again be a top priority as communities continue to struggle through crippling drought.
During the election campaign, Water Resources Minister David Littleproud visited Mildura to announce a Murray-Darling Basin Authority office would open in the city this year.
An opening date for that office is yet to be determined, however it is believed it will be within the next couple of months.
“(The office) gives the people the opportunity to go in and speak to people and get clarity around what is happening, to voice their concerns,” Dr Webster said.
“It gives our local community the opportunity to have a voice and I think that’s incredibly important.”
In addition, interim Murray-Darling Basin inspector-general Mick Keelty has established an office in Mildura while he investigates compliance and water recovery issues in the basin.
“We are in a position where we are literally seen as on the map with regard to the Murray-Darling Basin, as we should be given where we are positioned,” Dr Webster said.
“It gives us a great opportunity to provide greater communication to our community and our stakeholders.
“Mick Keelty’s work is really important.
“It’s not going to dispel the doubts and fears of some because they are very entrenched, I understand that, however hopefully we can turn the light on and have a really good look at what has been happening and improve whatever practices and regulations that need to be improved.”
Dr Webster will support a private senator’s Bill to be introduced by Nationals Senator Perin Davey when parliament resumes next month.
The Bill would compel the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder to sell water back for consumptive use in times of drought.
The proposal has had its critics with suggestions it would undermine the Murray-Darling Basin Plan and need changes to the Water Act in order for it to proceed.
Centre Alliance Senator Rex Patrick this week indicated his party would vote against the Bill when it was introduced.
However, Dr Webster believes the concept is a “sensible” one.
“Clearly I’m very committed to seeing the best outcome occurs for people in our electorate,” she said.
Meetings will be held in coming weeks to garner feedback for the proposal.
“Those stakeholder meetings will be very interesting,” Dr Webster said.
“I’m sure that they will be very divisive because there are a lot of opinions – some who think the basin plan should not be touched, some who think more water should be given to the environment at this time.
“There are others who think that more water should be available for our irrigators.”
Ensuring those hit hard by the current drought have timely access to funding and services they need would also remain a priority this year for Dr Webster.
“We have six designated shires in my electorate who are now considered under drought and therefore have eligibility for various funds the Federal Government has made available,” she said.
“I’m keen to keep working with those shires to ensure that the measures in place meet the needs of the community
“Clearly red tape and green tape for our farmers still needs to be reduced.
“It is bureaucratically out of control and I’m really keen to see it removed, or at least reduced, where it doesn’t need to be.”
Anne Webster on …
ADDRESSING THE LABOUR FORCE ISSUE
There was a lot of work that we put into that. To meet with stakeholders, to try and understand what the issues are and how complex they are.
And then to engage ministers and the Prime Minister to bring people to Mildura and Swan Hill and meet with them and have those views heard and addressed.
The ministers tell me what has been achieved in this last few months is really quite extraordinary. For a backbencher to have this happen — where the Regional Agriculture Migration Program has been developed and likewise the Horticulture Industry Agreement — both of those pieces of work have been specifically developed to address our issues in Sunraysia of an illegal and unsustainable workforce.
I feel really pleased about that but at the same time I’m not sitting back thinking, ‘good job, well done’. We recognise they are policies and now programs that need to be flexible and I am assured there is flexibility there and we can adjust as I continue to listen to industry.
My work is to continuously engage stakeholders. What we want is a solution. We’re looking for solutions for our producers so we can have a legal and sustainable workforce going forward.
While that work has been done, I know more work needs to be done and I’m certainly in there boots and all to ensure our producers can access the workforce they need and that it is sustainable. And that includes working with our local governments and their planning laws. It involves lobbying the State Government for their component with regards to accommodation, which is one of the key blockers.
Illegal workforces are not just confined to Sunraysia. They’re all over Australia, so these issues as we tackle them and come out with some successes having learned from the experiences, we’ll feed into programs being rolled out across Australia.
So it’s taken very seriously. It’s not being looked at as a simple solution and that it’s done and dusted now.
ELECTION PROMISES
We have major infrastructure and road funding that was promised during the election and I will continue to follow all of those up to ensure they are completed and hopefully in a timely manner. Sometimes they are held up for all kinds of reasons, sometimes it’s the recipients who have successfully gained that funding — there are things they need to do.
There are things that state or local governments need to do – whether it’s coming dollar-for-dollar funding or whether it’s just particular processes that need to be fulfilled at a local government level.
It’s just a matter of working those through, and of course we’ll be announcing all of those as each sod turn occurs.
I’d like them all done yesterday like everyone else would but we’ve just got to go through those processes.
