“A PERSON’S postcode should not determine health status” – that’s what I said in my first parliamentary speech representing the people of Mallee in 2019.
Sadly, regional health is still languishing, and as the Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health I am determined to improve health outcomes in rural, remote and regional Australia.
Yesterday I was in Ballarat addressing the Rural Workforce Agency Victoria (RWAV) Conference ‘Pathways to Progress: Enhancing Healthcare Access in Rural Victoria’.
The conference brings together healthcare and policy specialists to address poorer healthcare accessibility for regional Victorians.
Higher morbidity rates, thin workforces and a lack of access to specialised care are regrettably as common in regional Victoria as they are throughout regional Australia.
State and federal Labor are imposing centralised health systems, scaling down significant local health services and running them out of state capitals and other cities.
Regional Australia needs more doctors – both general practitioners and specialists – as well as nurses and other allied health professionals.
I was alarmed to read in a report commissioned by the National Rural Health Alliance that rural Australians miss out on $6.5 billion annually in healthcare access.
Regional areas generate 80 per cent of our Australia’s exports, with farming exports worth $76 billion.
Why can’t our farmers and their communities get equitable access to health care?
To begin fixing regional health, governments and departments need to be honest and recognise the significant difference between regional and metropolitan healthcare.
I have been working with grassroots health service providers and health advocates such as RWAV to develop specific regional health policy that The Nationals will take to the next federal election.
Under Labor, one size fits all and that size is XXL – the big capital cities – and for federal and Victorian Labor governments that preach diversity, it’s high time they recognised there is beauty, vibrancy, a huge economic contribution and a desperate health need in regional Australia.
