David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Lazarus, I am not sure about the details of what we are doing but I can tell you that fly-in-fly-out and the provision of fundamentally basic health services, police services and infrastructure for energy is the province of the states. We seek to provide assistance to the states to provide a strong underpinning of resourcing—for health particularly. In Western Australia, I believe, the state government spends a lot of money on mental health services for fly-in-fly-out, because in my home town of Perth this is a significant issue. I am not sure, and I am not convinced, that the Commonwealth—given the size of Tasmania against the size of Western Australia—can equitably and equally, across all of the jurisdictions, have a formula that answers the problem that you identify. I think it is a matter of us continuing to provide basic resourcing so that state health and mental health services can provide services. (Time expired)