Mary Aldred (Monash, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is a really important issue for Australia and a really important issue for regional Australia. I'm pleased to have the opportunity to focus on a number of priorities for my local electorate of Monash. Whether it's in the Latrobe Valley at Latrobe Regional Hospital, where I've previously served on the board—which does a great job under very stretched resources—or at South Gippsland Hospital in Foster or Leongatha, or at West Gippsland Hospital, which is absolutely bursting at the seams, our health services and facilities in the Monash electorate deserve far better. This flows through to the affordability and availability of GPs in our local area, many of whom do an incredible job. Many of those I speak to are exhausted. They take their duty of care to all of their patients, and to the broader community, very seriously. But we cannot ignore the fact that bulk-billing rates under this government are getting worse, not better.

On the West Gippsland Hospital—I want to make this point because it does address broader health concerns within the community, not just at a GP level but more broadly. I want to take the opportunity to address the shocking incident only a few days ago of a 91-year-old grandmother, Lois Casboult, a resident of Drouin in my electorate, who broke her pelvis and had a brain bleed. An ambulance was called. They are so stretched to capacity because of the Victorian Labor government's complete mismanagement of our health system that, instead of them taking her for a nine-minute drive to West Gippsland Hospital, her daughter had to come and pick her up and take her. That is the sort of thing we are seeing not just in my community but in regional communities Australia-wide, particularly in Victoria, where the Victorian Labor government has really done a lot to hurt health outcomes across our community.

We've had the Prime Minister write a letter to state premiers in the last week or so, effectively saying, 'Please stop spending money on public health', as if people can stop getting sick or avoid going to emergency. We have a GP shortfall. We have GPs trying their best under very, very hard circumstances to do all that they can. But the reality is, at a state and federal level, our health services are not keeping pace with demand. Patients, particularly in regional Australia, are not getting the care and attention they deserve.

Our healthcare workers—our doctors, our nurses—are absolutely magnificent people. I was at a citizenship ceremony at Baw Baw Shire only a few weeks ago, where 12 of our new citizens were doctors who work at the West Gippsland Hospital. They are part of the fabric of our community, but they are being sorely let down by this Labor government. When you raise affordability, when you raise availability, the Prime Minister's response is, 'All you need is your Medicare card, not your credit card', and that's just blatantly not true. I've got people coming up to me at listening posts and mobile offices saying that it's never been more expensive to see a doctor. For serious ailments they're waiting weeks to get in to see their GP, in many cases, and, of course, that is proliferating other comorbidities and other health ailments they have.

I passionately believe that your postcode shouldn't determine your potential. I passionately believe that regional Australians should not be treated like second-class citizens in accessing the health care that they deserve and that they need. This federal Labor government is sorely letting them down. The Prime Minister needs to do better on this. The health minister needs to do better on this.

I want to commend my state Liberal colleague Wayne Farnham, the member for Narracan, for standing up and doing everything he can to fight for a new West Gippsland hospital. I'll work with him and anyone else that wants to improve regional health outcomes.

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