Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to acknowledge the wonderful contribution of the Royal Flying Doctor Service, which they make and have made for such a long time across rural and remote parts of Australia. Earlier this month I had the great pleasure of opening the RFDS's dynamic new visitor information display at the Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame and Outback Heritage Centre in Longreach. The display will ensure that the RFDS story and its history will be conveyed to many thousands of people who visit the hall of fame, and will also add to the other stories of the history of the pioneers and the pioneering spirit of the people of the outback.

The RFDS has provided a mantle of safety for travellers and the people of the outback for the past 84 years, and I know they will continue to do it for many, many decades to come. Many of these visitors and tourists are from our cities and overseas, and there are also those people who live in rural and remote parts of Australia. The Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame in Longreach is the perfect place to tell this magnificent and wonderful part of our history and the ongoing story.

After the opening of the Royal Flying Doctor Service visitor information centre, which I was privileged to open, I spoke to one of the flight nurses about the sort of call that they are likely to receive when they are called to an emergency. She said that one went like this: the flight nurse asked the caller, 'What was the colour of the skin under the gash on the patient?' And the bushie said, 'Well, I'll ask me old mate because my foot's in the paddock. See, my foot's not with me.' From this, the nurse had to deal immediately with an emergency situation in a remote community. Of course, the Royal Flying Doctor Service was once again on its way to help that patient, but I think that it describes graphically the laid-back approach of many people of rural and remote Australia: 'I'll be right; there is someone always worse off.' It describes an emergency situation that can often come across the desk of the Royal Flying Doctor Service centre.

The RFDS has come a long way since the early vision of the Reverend John Flynn. Flynn witnessed the daily struggle of pioneers living in remote areas, where just two doctors so often provided the only medical care for an area of almost two million square kilometres. Today, the RFDS owns a fleet of some 53 fully instrumented and medically equipped aircraft with the latest navigation technology. Flynn's vision to provide the mantle of safety for these people started on 15 May 1928, and his dream became a reality from that very humble beginning when they used a pedal radio to give medical advice to remote stations and communities across Australia.

Today, the RFDS operates from 21 bases across Australia, and each year pilots fly the equivalent of 25 round trips to the moon. The RFDS doctors and their flight nurses are responsible for the care of over 270,000 patients each year. I commend the Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame and the executive of the RFDS for the wonderful display that they now have— (Time expired)