Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Our government is delivering an additional 30 Medicare subsidised MRI services across the country. Indeed, our government can do this because of sound economic management. The expansion of Medicare eligible MRI licences for 30 additional sites is estimated to provide access to important diagnostic scans for up to 132,000 Australians a year, patients like those living in my electorate in the Riverland, if it's successful in its application to access one of these 30 licences. Over a five-week period in my electorate, I ran a petition, collecting signatures from across the Riverland from people who would benefit from one of these licences. It would save them a three-hour trip to the closest service. I presented this petition to the federal minister today with over 4,000 signatures. That's 4,000 signatures in less than five weeks, demonstrating that an MRI licence for the Riverland is very much needed. With applications currently being assessed, I'm confident that my persistent lobbying of the federal minister will pay off and residents of the Riverland will get access to the services they deserve and which, throughout Labor's time in government, they didn't get.