Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker, Minister for Regional Health, Regional Communications and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like to thank the member for Cowper for his question. While I'm on my feet, I'd also like to thank him for hosting me in his electorate a few weeks ago, where I was able to meet with many of the highly qualified specialists who deliver services in his community. But the highlight of my visit was a visit to the Werin Aboriginal Corporation Medical Centre, which is a model that we should be emulating—a multidisciplinary team of GPs, allied health and community health. They even have a Men's Shed at the back to supply mental health support for older men in the community.

Regional Australia is doing incredibly well at the moment. We've hit a purple patch. Despite a very rocky start to the year, with fires, floods and finally the pandemic, there's a lot of interest in regional Australia—not only for the hundreds of jobs that are available now but also as a destination for tourists to visit. One of the reasons is the way we have approached COVID-19 in regional Australia. Despite some infections, it has been incredibly successful. Respiratory clinics have been rolled out to enable people to be checked. We had the extra surge workforce and the retrieval for the Flying Doctor Service. But the real success for regional Australia has been telehealth. There has been a lot of talk about telehealth. In the Modified Monash Model areas 2 to 7, there have been 9.4 million telehealth consultations—and that's just the start. Just last week, with Minister Hazzard from the New South Wales government, we launched a trial in telestroke so that people in regional Australia can get the absolute best advice in those vital seconds and minutes after someone has a stroke.

But there is more to do. In the budget, we committed $1.2 billion to the small regional hospitals that are so important to deliver that health care. Also, we are looking at more innovative models. We funded those in the budget for places like Canowindra in the member for Calare's electorate, where Dr Bullock has brought in a multidisciplinary team to really service that town and the villages around it. This is bringing medical trials out to the regions, so not only are those people getting the benefits of being part of life-saving trials but our medical workforce are getting to take part in research.

As the rollout of a vaccine for COVID-19 is looking more and more likely in the New Year, this government will be making sure that regional Australians, some of our most vulnerable communities, will be at the forefront of receiving that life-saving and life-protecting vaccine. This government is committed to regional Australia and to the health of regional Australians.