Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

These are constituency statements, so I want to mention five constituents: Karin Rezkalla, Grace Smith, Madeline Ingram, James Harrison and Nick Greenberg. They are students of the University of New South Wales medical school at Wagga Wagga. Last Thursday, the member for Macarthur and I opened this facility. In excess of $20 million was provided as part of the $95.4 million Murray-Darling Medical Schools Network. That is a network with facilities and medical schools—in Victoria, at Bendigo, Mildura and Shepparton; and, in New South Wales, at Wagga Wagga, Orange and Dubbo.

We know that, when you train young medical students from end to end in a rural setting, 75 per cent of them are likely to stay in a rural setting. I hear 'hear, hear' from the member for Richmond. She knows, as every regional member would, that rural medicine is unique. And here's the member for Macarthur. I'm just talking about the rural medical school that you and I opened, Member for Macarthur, and I thanked you for your fine words at that opening. Your timeliness is, as always, perfect.

But there are snakebites and there are car crashes, and there are patients with trauma who come to emergency departments that these students would not possibly see or potentially see—one could say 'thank goodness'—in a metropolitan graduates setting. By doing the end-to-end training, there's every likelihood they'll stay in a regional setting. There's every likelihood that they'll fall in love with somebody in that regional setting.

I have to thank not only those five wonderful young students but indeed also Dr Nick Stephenson, who was chair of the Rural Medical School Implementation Committee I set up in 2011, and Professor Gerard Carroll. Those two provided thousands of hours of voluntary service and time. Associate Professor Adrian van der Rijt, Professor Graeme Richardson, Associate Professor Richard Harrison, Dr Louis Baggio, the former member for Riverina Kay Hull, the former state member for Wagga Wagga Daryl Maguire—succeeded by current member Dr Joe McGirr on the committee in June 2019—worked tirelessly. They worked absolutely feverishly to make sure that this became a reality. It was not only they, but so many others besides. We have them to thank, and we acknowledge that, in the future, this is going to make such a difference for rural medicine. We've got a doctor shortage in the bush, and this network is going to provide some, if not all, of the relief for that crisis that currently pervades our rural areas.