Marion Scrymgour (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the opening of the Manayingkarirra public health centre in Maningrida in my electorate. It was great to be there last week for the official opening of what is an amazing facility. I'm proud that our government contributed $14 million for the design and construction of this vital centre, which will go a long way in helping healthcare outcomes in the Top End. The centre includes new clinical and consultation rooms dedicated to rheumatic heart disease and upgraded care rooms for training, cancer and, in particular, tuberculosis. The opening of this centre is a real milestone for Maningrida and the surrounding homelands. I want to say a big thank you to the Mala'la Health Service Aboriginal Corporation, who'll operate the centre. Mala'la delivers so many important services in the Top End, particularly in Maningrida, and their work with rheumatic heart disease and tuberculosis is essential in keeping that community healthy and safe.

Improving the delivery of community controlled remote health services is something that our government is particularly passionate about. It is an area that I've been working in for many years, both inside this place and on the ground across the Northern Territory. Remote areas, which are hardest hit by chronic disease and illness, face so many challenges in accessing health care. Our government has a proud record in making sure that ACCHOs in those communities have been funded and resourced.

I want to say thank you and congratulations to the CEO of Mala'la, Ray Matthews, and the manager of primary health services, Jessica Gatti, who've fought so hard for this facility on behalf of their community. To Charlie Gunaburra—who's been an Aboriginal health practitioner for nearly 40 years in that community and is still involved in trying to combat tuberculosis and rheumatic heart disease—to Reggie Wurridjal, to Lesley Woolf and to Dr Melanie Matthews: I want to say thank you for your work in getting this centre up and running. It is a massive achievement and wouldn't have happened without them. It was attended by Christine Connors, who was the Chief Health Officer in the Northern Territory government, and it was great to see Dr Paul Burgess, who is currently the Chief Health Officer in the Northern Territory. I'm looking forward to seeing this facility serve the Maningrida region in coming years and help our locals go from strength to strength.

I thank everyone involved, because there are increasing numbers of rheumatic heart disease and also tuberculosis, which we thought had been eradicated but which has come back, and we've seen recently, in Central Australia, diphtheria also coming back. We do have to deal with these chronic diseases.