Senate debates

Tuesday, 17 June 2008

Remote Area Nurses

3:43 pm

Photo of Lyn AllisonLyn Allison (Victoria, Australian Democrats) Share this | | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—
(a)   notes that remote area nurses are the mainstay of health service provision in remote Indigenous communities, often providing the only local health service available;
(b)   recognises that remote area nurses provide an invaluable service to some of the most disadvantaged populations in Australia, while their work context and role put them at risk of emotional and physical burnout due to insufficient access to resources, limited professional support and social and cultural isolation; and
(c)   calls on the Government to recognise the primacy of remote area nurses in providing health care to remote Indigenous communities and to improve remote area nurse representation in government efforts to develop long-term plans of action to overturn existing inequalities in health services between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

Question agreed to.