Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to express dismay at the abysmal state of health services available to Australians living in remote areas. I refer to an article in the Courier Mail newspaper this week which referred to the Best for the Bush, a report complied by the Royal Flying Doctor Service. This report, which should be compulsory reading for all senators, revealed Australian women living in very remote areas had life expectancies 19 years lower than women living in major cities. The report revealed Australian men living in very remote areas had life expectancies almost 14 years lower than men living in major cities. According to this alarming report, Australians living in the bush are 2.8 times more likely to be hospitalised, 2.3 times more likely to die by suicide and 3.8 times more likely to die from diabetes.

These are appalling statistics. They reflect not only a general lack of competence by successive Labor and coalition governments, failing to address rural health issues, but the overemphasis placed on Indigenous health care at the expense of non-Indigenous Australians in the bush. The gaps in Indigenous health outcomes are very real, and it's usually all that we hear about, but this RFDS report makes it clear poor health in remote Australia is not just an Indigenous problem. Isn't it time we do away with racially exclusive health programs and address people's health based on need not race? Race should not be a factor in any government policy ever. Either we are all Australians, fairly and equally, or we are not.