ADJOURNMENT
Mr LIM (Tangney) (16:55): Since the Booragoon Medicare Urgent Care Clinic in Tangney opened in February this year, there have been more than 3,150 visits to this clinic. It helps take pressure off the emergency room at nearby Fiona Stanley Hospital, and the feedback from the community has been very positive. Now in this budget, all 136 Medicare urgent care clinics around Australia, including the one in Tangney, will be a permanent part of Medicare.
Our government cut the maximum cost of a prescription on the PBS to $25 and, for concession card holders, to $7.70. There have been more than 2.79 million cheaper prescription scripts in Tangney under the Labor policies. With our investment in bulk-billing, there are almost 3,800 fully bulk-billing practices across Australia.
I recently visited Samy Medical Practice and Trinity Mental Health, two bulk-billing practices in Canning Vale. It is great to see bulk-billing practices like these in my community. All these measures contribute to strengthening our public health system, and it means fewer out-of-pocket costs.
We are providing an additional $25 billion for public hospitals, taking total Commonwealth funding for state-run hospitals to $220 billion between 2026-27 and 2030-31. In my home state of Western Australia, the additional amount is $2.4 billion, which adds to a total of $23.4 billion over five years. This funding will help improve hospital waiting times, reduce emergency department crowding and free up hospital beds.
This funding is very important. I recently visited Borong in my electorate of Tangney. His wife had to wait for 11 hours at a local hospital.
I also spoke with Michael, another Tangney resident, about his experience of waiting for 12 hours at the hospital. I agree with Borong and Michael that these long wait times are unacceptable, and I share in their advocacy to prioritise fixing this issue. This has been an important week in our parliament, and I originally planned to speak more about tax cuts and our measures for first home buyers.
But my heart is so very heavy today because yesterday there was a fatal crash in my community between two cars at the intersection of Garden Street and Boardman Road in Canning Vale. I wish to give my condolences to the family and the loved ones of the little four-year-old girl who tragically lost her life in this traffic accident. My heart breaks for this family.
It is deeply tragic to have the life of a little girl, with all the promise in the world, cut short in just a split second. There has sadly been a number of fatalities on Canning Vale's roads. Just last month, a 42-year-old man died following a crash on Nicholson Road.
As a former police officer, I remember being called to the scenes of accidents. The tragedies did not always happen on high-speed roads, and these accidents have all stayed with me for many, many years. I have had constituents reach out to me about road safety in Canning Vale, including following yesterday's traffic crash.
Like many people in Canning Vale, I drive on Nicholson Road and Garden Street on a regular basis. It is scary and sad to see so many accidents and near-accidents on these roads. Our community needs to come together to see how we can address this, because even one accident is one too many.
As a police officer, I always reminded drivers to please understand the importance of road safety and of good responsible driving. Today I also ask that we take care of our driving and we take care of each other. House adjourned at 17:00