ADJOURNMENT

Ms URQUHART (Braddon) (16:54): I want to talk about the Burnie Health Hub and how it's strengthening Medicare for our region and right across the north-west of Tasmania. The Burnie Health Hub is a powerful example of what can happen when local vision, skilled health professionals and federal Labor investment come together for the benefit of our community. The Albanese Labor government committed over $8 million to help deliver the Burnie Health Hub, complementing our work to strengthen Medicare, improve access to care and make health services more affordable for people right across Braddon.

The hub already hosts the Burnie Medicare urgent care clinic, giving locals access to walk in bulk-billed care for urgent but not life-threatening health needs. Over 6,000 individual consultations have already occurred at the UCC, including myself on Easter Sunday. The hub will soon also become the permanent home of the Burnie Medicare Mental Health Centre, providing free, welcoming and accessible support for people seeking help with their mental health.

What makes the Burnie Health Hub so special is the mix of services coming together under one roof. Alongside urgent care, the centre is home to a pathology service. It will have a playgroup.

Laurel House, a sexual and family violence counselling service, moved in a little over a week ago. Women's Legal Service Tasmania also moved in, and other community groups are all getting ready to move in very soon. With a bus stop right out the front, it's becoming a genuine community hub that's easy for Burnie residents to reach.

I recently hosted Health Minister Mark Butler in the electorate, where he met some of the wonderful and amazing health professionals in Burnie who are not just innovating but investing and delivering great services for local people. We have gastroenterologists, pharmacists, pathologists, sonographers, physiotherapists, ophthalmologists and other allied health professionals who are helping transform what is available in the region.

We have our gastroenterologist who built himself the Tasmanian Digestive Centre, his own day hospital. Just over the road from there, we have fantastic ophthalmologists, including a very credible ophthalmologist who has worked in the field for many, many years, not only dealing with people's eyes but actually diagnosing and assisting people with much more serious health conditions.

Having these services in Braddon matters. It means existing residents can access more of the care that they need much closer to home, almost right on their back door, without the cost of having to travel to Hobart or to Melbourne. It also gives people considering moving to our beautiful part of the north-west coast greater confidence that their health needs and the needs of their families can be met locally.

This work is complemented by the great things that are happening at the University of Tasmania's Cradle Coast campus, where rural general practice and nursing students can now train much closer to home, build careers in the region and stay connected to the communities they are from and that need them. My colleague the member for Leichhardt talked about training people in our regions and them being able to stay there.

We know that when that happens they actually stay in the region, instead of going away and not coming home. We actually have our own home-grown specialists within our areas who want to live and work and play where they grew up and have family support. For everyday Australians, this is part of a bigger Labor plan to make health more accessible and affordable.

In my electorate, 68 per cent of GP practices are 100 per cent bulk-billing, and the local bulk-billing rate has reached almost 95 per cent. That's 95 per cent of people who go to the doctor and do not have to pay a gap fee. People across the region have saved almost $13 million on 2.7 million prescriptions through our cheaper medicines.

The Burnie Health Hub shows just what is possible when government backs local leadership and invests in regional healthcare. Only Labor will keep making that real difference to accessible and affordable healthcare in Burnie, right across Braddon and right across our regions throughout Tasmania. House adjourned at 16:59