GRIEVANCE DEBATE
Mr BURNELL (Spence) (13:00): Making sure people can get the care and support they need when they need it is something at the heart of what makes a good government. That is particularly important in communities like Adelaide's northern suburbs. For too long, people in the north have sometimes had to travel further, wait longer or pay more to access services that should be available close to home.
That is changing. Across mental health, Medicare, urgent care, veteran services and cheaper medicines, the Albanese Labor government is investing in services that are making a real difference in my community. One investment I am particularly proud of is the Veterans' and Families' Wellbeing Hub in Elizabeth.
The hub recently celebrated its first birthday, marking an important milestone for a service that has already become a valuable part of our northern community. Over that first year, the hub has supported veterans and their families across northern Adelaide by building connections, improving wellbeing and providing a place where people know they are welcome. That matters in communities like ours.
The north has a proud veteran community, made up of people who have served our country, their families, carers and loved ones. The Veterans' and Families' Wellbeing Hub is there for all of them. It is somewhere where you can walk through the door for a cuppa and a chat, and where veterans can speak with people who understand military life and the experiences that come with it.
They can access wellbeing support, find practical assistance or simply connect with other people in their community. Sometimes, having somewhere welcoming to go and someone who understands what you have experienced can make an enormous difference. That is exactly what the hub provides.
I acknowledge Lives Lived Well and everyone involved in delivering the Veterans' and Families' Wellbeing Hub in Elizabeth. Their work is making sure veterans and their families in northern Adelaide know that support is available close to home. That same principle is behind the investments we are making in mental health care.
Mental health challenges can affect anyone at any age, at any stage of life. For children and young people in particular, getting the right support early can make an enormous difference. That is why I'm so proud that the northern Adelaide kids hub is now providing mental health support for children and families in our community.
Delivered in partnership with the Malinauskas Labor government, the kids hub is about providing care earlier and making that care easier to access. Families should not have to wait until a young person's mental health deteriorates to the point where they end up in crisis. Early support is crucial.
Having that support available locally matters. Making sure families know there is somewhere that they can turn matters. Alongside the kids hub, we've also delivered the Northern Adelaide Medicare Mental Health Centre.
It provides free, high-quality mental health care without the need for a referral or appointment—no appointments and no bills. That is particularly important with mental health, because asking for help can already be one of the hardest steps somebody takes. The last thing we should do is put more barriers in their way.
People should not have to worry about whether they can afford an appointment before asking for help. They should not have to navigate a complicated referral process before speaking to someone. Together, the kids hub and the Medicare Mental Health Centre mean people in the north have somewhere to turn at different stages of their lives.
I say thankyou to the minister for coming out last week to help open both those places. Mental health is only one part of the work we are doing to strengthen health care across the northern suburbs. When we came to government, there were 19 fully-bulk-billing GP practices across the north.
Today, there are 32. That is a 68 per cent increase in accessibility to world-class health care. That means more places for parents to take a sick child without worrying about how much the appointment will cost, more older Australians can see their GP when something does not feel right and more options for workers to get something checked rather than putting it off.
When somebody delays seeing a doctor due to the cost, a manageable health problem can become something far more serious. Bulk-billing is about making sure cost is not a barrier to getting basic medical care. Medicare was created by Labor because we believe your Medicare card should matter more than your credit card when you need health care.
More than four decades later, Labor is still strengthening Medicare. Previously, for many people in the north, the emergency department was one of the only options to treat a broken bone or stitch a wound. Medicare urgent care clinics are changing that.
The Elizabeth Clinic provides another place for people in my community to receive treatment for urgent, non-life threatening conditions. You can walk through the door with your Medicare card and receive the care you need without worrying about the cost. Across our Medicare urgent care clinics, there have now been more than 37,000 presentations—that is, more than 37,000 occasions where people have been able to access urgent care outside a hospital emergency department.
That is good for patients and good for our hospitals. It's also another example of what happens when we invest in health services closer to where people actually live. But access to health care does not end when somebody walks out of a clinic.
Often, the next step is the pharmacy. That is why cheaper medicines have been such an important part of our work to reduce the cost of health care. People across the north have now saved more than $21 million through cheaper prescriptions.
That is nothing short of an incredible saving. But what matters is what those savings mean to individual households—for a pensioner who takes several medications, for someone managing a chronic illness and for parents filling prescriptions for their children, it all adds up. That is money staying in household budgets rather than disappearing at the pharmacy counter.
For some families, it means a little more money for groceries; for others, it might help with an electricity bill or filling up the car. The important thing is that people should never be forced to choose between looking after their health and paying for the other essentials in their lives. When we put all of these investments together, we can see the kind of health and wellbeing system we are trying to build in the northern suburbs.
Our youngest residents can access mental health support through the Northern Adelaide Kids Hub. As people move through adulthood, the Northern Adelaide Medicare Mental Health Centre provides somewhere to turn to when they need support. More GP practices across our suburbs are fully bulk-billing.
When an urgent medical problem arises, the Elizabeth Medicare Urgent Care Clinic is there. If someone needs medicine afterward, we are making those prescriptions cheaper. For those who have served our country and for the families who have supported them, the Adelaide Veterans' and Families' Wellbeing Hub in Elizabeth provides somewhere they can find support, connection and understanding.
These are different services, but they are all built around the same principle. People should be able to get the support they need close to where they live. Your postcode or your bank balance shouldn't ever determine the quality of health care you can access.
That is what these investments are about. It's no secret that the north is growing, our communities are changing and the services available to people need to grow with them. That means planning for the future rather than waiting for services to come under pressure.
It means investing in communities before the need becomes overwhelming. It means recognising that Northern Adelaide deserves its fair share of government investment. For decades, people across the north have worked hard, raised their families and contributed enormously to South Australia.
They deserve a government that backs them in return. There is always more work to do, and there will always be more that I will fight for on behalf of our community, but we are building a strong foundation. I'm incredibly proud of the progress we are making across the north.
That is what investing in our community looks like. Most importantly, that is what delivering for the people of the north looks like. In closing, beyond that small cluster of services that we have delivered, we've been so lucky to establish our second headspace in Gawler.
It is making a huge difference to teenagers wanting to access mental health services in the northernmost point of our electorate. There's also the upgrade to the headspace in Edinburgh, which is now a headspace Plus. Coupled with Sonder's Safe Haven Salisbury, we have this tapestry of healthcare services that are providing essential support to people in their darkest hour of need from the southern tip of my electorate to the northern tip, from the eastern side to the western side, providing hope for families when they need it most.
It's something that I'm extremely proud to have been delivering alongside the Albanese Labor government. I thank the House.