Mr COULTON (Parkes—Chief Nationals Whip) (11:50): I move:
That this House:
(1) acknowledges that:
(a) Royal Far West (RFW) is a national charity dedicated to the health and wellbeing of Australia’s country children across more than 200 schools and 364 communities; and
(b) RFW is celebrating its centenary of service to Australia in 2024;
(2) notes that:
(a) in 2019, RFW received funding from the Department of Health and Aged Care to provide services online to schools and preschools under the National Paediatric Telecare Service (NPTS), and that funding finishes in June next year;
(b) workforce shortages in regional areas, and a resulting lack of access to services, has seen high demand for NPTS;
(c) the NPTS overcomes the tyranny of distance and reduces expenses for families in the midst of a cost of living crisis; and
(d) operating across four states, the NPTS has provided support to 20,000 children, parents and educators; and
(3) urges the Government to provide ongoing funding to RFW to allow this vital allied health and mental health service to continue to support families in rural, regional and remote Australia.
In December this year, next month, Royal Far West will be 100 years old. I can proudly say that its roots are firmly planted in the Parkes electorate. Reverend Drummond, who spent time himself recuperating in Manly all that time ago, thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be wonderful to bring children from the country to the coast, where they could get medical care and assistance—not only those children but their families as well?’
The first lot of children that came in from the country came from places like Brewarrina, Bourke and Cobar. One of the first establishments was an old railway carriage that was repurposed for use as a clinic in Cobar. So Royal Far West has a long and proud history in delivering care to children from remote parts of Australia, largely New South Wales, but it has now expanded into other areas. Originally, as children and families were brought in to their facility at Manly, they had an all-encompassing, all-round service that focused on not only the needs of the child but how the family could assist as well.
Clearly, with the growing need and the changes in technology, Royal Far West has now expanded, providing services over a much larger area to a larger number of schools. In 2019, Royal Far West was funded under the previous government, under Minister Hunt—the regional health minister—to expand their services under telecare. We are now seeing a significant number of children. Indeed, last year they supported 21,000 country children. While telecare and technology is not a complete replacement, it’s certainly enabling them to reach a larger number of people.
I’ve actually sat in on some of the lessons. A great example of this is Narromine Public School, in my electorate, which has been doing this now for 10 years. There is a coordinator in the school. There is an occupational therapist, a speech therapist or whoever working on screen. What the therapist has is replicated in the school. We’ve seen, after the initial assessments done of the child, significant contribution. As we know—and my good friend and colleague opposite the member for Macarthur would know—the sooner an intervention can happen with a child the better chance we’ve got to get them on the straight and narrow.
There is a concern, though, that the funding runs out next year, and I met with Royal Far West last week. They are concerned, because they are caught up in the electoral cycle as well. We’ve got an election coming up. There’s uncertainty around that. Will there be a budget? Will there not be a budget? All of those things are concerning them. Now that they’ve got this up and running, if they had this funding cut, they would have to see a reduction of about 50 per cent in the number of students that they support. Clearly, the purpose for me for bringing this motion to the House is not only to provide to the members and the House itself the importance of the Far West but also to highlight to the government of the day—and also the opposition as well if there’s a change of government—the need for certainty around this funding for the Royal Far West. It does a wonderful job. It gets a lot of children in a practical and meaningful way and is making a huge change to what they’re doing. Twenty per cent of the children who are under these programs are Indigenous and 50 per cent are under eight years old. That’s exactly the time when this intervention wants to be. I recommend the motion to the House and strongly urge the government to look at the funding ongoing.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Young): Is there a seconder for the motion?
Mr Chester: I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.
