A petition has been submitted to the Australian Parliament to build a healthier future for rural Australia.
The National Rural Health Alliance (the Alliance) submitted the petition calling for a 10-year National Rural Health Strategy including a schedule for the next National Health Reform Agreement embedding rural and remote policy and funded priorities for action.
Nearly 30 percent of Australians living and working outside of cities are being denied the basic human right to health and are dying younger than their urban counterparts. Rural Australians bring in two-thirds of Australia’s export earnings, 50 per cent of tourism income and produce over 90 per cent of Australia’s food. Yet, governments spend $848 less each year on the health of a person living rurally than someone who lives in the city.
The Alliance underscores that rural health has been neglected for too long in policy, budgets and priority setting and that Commonwealth and State investments are neither coordinated nor sustained.
We call on all Australians to help build a healthier future for rural Australia by signing the petition.