The National Rural Health Alliance’s petition to the Australian Parliament calling for better health care in rural Australia, was considered by the House of Representative’s Petitions Committee and certified as meeting the requirements for petitions. The petition was signed by many at the recent National Rural Health Conference in Perth and also online across the country.
It was presented to the House on 4 November 2024 and has now been referred to the Minister for Health and Aged Care. Under the petition requirements, Ministers are asked to respond to a referred petition within 90 days.
In the petition, the Alliance asked the House to deliver a 10-year National Rural Health Strategy as a compact between the Commonwealth and state and territory governments through a schedule to the National Health Reform Agreement, which embeds rural and remote policy and funded priorities for action. It also called for the Strategy to be underpinned by a $1billion National Rural Health Fund to provide support for local place-based community health care solutions and to build and sustain primary and community health services, into the future.