Mike Freelander
Macarthur · Australian Labor Party · Australia
“She started the longest and biggest prospective study of allergy and anaphylaxis in the developed world, called HealthNuts, which is still ongoing. She had a PhD, and her PhD thesis was on liver cell transplantation using a mouse model of Wilson's disease, a very rare but well-known cause of liver failure.”
“I knew Katie Allen in a professional capacity prior to her entering this place as the second paediatrician to be elected to the House of Representatives. I dealt with her professionally in her role as the head of the Centre for Food and Allergy Research in the Murdoch Children's Research Institute.”
“She was a really deep thinker, a really decent person and someone—like many paediatricians—who understood the implications of the social determinants of health and was willing to work hard to make sure that Australia led the way in paediatric health care. She was brave and she was steadfast. She was someone who stood up for her views.”
“Recently, we celebrated Australian Made Week in Macarthur, and to mark that occasion I visited the fantastic team at Sebel, a manufacturing business which produces chairs, stools, tables, desks and storage units in Minto in my electorate of Macarthur.”
“It's great to see the Sebel tradition of high-quality products being maintained now in my electorate of Macarthur. Harry and Queenie are long gone, but their legacy continues with a business that is employing lots of people and providing innovative products and 21st century manufacturing, including recycling.”
“It was founded by my friend Ross Doonan in 2004 and has gone on to national and international acclaim, producing products with coating. You often see them on railway stations—the signs and chairs that have wood coatings on aluminium products. I myself am doing a home renovation that will be using DECO products.”
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“The reforms are all important steps that our government is taking to reinforce the integrity and viability of Medicare, one of our finest institutions and part of every Labor member's DNA. Ever since it was established, successive Labor governments have worked to improve and reinforce the Medicare system, and this bill is another part of its proud history. We did a lot in the previous parliament. We couldn't repair all the damage done to the health system by the coalition's 10 years in power, but, every day, it's part of our DNA to make sure that all Australians get access to Medicare benefits and to support our health system. Ever since it was established, Labor governments have worked to improve and reinforce the Medicare system, and this bill is just another part of this very proud history.”
“Overall, the current powers are so narrow that they impede the proper exercise of functions to detect, investigate and refer fraud or non-compliance matters to higher authorities. We're also amending legislation regarding vaping and tobacco products and how they are advertised. Again, this is very important in an electorate like mine where there are vaping and tobacco shops appearing every five minutes and our young people are exposed to the harms of nicotine addiction and tobacco smoking. Vaping is a major scourge in our society. However, after talking to several of the high schools in the Macarthur electorate at least, I am pleased to report that they are noticing fewer problems with vaping in the last 12 months. That's a tribute to the health minister's diligence in pursuing compliance around tobacco and vaping laws.”
“For too long, there have been unnecessary restrictions and challenging inconsistencies that have prohibited investigators from carrying out their work efficiently and effectively. I've spoken to many of the previous Medicare compliance heads, who I've known personally, including my old friend Tony Webber, who was a GP practising in my area for many years. They have all mentioned the difficulty in dealing with the previously very fragmented legislation and its compliance measures. Importantly, this new legislation expands the reach of powers to include offences under the Criminal Code Act to ensure fraud or other criminal acts can be appropriately punished. This was previously very difficult in the old legislation.”
“This will streamline the process, making it much more efficient, and it will certainly take a lot of pressure off federal MPs, who are often approached by pharmacies wanting approval for a new pharmacy in their electorate. It will certainly reduce the administrative burden and support more timely access to pharmaceutical services in new electorates. This is particularly important for booming areas such as my own electorate of Macarthur as well as more rural and regional areas. We are bringing together previously fragmented legislation and investigative tools under a more efficient system to help investigate fraudulent claims in Medicare and pharmaceutical benefits.”
“I also note it's really important in the member for Hume's electorate, where there are new suburbs, like in my electorate, springing up all the time. I constantly get calls about the lack of healthcare resources in both his electorate and in mine. By amending the National Health Act, we're improving the process by which the minister can exercise discretion to approve pharmacists opening pharmacies in different areas. As I said, this has been a real problem in some of the rapidly developing areas, and I applaud it. It's achieved by combining the two stages of the current process into one stage, restricting repeat applications, allowing the minister to delegate the approval of a request form and increasing the term of appointment for Australian Community Pharmacy Authority members to three years.”
“This will tighten loopholes and improve accountability whilst providing the minister with the discretion to allow claims to be submitted after one year if a case can be made. Further, we're streamlining the pharmacy approval process to make it easier for new pharmacies to open, thereby improving patient access to the advice and the medications that they need. This is very important in an electorate like mine, Macarthur, where we have new suburbs springing up all the time. Often they don't have infrastructure, including health infrastructure. Often it's very difficult for people to open new pharmacies in those areas, and this is because of the old-fashioned rules that will be present until this legislation passes.”
“Some key areas of reform in the current legislation include reducing the periods in which bulk-billing claims can be submitted from two years to one year. I think that is very important. If you can't get your claims in within a year, it certainly seems to me that there is something wrong with your practice. In my own practice, with Medicare claims, I made sure the claims were submitted within four weeks of people presenting to me and the claims being registered. We submitted our claims very quickly, and the vast majority of practices will be able to submit their claims within that 12-month period. We're reducing it from it the two-year period because, the longer we give people to claim, the more likely there is to be noncompliance and difficulty with records.”
“There have certainly been instances of fraud; however, much more has been lost due to the complexity of the system, which can result in multiple services done across a whole range of different practitioners, most of whom are well meaning but have made mistakes in compliance. The amendments are necessary to protect the integrity and support the ongoing sustainability of our health benefits scheme, the Medicare Benefits Schedule, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and the Child Dental Benefits Schedule. All of these are very close to my heart, and, whilst it's clear that more could be done in delivering some services, such as dental, to our constituents, the system itself has become overly complex and overly unnecessarily tied up in lack of information and in red tape.”
“We have certainly seen that some people are already being charged because of some of the compliance problems and outright fraud that have occurred in the system across some health practitioners, including pharmacists, medical practitioners and nursing staff. I must stress that the Philip review, however, found that health professionals overwhelmingly act with integrity and the system itself has been very stable in the last 20 years. A number of reports have been made about the money lost to incorrect or inappropriate claims, but this is tiny compared with the overall scheme.”
“Whilst it's by no means perfect, there were some major advances in control of illegal tobacco and vaping made in the last parliament. It's worth noting also the work undertaken to get to this moment, as these amendments respond directly to the recommendations of the Philip review, which highlighted some weaknesses in compliance and oversight. Having said that, overwhelmingly our medical practitioners, pharmacists, allied health and nursing staff are very diligent in compliance and very diligent in making sure that there are no deviations from appropriate and proper compliance in delivering health services and medications. In its report, the Philip review found that, whilst the majority of health professionals act with integrity, the system is not immune to abuse.”
“We know that, even before the pandemic, there were medicine shortages, but during the pandemic this was exacerbated by supply chain issues, and they are continuing to this day. A number of medications, including medications that we require quite frequently, such as some antibiotics, some cholesterol medication and some drugs that are used for high blood pressure et cetera, are in short supply. There are moderate to severe shortages in some of these areas, and it's very important that this regulatory framework allows tools to anticipate and manage those shortages by looking at different supply systems and compliance with those supply systems. It also refines and redevelops public health legislation, including those around tobacco and vaping.”
“Unfortunately, the coalition does not understand the importance of a program such as Medicare and the importance that health care plays in having a vital functioning economy. At its core, this bill advances three principle aims. Firstly, it safeguards the integrity of Medicare by tightening rules and strengthening the payment systems and compliance powers. This is very important in terms of not just how our medical practices function but how our pharmacies function, how our allied health programs work and how we can make sure that compliance is part of the whole system. Secondly, it modernises the regulatory framework around medicines and pharmacies, including with better tools to anticipate and manage shortages.”
“At its core, this bill advances the importance of Medicare as a social program and provides guarantees about its continuity as a social program for all Australians. The work that was done by the Albanese government in the last term has been very important in repairing the damage caused by the coalition's 10 years in power. They didn't present one strengthening-Medicare bill in the entire 10 years they were in government. Tragically, we saw increasing pressures not just on our public health hospitals but also on our Medicare system in the 10 years of coalition government. Bulk-billing rates were beginning to deteriorate, even as the coalition were in their last years of power in this country.”
“This bill, the Health Legislation Amendment (Improved Medicare Integrity and Other Measures) Bill 2025, is a very important one. I'm grateful to the minister for her work on this legislation and for bringing it to our parliament, as this is a vital step in the strengthening our nation's most treasured social program, Medicare. Medicare was the backbone of my professional life for almost 40 years before I entered this parliament. It's something that Labor holds as one of its treasures delivered to the Australian people. We recognise the importance of providing health care to our constituents much more so than does the coalition. This bill is important. It was delivered to the House of Representatives during the last parliament but was delayed in the Senate and unfortunately lapsed before it could be passed.”
“This legislation is a small part of that, but it's a sign of a government that understands the health system. Question agreed to. Bill read a second time. Message from the Governor-General recommending appropriation announced. Ordered that this bill be reported to the House without amendment.”
“There is much more to be done, and the reduction in prescription costs to a maximum of $25, which the legislation introduced today, is a huge advance. The Labor government understands the importance of health care across the whole economy and across the whole spectrum of Australia. No matter who you are, you get equitable access to health care in Australia because of the work of Labor governments. There have been some reasonable coalition health ministers—Peter Baume was one—and I must say that I think the work that Greg Hunt did in the pandemic was good. But, overall, Australia can thank Labor governments for the maintenance of a universal healthcare insurance system and equitable access to care, and I'm very proud to be part of a government that does support that.”
“My belief is that the single biggest advance in health care in the last parliament was the 60-day prescribing, which effectively halved the costs for people paying for their medication. It was a huge advance and long, long overdue. But we had to fight the coalition tooth and nail to get that legislation through, and there was a huge marketing campaign by the pharmacists against 60-day prescribing. Absolute no-brainer—virtually every other country in the world had 60- or even 90-day prescribing. This made the system much more efficient. People didn't have to go to the pharmacist every month; they could go every couple of months. It also meant that the costs of the prescriptions were mostly halved for many of our constituents—a great advance.”
“We are still importing 50 per cent our GP workforce. That's too many. We need to be training more Australian-born people or Australian citizens as doctors. That's really important. We need to look at ways that we can encourage more of our medical trainees to move into rural, regional and even outer metropolitan areas. I think the present modelling, the modified Monash modelling, needs to be tweaked, certainly. And it's true in my electorate of Macarthur; we need to have better access to GPs in my electorate out of south-western Sydney. We need to look at ways that we can use other members of the health workforce—our clinical nurses, our pharmacists, our allied health professionals—to provide access to primary care for people. I'll say a little bit about our pharmacists.”
“The freezing of the Medicare rebates for almost 10 years by the previous coalition government was a tragedy, and it has led us to a position where we have to play catch-up. We can't fix the health system and every problem overnight, but I'm very proud to be part of a government with the Minister for Health and Ageing, Mark Butler, who understands the importance of national access to health care for everyone in an equitable manner. I'm proud to be part of a government that understands that, and we are repairing the damage that was done by almost 10 years of a coalition government. We're not going to fix it overnight, but we are dealing with it on an incremental basis, and there are many issues to deal with. It's not just about access to GPs—we need to train more of our own doctors, for example. That's expensive, but we need to do it.”
“That achievement was destroyed by Malcolm Fraser in his government, and reintroduced as Medicare by the Hawke government, and we have relied on Medicare since that time. The opposition tried again to destroy it in the Howard government, and then Peter Dutton, one of the worst health ministers that Australia has ever had, tried to introduce Medicare copayments and to break down the fundamental basis of Medicare—equitable care for all. That was a great shame. Luckily, it didn't last long. The Abbott government, who also didn't value health care, also didn't last long. For the opposition to say they've always protected Medicare is simply untrue, and the track record shows that.”
“This bill is important. The government is looking at the healthcare system across the whole spectrum of healthcare provision, and this is a sign that a government really understands and cares about the health of our people. I recommend this bill to the House. If I can say just a little bit more in the few minutes that are left to me, we heard some of the complaints about the health system from the opposition. This is my 50th year working in the public hospital system, and it seems to me like a very short period, but I've seen dramatic changes in the healthcare system over that period. I was a medical student when Gough Whitlam first introduced Medibank to Australia, and it was a revolution. It enabled people of limited means to access good-quality health care, sometimes for the first time. I'm very, very proud of that achievement.”
“Unless you have a well-trained pathologist to look at a blood film, it can sometimes be very difficult to identify the leukaemic cells. It can lead to delays in diagnoses and occasionally to death. Inaccurate bacteriological management can lead to misdiagnoses of meningitis, for example, and that can have serious complications. So, even though our pathologists are in the background, I'm very proud of the work they do and I think that it is really important for a world-class health system like Australia to have such wonderful pathology providers. We are very, very lucky. Obviously, we are a big country, and there can sometimes be difficulties in providing these services to rural and remote areas, but for the most part our pathology providers do that, and they do it in a very efficient way. We are very lucky to have them.”
“They really did lift their game and provide diagnostic certainty to Australian physicians dealing with people with COVID and other respiratory illnesses—at levels unprecedented in my lifetime. I thank them very much for their skills and their tireless efforts during that time. This legislation will make their accreditation cheaper for the pathologists, cheaper for the companies, and much more efficient and more streamlined. In my electorate of Macarthur there are a range of pathology clinics, all of whom are excellent and all of whom provide daily diagnostic tests to my constituents in a very accurate manner. It is really important. I've seen poor pathology results in some places that have led to misdiagnoses of conditions like childhood leukaemia.”
“We rely on them also to provide services to our patients in a cost-effective and efficient manner. We have private providers who are now providing pathology services around the world. I had a small involvement with Sonic Healthcare in the very beginning of their existence, almost 40 years ago. Sonic pathology now provides pathology services in the United States, in Europe, in Asia and particularly in the South Pacific. They are a fantastic company, and I'd like to give them and their CEO, Colin Goldschmidt, a shout-out because I think they've provided a wonderful service around the country over many years. At no stage in recent memory have pathologists been more front-and-centre than since the pandemic.”
“There is now an exploding field of genetics and genomics where we are using our pathologists to give us the answers to some of the disorders that have plagued human existence since it began. I rely on my pathologists and my geneticists to give me the information I need to talk to my patients. It is very important that we maintain an efficient and highly sensitive system in an accurate way. This is why accreditation is important. It's important to make regular accreditation something that happens all the time to our pathology providers. Some of them, of course, are in the public system. Most major public hospitals have public pathology providers. They are very highly skilled, particularly in things like cancer medicine. They work long hours. They sometimes work under huge pressure to get accurate diagnoses as quickly as possible.”
“So pathologists are really important to us, and it's very important to note that Australia has one of the best pathology systems in the world, provided through the Medicare system to our patients and the hospital system. We rely on them to be well trained, we rely on them to be very accurate and we rely on them to be very timely in the results they give to us as practising physicians. It's very important. In cancer medicine, in paediatrics and in virtually every part of the health system, we rely on our efficient, well-accredited and accurate pathology system to lead us through dealing with the multiple diseases that can affect humans. Really, at no other stage in human existence have we so relied on our pathologists to give us the accurate information we need to manage our patients, and that's particularly true in paediatrics.”
“Everyone is now very familiar with the PCR testing that really came to prominence in the pandemic, but it's important to know we were doing PCR testing in children for respiratory viruses for almost 15 years before the pandemic. Pathologists do a lot of work behind the scenes and provide us with the information we need to treat our patients. As a paediatrician, I relied very heavily on our pathology sector to help me in the diagnosis of a whole range of illnesses, from leukaemia through to sickle-cell disease, a number of different haematological problems, the diagnosis of meningitis using bacteriological specimens, and also histopathologists, who tell us what is causing certain pathology in kidneys, liver, the brain et cetera.”
“They range from anatomical pathologists, performing postmortems on people to try to find out why they may have died, to people analysing bodily fluids, and from bacteriological examination to microscopic examination et cetera of body tissue and cells by histopathologists and haematologists to ascertain what causes diseases and the ways in which to heal them. There are also the bacteriologists, who are able to tell us which particular organisms cause illness and how they should be treated. We also have virologists, who can identify viruses that have caused human illness—most commonly, of course, respiratory viruses.”
“In line with this intended commencement date, provisions have been included to allow the refund of fees collected between 1 July 2025 and the commencement date of this bill where the applicant's approval has come into force on or after 1 July 2025. To preserve the high level of confidence in the accuracy of pathology testing in Australia provided under Medicare, the administrative requirements, including accreditation obligations, will remain unchanged. I will talk a little bit about the pathology sector. The work of our pathologists is often behind the scenes. Pathologists are not at the forefront of everyone's daily lives, owing to the unique and important role that they have in health care.”
“This legislation demonstrates that the government is working at all levels of the healthcare sector to provide fee relief not just to patients but to businesses involved in providing health care. In addition to reducing the administrative burden on the pathology sector, this bill will save costs and improve the efficiency of our pathology sector. This follows on from the findings of the 2022 Health Portfolio Charging Review, which identified that fees set against application categories had not been reviewed or changed since the pathology fees act came into force almost 40 years ago. These fees were arbitrarily set between $500 and $2,500 in 1991. The consequential amendments included in this bill remove all references to the payment of fees for these application types from 1 July 2025.”
“I acknowledge the work that the member for Riverina has done in rural health—together with his former colleague Mark Coulton, the former member for Parkes, who retired at the end of the last parliament—in trying to improve access to care for people living in rural, regional and remote areas. I would like to go back to the legislation before us at the moment, the Health Insurance (Pathology) (Fees) (Repeal) Bill 2025. I thank the Minister for Health and Ageing and the Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care for the work they've done on this legislation, which was presented to the previous parliament but was not able to go through the parliament. It has come up again now and will be passed in the near future.”
“I thank Mr Andrew Bray, the committee secretary, and the inquiry secretary, Iva Glisic, so much for their help and support. It has been wonderful to work with them and I hope to work with them further in the future. I commend the issues paper relating to the health impacts of alcohol and other drugs in Australia to the parliament. I look forward to continuing this work in the next parliament. My deputy chair will say a few words as well.”
“But most of all I'd like to express my gratitude to the initial deputy chair of the committee, Melissa McIntosh, the member for Lindsay, whose intelligence and hard work significantly improved the committee's function. In particular, I'd also like to thank Julian Leeser, the member for Berowra, in his role as the ongoing deputy chair of the committee, for his intelligence, hard work and really indefatigable work for the committee and across the parliament. It was really great to work with him and a great privilege to do so. Lastly, I'd like to thank our secretariat. I cannot express how impressed I am by their intelligence, their hard work and the really wonderful camaraderie that they developed within the whole committee. They are often unsung, but they are real jewels in our parliament.”
“The committee was particularly grateful for the opportunity to visit the Salvation Army's Access Health, the Windana adult residential detox centre in St Kilda and the Alcohol and Drug Assessment Unit of the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane. We were impressed by the dedication and professionalism of the healthcare and social workers at these facilities who so generously shared their time with us. I would also like to thank the committee itself. It's a great committee. I am very grateful to all the members of the committee, including, although not exclusively, the member for Hughes, the member for Werriwa, the member for Kooyong and the member for Robertson.”
“Accordingly, the committee recommends and wishes that the inquiry be continued in the next parliament. And I commit to that, provided I'm re-elected. We present this issues paper now as both a summary of the substantial evidence we've already gathered and to identify some of the lines of inquiry which should be pursued. We must remain vigilant in studying evolving patterns of substance abuse and the emergence of new drugs that pose grave threats to our community. In closing, I wish to thank the federal and state government departments and agencies, peak bodies, think tanks, academics, health practitioners, research organisations and members of the public who all provided invaluable input into this inquiry. The overwhelming response to our call for submissions reflects how deeply this issue resonates across the country in all societies.”
“The fact that the committee received over 200 submissions from a wide range of stakeholders, including government agencies, peak bodies, researchers, clinicians and harm reduction services among others, speaks to the level of interest in and urgent need for addressing harms from substance abuse. We know that substance use does not impact all Australians equally. Our most vulnerable populations bear a disproportionate burden of alcohol and other drug related harm. This inequity demands that our policy responses be both targeted and equitable, ensuring that a person's background or location never stands as a barrier between them and adequate help. In the time available, there were elements of the inquiry's terms of reference that the committee was unable to fully explore.”
“With both the National Drug Strategy and the National Alcohol Strategy approaching their conclusion, we had a chance to ensure that the next iterations of these crucial strategies could benefit from the research powers of a committee of the parliament. In particular, the committee was very keen to see these strategies informed by a comprehensive understanding of the sector's needs. The committee was grateful to receive written evidence and hear from witnesses about a range of issues pertaining to current alcohol and other drugs service delivery, the need for developing responses tailored to different communities, and the urgent challenge of raising the capacity of the workforce across this sector. We heard of new challenges, new drugs and new ways of delivering support.”
“The health impacts span a devastating spectrum, from substance abuse disorders and mental illness to infectious diseases, cancer, cardiovascular and liver disease, injury, overdose and even effects on the unborn fetus. But the toll extends far beyond individual health. Alcohol and other drug use casts a long shadow across our society and economy, contributing to family violence, child abuse and neglect, gambling addiction and family breakdown. It places immense pressure on our police, community service workers and the criminal justice system. Six months ago, when the House Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Sport embarked on this inquiry into the health impacts of alcohol and other drug use, we recognised a pivotal moment of opportunity.”
“On behalf of the Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Sport, I present the committee's report entitled Issues paper relating to the health impacts of alcohol and other drugs in Australia, incorporating a dissenting report, together with a corrigendum and the minutes of proceedings. Report made a parliamentary paper in accordance with standing order 39(e). by leave—Substance abuse has long been a profound challenge facing communities across our nation and indeed all over the world since time immemorial. In Australia, harm related to alcohol and other drugs is one of our most significant public health crises—a major cause of preventable disease, illness and death.”
“It will expand and clarify authority to increase infringement notice penalties ACMA can issue for breaches in a short period of time. The current provisions are confusing. They do not allow the Minister for Communications to increase penalties in certain areas. These reforms go to the compliance and enforcement regime for consumers and for businesses and constitute a comprehensive package of improvements to those arrangements. This bill is a very important one to my community and I commend it to the House.”
“This amendment establishes a carriage service provider registration scheme to make sure that there is visibility of carriage service providers operating in the market. It enables the regulatory body to stop service providers who pose an unacceptable risk to consumers and businesses or cause significant consumer harm from operating. Telecommunications is now such an important part of our lives and of our business that we can't work without it. Industry codes are directly enforceable by ACMA. This will enable ACMA to take immediate and appropriate action to address consumer concerns and complaints. It also provides incentives to industry compliance. There are civil penalties, and the courts can now issue breaches of key regulatory instruments, for the greater good of many people.”
“This legislation is helping to make sure they are accountable, so that everyone can make sure their providers are accountable to them and to the government for poor service. I know that the minister and the department are actively looking into how they can deal with a provider called Opticomm, which has customers in many suburbs including Gregory Hills, Gledswood Hills and Oran Park, who for many years have been dealing with poor internet performance and poor mobile connectivity. This is very specific, I know, but it is a local issue that I've been campaigning on since I was elected in 2016. The fact that we're still having issues is a testament to the really poor service to the people of these suburbs.”
“This is a really incredible social improvement for many people who can access working-from-home conditions and work very efficiently as well as care for their families. Our families are now enjoying streaming services that they couldn't previously access. This is very good policy from a very good communications minister and good government. I've met with the minister several times. She's been to my electorate several times to see the problems we are having. I know this is replicated in other areas of Australia, including rural and regional areas. She's a very active minister and one who is doing her best to make sure everyone in Australia can access the best connectivity possible. We know that some providers have not been doing the right thing.”
“They're benefiting from a full-fibre connection rather than fibre to the node and then copper to the premises. This has made a huge difference in suburbs like Eagle Vale, Kentlyn, Narellan, Smeaton Grange, Claymore and Spring Farm, and that's naming only a few. There are many more that are benefiting. On top of that, over 47,000 households and businesses in suburbs including Minto, Rosemeadow, Camden, Harrington Park, St Andrews, Glen Alpine and Mount Annan are benefiting from the existing full-fibre connection rollout to their homes. This benefits everyone in my community, from students at university to medical practices, those running their own businesses and those working from home.”
“There is more to be done, but in our three years of government we have done a lot to improve connectivity in western and south-western Sydney, and that's thanks mainly to the minister, Michelle Rowland. I thank her so much for that. Connectivity is very important in Macarthur, where we have several suburbs that remain semirural and have been built in a way that has not provided adequate connectivity in the past. The natural terrain of hills and valleys can also impair connectivity, which makes it more complex to provide adequate connectivity and means that providers have to invest properly in robust infrastructure to do that. The NBN fibre rollout that our government is working hard to implement has improved connectivity to over 6,000 households and businesses in the Macarthur region alone in the last three years.”
“They can work from home or have telehealth sessions with their GP at the push of a button with adequate telecommunications. The fact that many suburbs have not been able to have access is a tragedy. Since coming to office, our government has been improving the mobile and broadband connectivity across south-western Sydney and Western Sydney by bringing adequate telecommunications to over 230,000 households and businesses, which have been able to receive upgrades, with superfast broadband now across south-western Sydney. For every Australian, regardless of where they live—as we deliver the Labor vision to be the most connected continent in the world—there is over $8 million now being invested by the federal government, with 12 projects across Western Sydney, to improve our mobile infrastructure.”
“Because of the providers skimping on the rollout and providing poor infrastructure, many of these suburbs, in the time since the NBN rollout, have not had adequate access to telecommunications, limiting businesses in functioning from the home and limiting the ability of people to work from home. I am very thankful for Minister Rowland's work in fighting for the families and businesses across south-western Sydney to access fast, reliable, affordable and equitable connectivity. In my electorate of Macarthur, adequate telecommunications can not only bring convenience to the daily lives of residents but can also make sure they can function using their businesses or working from home. They can reach their nearest and dearest as well through a mobile phone call.”
“Some of the older suburbs such as Leumeah, Glen Alpine and Campbelltown suffered incredibly poor telecommunications access because of the old copper network. We've also had difficulties even in some of the newer suburbs like Gregory Hills and Oran Park because of the new providers not providing adequate protection for the fibre network connecting telecommunications to the home. Every time it rained, we were having problems with people not being able to access their telephone or the NBN because of this poor initial rollout. We complained many, many times to some of the providers about the fact that only one of the developers had provided access to the fibre network to the new suburbs.”
“We can now get X-ray results sent electronically to our telephones. In the days when I first started practice, most practices had a storeroom full of X-ray films. These are hard-copy plastic films, usually with silver nitrate for the images. These are no longer required because of electronic records and efficient telecommunications. Many Macarthur residents are able to work very efficiently from home because of modern communications. However, as I've said, we have had significant problems in Macarthur because of the copper telecommunications wiring that is often many decades old and in poor condition. The concept of the NBN using fibre to the node rather than to the home and then relying on the copper network to get to the home was deeply flawed.”
“Sometimes I'd travel to Calcutta, and we couldn't get the link. I'd have to travel back to Cuttack and then back to Calcutta the next day to make the phone call. When I started work as a doctor, we had only just developed electronic telephones that could be moved from place to place instead of using a phone booth or a fixed phone. The world has revolutionised since that time. Of course, doctors are very fond of the fax machine, and the fax machines were developed after I'd been in practice for a few years. Telecommunications developments after that have been incredibly rapid. Telecommunications are now an essential part of modern living. No-one goes anywhere these days without their mobile phone. In medical practice, we rely on efficient communications for all our electronic records and blood test results.”