Australia’s healthcare divide between regional and urban centres is costing lives and must be addressed by the Albanese Labor Government, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health and Member for Mallee Dr Anne Webster says.

The Royal Flying Doctor Service’s ‘Best for the Bush’ baseline report shows people in very remote regions are 2.7 times more likely to die from potentially avoidable causes. Australians living in the nation’s most remote areas are likely to die on average 14.3 years earlier than someone in Sydney, Brisbane or Melbourne, and women specifically have a life expectancy gap of 16 years.

“These disturbing figures highlight the dire need for equitable funding for regional health to turn this crisis around – the Albanese Labor Government must step up as a matter of urgency,” Dr Webster said.

The RFDS data follows last year’s National Rural Health Alliance report that found a shortfall of $6.55 billion in health spending between major urban residents and rural and remote Australians.  

“Access to primary care is a leading factor in poorer health outcomes in regional Australia and contributes to our higher morbidity rates,” Dr Webster said.

“I have been calling out Labor whose trend to rob regions to buy city votes is a deliberate design feature of their approach to government. A clear and relevant example of Labor’s city-centric policies is their Distribution Priority Area expansion that bled the regions of doctors to peri-urban settings.  

“Labor’s tripling of the Medicare Bulk Billing Incentive made for a good headline but is only for pensioners, concession card holders and children, but the incentives are of no value in regional areas that have no doctor in the first place.

“Regional Australia needs healthcare policies that meet the unique needs of the 30 per cent of Australians who do not live in major cities. As I said in my maiden speech to Parliament in 2019: your postcode should not determine your health status.  

“The Nationals are taking comprehensive and major regional health policy to the next election to undo Labor’s damage to regional health.”