The Farrer Flier
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Mental health moves towards MAY2016.issue33 individualised care packages Grants for Sporting Schools The Australian Government’s $100million Sporting School’s programme is now just on 12 Between four and five million Australians Under this package people, identified by months old - and I am delighted that more than FLIER suffer some form of mental health issue in health professionals as needing complex care sixty schools and communities across Farrer THE FARRER any one given year, making it ranked the third services, are eligible to access integrated have registered for the programme. largest chronic disease in the country. health services, including comprehensive We know parents live busy lives and we know assessment and care-coordination support; Now, as part of bold new reforms, Australians that finding the time to schedule in sport for psychological services; mental health With the electorate redistribution announced earlier in the year, this will be the first (hopefully of many) of my fliers received in areas including with a severe and complex mental illness will children is sometimes really challenging. In nursing; drug and alcohol services; vocational Griffith, Coleambally, Leeton, Narrandera and Hillston. To the shires of Murrumbidgee, Leeton, Carrathool and Narrandera and Griffith City - have access to an integrated care package response to that, Sporting Schools has been assistance; and peer support. welcome to Farrer! tailored to their individual needs. designed to get more children fit, healthy The arrangements are to be phased in over Just like any other chronic disease, mental and involved in sport earlier in life, while also I am excited to get to know these new areas and the people who help make them so special. three years and will see care packages illness is often complex and requires allowing our schools flexibility to deliver sporting commissioned through Primary Health With the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area joining the NSW Murray and Lower Darling River systems, Farrer truly becomes the home of irrigated access to multiple health professionals and programmes appropriate for their communities. Networks, allowing services to be tailored to agriculture. Although diverse, what we have right across this region is a collective of vibrant, innovative communities which are not afraid to support services to address it properly. The Overall, I hope this means we get more specific needs in local communities - enabling ‘look outside the square ‘ when it comes to finding the best way forward through challenging times. Government’s mental health reform package Australian children active, engaged and having Australians in regional areas to be better I can’t go far in Farrer without being asked about the Murray Darling Basin Plan. I agree that the plan is not perfect and that there is work reshapes the delivery of primary mental fun in sport. supported and able to access support as they health services towards a more modern, which still needs to be done. I welcome the adoption of all 23 Water Act amendments recommended as part of the independent review, and am need it. More information on Sporting Schools can be flexible model of care, rather than the encouraged by the agreements which came out of the April Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council meeting. I have spoken often about the found at www.sportingschools.gov.au previous “one-size-fits-all” approach. need for people to be reassured that all of the adjustment they are going through will actually deliver positive results for both our communities and the environment. In fact I think it would make a great deal of sense for the MDBA to move OUT of Canberra and into the Basin! The Federal Budget is being handed down as I write this and I have been busy putting the finishing touches on the Health, Aged Care and Sport Greater Choices in Home Care Budgets. I have appreciated the great work of the Minister for Rural Health, my cabinet colleague Senator Fiona Nash as we give a rural and regional dimension to every single policy we deliver. Thanks, in part to better health care, Australians This change will also allow for the consumer to are living longer – which also places demand on change a provider if they wish, including when With the election date looming, we are hearing much talk about the level of representation that is received in “safe” seats. It’s now 15 years the aged care system, which in turn must also moving to another area to live. since I was first elected to parliament and at no stage have I taken my role for granted. change. The second stage of reforms expected to start In 2001 I was elected by just 206 votes. The counting went on for weeks and I missed the first days of With recent reform, I am pleased that older from July 2018, will see the amalgamation of parliamentary sitting as the result remained hanging in the balance. Since then and with each election, Australians will now have greater choice control Home Care Packages and the Commonwealth yes, that margin has grown; but I have not for a moment forgotten the trust placed in me by the people of and better support, allowing them to remain living Home Support Programme into a single care at Farrer. The issues which concern me remain the ones that concern and affect you. at home for longer. home programme. I am proud of what has been achieved for Farrer under a Coalition government. During this past term As part of the first phase of these home care For further information about the aged care the return for the electorate has been an investment of some three quarters of a billion dollars. With the reforms, from February 2017 funding follows the reforms visit: http://www.health.gov.au/ internet/ country running budget deficits not surpluses, this has been a really strong result for us all. consumer not the provider, allowing people to main/publishing.nsf/content/ageing-and-aged- I look forward to seeing many of you as I travel the length and breadth of the electorate in the next few choose the care which suits their individual needs care weeks. Remember I am never far away; drop me a note by email or telephone my office! and to then direct funding to that provider. Room for improvement of donation rates Sussan LEY MP Almost all Australians would like to be able to Australians are not registered as organ donors. As of May, registering to become an organ Member for FARRER receive a donated organ themselves to save donor will be a one-step, online process able Every Australian can help improve Australia’s their life, or for their child or parent, if it was to be completed in less than 10 minutes – P. 1300 303 203 E. [email protected] W. sussanley.com organ donation and transplantation rate by required. which I think will be time well spent. registering as an organ donor. Unfortunately though, the vast majority of /SussanLeyMP /sussanley /sussanleymp Authorised by Sussan Ley MP, 517 Kiewa Street, Albury NSW 2640 • Printed by Kwik Kopy, Suite 5, 520 Swift Street, Albury NSW 2640 National stronger regions Road Safety Water Act amendments PIIOP for Hay, Remuneration – a first step on the road Coleambally Tribunal to a better Basin Plan and Goodnight I shared the relief of our local owner truck Earlier this year I was pleased to speak social and economic impacts of the Basin Irrigators across the Riverina area are set drivers on hearing that the RSRT was to the Parliament about the Australian Plan from 2020, being a continuation of the to benefit from significant improvements abolished in the Senate last month, keeping Government’s full or in part acceptance of all evaluation already scheduled for completion to water infrastructure, with approval for tens of thousands of owner truck drivers on 23 recommended changes to the Water Act. next year. funding the Australian Government’s Private Communities across Farrer have already, or strengthening the financial sustainability of the road and protecting their livelihoods. Irrigation Infrastructure Operators Programme These amendments were flagged as part of It is my view that this amendment should be will soon, see significant benefits from the the aerodrome and also increasing the regional (PIIOP). Despite voicing their concerns and the independent review into the Water Act, extended to include more frequent reviews second round of the National Stronger Regions economic value of the facility. I look forward to appealing for assistance, owner drivers conducted by a panel of experts in irrigated of the environmental water recovery and this Works across the Goodnight Irrigation Programme, with almost $5.9 million worth of flying into Tocumwal again soon. were ignored by the Labor Party, ignored by agriculture, business regulation, law and was just one of the issues I discussed with Network and Hay Irrigation System will project funding announced last December. I was delighted to announce that Holbrook and the Greens and ignored by the TWU and, science and I welcome this important step the Murray Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) enable irrigators to adopt more efficient Nationally, the fund delivers $1 billion worth of Henty Swimming Pools will receive a much just days after its introduction, the RSRT along the process of making the necessary Chief Executive, Phillip Glyde, on a tour of the irrigation and farming practices, in key priority infrastructure projects, as identified needed $1,000,000 makeover and upgrade, had already started to bite, bringing the adjustments to the Basin Plan. region at the start of the year. turn delivering a significant increase in by local communities, while also promoting providing the local communities with safe, low industry to a standstill.