APY Lands, Renal Dialysis Units

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (16:32): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation questions about renal dialysis on the APY lands.

Leave granted.

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS: I refer the minister to the Liberal Party's election policy committing to the establishment of a renal dialysis unit on the APY lands, preventing the need for patients to travel to Alice Springs, Port Augusta and Adelaide for regular treatment and separating them from their families and communities.

The unit would have been established at Pukatja and would utilise commonwealth funding of $1.8 million which had been earmarked for the project. Labor committed no money to the establishment of such a sorely-needed facility. My questions to the minister are:

1. Given that the commonwealth has already committed the funds, will the government establish a renal dialysis unit on the APY lands?

2. Can the minister confirm the cost of transporting and treating the current Anangu patients receiving dialysis?

3. Has the minister met with the NPY Women's Council and Anangu elders with regard to this issue?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (16:33): I could of course refer the honourable member's important question to the responsible minister—the Minister for Health—but I might attempt to give him some information again today as I have done on this matter in the past, notwithstanding the fact that the state election has intervened and the Liberal Party policy—sham that it was—was released on the electorate with no full understanding given to the community about what the funding commitment from the Liberal Party was at the time. Of course it was to reduce services across the state of South Australia to Anangu and to localise it in one spot, forgetting of course the fact that Anangu communities are incredibly mobile across the state.

The Central Australia Renal Study released by the Australian government in 2011 recommended a hub and spoke model of service delivery for dialysis patients from Central Australia with Alice Springs as the hub. That is the Central Australia Renal Study. There are currently an estimated 23 people, I am advised, from the APY lands receiving dialysis in Alice Springs, Adelaide and Port Augusta.

Twelve of these people receive dialysis in Alice Springs, with 11 people receiving dialysis in South Australia, nine of these based in Adelaide and two, I am told, in Port Augusta. The Australian government provided $600,000 in funding to the Country Health SA Local Health Network to build and fit out a renal dialysis truck for use in remote Aboriginal communities. The truck was completed in late December 2013 and delivered to South Australia in January 2014.

Following an official launch and successful trial of the truck in Adelaide, the first trip was undertaken to Ernabella, at Pukatja in the APY lands, in March 2014, with five patients attending, I am told. A further three trips to the APY lands have been scheduled between April and June 2014 to include Marla, Amata and Mimili. It is envisaged that the service may move to longer visits in the communities, allowing patients to return to their home community for a longer period of time.

Prior to the South Australian truck being built, a mobile dialysis truck was released from the Northern Territory to provide these visits. Visits to Coober Pedy, Yalata and the Flinders Ranges will also be scheduled for 2014. It is expected that the truck will visit remote communities for approximately 16 weeks in the 2014 calendar year. This will, of course, be subject to the successful completion of the first four trips and demand from patients.

As I said, the Liberal Party tried to perpetrate a sham on the South Australian community in relation to its policy. It did not tell the community that to fund this they would be cutting dialysis services in Port Augusta, they would be cutting dialysis services in Adelaide, they would be cutting dialysis services to the mobile truck and saying, 'There's only one place where you'll be able to get the services,' even though they know—they know full well—that the Anangu community is incredibly mobile over different times of the year. They spend time around the state, particularly in Port Augusta and Adelaide. Yet they were going to say, 'The only service you can get access to is going to be in Pukatja.' That doesn't take into account the needs of the local community. They did not consult the local Anangu to a sufficient extent to understand where demand from the community is best placed.