APY Lands, Renal Dialysis Units

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (15:17): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation a question about kidney dialysis on the APY lands.

Leave granted.

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS: The minister may be aware of a scheme running in the Northern Territory which allows patients remote, and many Aboriginal, the ability to administer self dialysis in their own home without the need to travel to a regional centre or hospital. Given that across the border in South Australia the government forces remote Aboriginal patients to attend lifesaving dialysis in Adelaide, Alice Springs and Port Augusta, this sort of scheme could allow those patients to remain in their homelands. My understanding of the cost of administering self dialysis is about $100 per treatment, which a patient usually has to do three times a week, as against $560 per treatment that we pay to the Northern Territory government to administer dialysis in Alice Springs. My questions therefore to the minister are:

1. Is the minister aware of this scheme being run in the Northern Territory?

2. Is a trial in South Australia being considered and, if not, why not?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Employment, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation, Minister for Automotive Transformation, Minister for Science and Information Economy) (15:18): I thank the honourable member for his question and for his continued and very genuine interest in Aboriginal affairs, particularly issues affecting people living in remote Aboriginal communities. I know the honourable member regularly visits remote Aboriginal communities for his interest and also as a member of the Aboriginal Lands Parliamentary Standing Committee, and of course he has spent a lot of time in regional South Australia and understands many of the issues and the challenges facing those living outside the metropolitan area.

Certainly there are many challenges faced by those living in remote and very remote communities in South Australia, not just in the area of health, and particularly in Aboriginal communities where there are significant barriers, including language barriers, that affect how people can firstly access services and how those services need to be provided, considering not just language but cultural reasons as well.

I understand that the Aboriginal Lands Parliamentary Standing Committee in the last few weeks has heard some witnesses in relation to various models in terms of dialysis, and I know that they are very interested to make sure that the best possible services that can be provided are being provided. The provision of dialysis is a matter for the health department and the Minister for Health. I am not aware of the scheme he was referring to and how it operates in the Northern Territory or if there are trials in South Australia, but I will take those questions to the Minister for Health and seek a reply about what is actually happening in the Northern Territory, what application if any there might be for South Australia and, of course, the costs of those treatments.

I do not know about this program specifically, but I do know that in many other areas there are the specific costs of the treatment but there are also other ancillary costs that can go along with the provision of services that are not always apparent in the first instance. I do not know the specifics of this but I will take those questions to the Minister for Health in another place, seek a reply about that particular service and also see, from the evidence the committee has heard, if there are further things the committee might be informed of to give a more complete view over the relative merits of different treatments.