Thursday, 15 May 2025

 Jade BENHAM (Mildura) (09:42): With less than a week to go before the budget is handed down and everyone being aware that Labor cannot manage money, I thought it vital to raise again the Murrayville bush nursing hospital and their desperate, urgent need for a new roof. It is still called the Murrayville bush nursing hospital because it was at one stage. The building itself is now actually owned by the community. In the 1980s when bush nursing hospitals and things were changing, a group of community members got together and now it is a thriving healthcare hub. Mallee Track Health and Community Service operates out of there, we have a nurse practitioner from Mallee Border Health, we have physiotherapists and social workers – all vital healthcare workers in small communities like Murrayville. They need a new roof. Guess what the cost is. It is $250,000 – a drop in the ocean, particularly when a large portion of that community are CFA volunteers, with a truck that is quite old. But of course they are about to be stung with the emergency services volunteers tax. $250,000 is a drop in the ocean to provide a watertight Murrayville bush nursing hospital.