Wednesday, 27 August 2025

Adjournment

Benalla Health maternal and child health services

Annabelle CLEELAND (Euroa) (19:00): (1280) My adjournment tonight is for the Minister for Health, and the action I seek is a commitment to restore birthing at Benalla Health through a midwifery group practice model so babies can once again be born in Benalla under safe, continuous care. Benalla is home to about 14,000 people and is now one of the largest towns in regional Victoria without a functioning maternity service that delivers babies. Last year Benalla Health paused birthing and assured the community that services would resume once GP obstetricians were recruited, but since then we have been downgraded to a level 1 capability, and that level offers only antenatal and postnatal support and no birthing. It is not suitable for a town of Benalla’s size nor needs, and this is not an isolated concern. Across my electorate regional maternity is under immense pressure. Kilmore maternity is too often on bypass, and women are increasingly facing birth before arrival because they must travel such long distances. The surge in demand for Ronald McDonald House accommodation tells the story. Regional mothers are leaving their communities before due dates because they can no longer birth close to home.

My electorate spans 12,500 square kilometres, and for a region this size this government should be ashamed that support is so limited for women to labour safely at their local hospital. Continuity of care has been replaced with long car trips, patchwork services and rising anxiety. Check-ups in one town, imaging in another and labour hours away is not a safe or humane model. I recently met with the president of the Rural Doctors Association of Victoria Dr Louise Manning, who has helped reopen regional maternity services, including in Castlemaine. Her message was clear: without ambition and leadership from government, temporary downgrades become permanent, and when we lose maternity, we trigger a domino effect. We lose the capacity to retain other skilled services like anaesthetists, which further weakens our local health care, and these decisions affect real families and real people. One Benalla mother, Kim, wrote to the minister and I about constant travel, time off work, childcare challenges and the fear of being far from home for essential appointments. She said it plainly:

Women in Benalla are entitled to safe, local integrated maternity care, but right now we are not getting it.

I thank the Benalla midwives who are doing everything they can to retain their skills by working in Melbourne, Shepparton and Wangaratta. Their commitment keeps the hope alive for a safe return of local birthing. Postnatal programs like breastfeeding support are valuable, but they do not replace local birthing. Families in Benalla deserve the same standard of care as families in Mansfield or Echuca. They deserve the safety and continuity of a midwifery group practice model that is proven to deliver better outcomes, stronger relationships and fewer interventions. Minister, commit to restoring birthing in Benalla through a midwifery group practice model and to stabilising regional maternity more broadly. Do not wait for another review and certainly do not wait for a crisis. Bring births back to Benalla and give regional women the safe, local care that we deserve.