Eastern Victoria Region bush nursing centres
Tom McINTOSH (Eastern Victoria) (09:54): Recently I attended the Big Bonang Arvo, and while we were there we celebrated the works that have been done to the Goongerah, Bendoc and Tubbut halls. There has been work to ensure that the power backup is there and there is solid internet not only for use in emergencies, which is critically important, but also for the community to use. There have been co-working spaces put in. Importantly, while I was there I dropped into Goongerah and we celebrated the three halls of Goongerah, Bendoc and Tubbut having a health room put in for a bush nurse, three days a week, to be visiting those communities and for other medical practitioners to visit and use as well. But most excitingly and most importantly and groundbreakingly there is a mixed reality headset that is in place for the bush nurse to use there so that our remote communities in these isolated towns can basically access specialists not only around Victoria but anywhere in the world and save them having to make a long trip. Bush nurses can operate it. It is quite an incredible thing, and I am going to try and bring you with me on how this works. They can look at a piece of the body and the specialist can draw onto it. They turn away, come back, and all the drawings and markings are there. We had an incredible demonstration on someone plucked out of the crowd to do an emergency bandage for a snake bite, guided by someone remotely. It is an incredible thing. Congratulations to all the communities that have pushed this and driven it up. All levels of government support it, and it is a great thing.