Ms TIERNEY (Western Victoria)– My adjournment matter this evening is for the Minister for Health, David Davis, and it is in relation to funding for the National Centre for Farmer Health. As I understand it, Ms Pulford raised this matter earlier this week, and that was not the first time that it has been raised in this chamber. The centre is based in Hamilton, where a number of programs are run that deal with farmer health and farmer safety, and it is a nationally acclaimed centre in the work that it does in that sector.
The minister’s position on funding for the National Centre for Farmer Health has been that the federal government, not the state government, should be the primary source of funding for the centre. The minister lobbied the federal Labor government to provide the shortfall created by the Napthine coalition government.
Now that there has been a change of government at the federal level, I seek from the minister a written outline of what he has done and what he will do to secure this very important funding from the newly elected federal government.
This is a matter of urgency. The National Centre for Farmer Health has already had to lay off a number of staff, including support staff, and that will continue if the people at the centre do not see any hope on the horizon. I urge the minister to do whatever he can with as much vigour as he used to pursue this matter with the previous government so that the centre can get on with doing the very important work it does in terms of protecting farmer health and farmer safety and the groundbreaking work it does in the agricultural sector.