Dr WEBSTER (Mallee) (11:34): This Labor motion is about a better future for Australian women, but let me tell you about one woman, Wendy, from Donald in my electorate of Mallee. Her future is not looking better under this government. For more than three years now the Prime Minister has repeated the mantra 'nobody held back, nobody left behind'. But Wendy has been utterly left behind by the combination of state and federal Labor governments in regional Victoria.

Wendy is a 75-year-old pensioner who lives in Donald, 277 kilometres from Melbourne. Wendy contracted the superbug Stenotrophomonas maltophilia during spinal surgery at Royal Melbourne Hospital in March 2024. In Wendy's own words:

After attending rehab, where my surgery site split open, I was rushed back to the Royal Melbourne Hospital and subsequently had 3 washouts and drains inserted by the plastic surgery team. A number of other patients in my ward also suffered a similar fate although the spine is unique in that the metalware cannot be removed until fusion occurs.

This bug attaches to and hides on metal and other surgical items.

She goes on to say that it:

… is aerobic and anaerobic forming a covering and when opportunity arises, it may jump out, attach to the atrium valve of the heart and eat it until it turns to mush or may move to other organs causing death.

There is only ONE antibiotic medication that can suppress it, namely Bactrim/Resprim Forte.

Wendy believes that a person who has caught this bug has a 54 per cent chance of survival, diminishing with age and other comorbidities. She goes on:

My condition has been managed by an Infectious Disease consultant from Switzerland as well as the orthopaedic team, but this causes some grief as there is little opportunity to use public transport in Donald—

Now, if anyone doesn't know where Donald is, I invite you to look it up on a map—

no taxi and a better resourced ambulance is at least 45 minutes away.

Wendy goes on to explain that her medical consultant has encouraged her to move closer to Royal Melbourne Hospital in case the bug causes a life-threatening infection. So, with regret, she told me last week in a mobile office in Donald that she has sold her home and is moving to Melbourne. Remembering the Prime Minister's slogan, let's call that part of her story the 'nobody held back part'.

It gets worse. Wendy has also been left behind. Again in Wendy's own words:

Recently I suffered a heart condition which meant being taken by ambulance to Bendigo hospital. It took 45 minutes' wait time for the ambulance to arrive and a 2 hour bumpy journey to Bendigo hospital and a further wait to see a doctor—such are the issues with living remotely, suffering from a potential life-threatening condition. There was no GP doctor working that evening.

This is a story I have heard all too often as the member for Mallee and in my previous shadow ministry role in regional health. I remain passionate about giving a voice to the people of Mallee and ensuring that they receive better health care. So when this motion speaks about the Albanese Labor government 'investing in women's health', I ask: What about Wendy? What about everyone like her? What about the women in Donald? What about the women in Buloke Shire? What about all the women in Mallee, and all the women in regional Australia?

Mallee women certainly feel invisible to the Albanese Labor government. I am giving people like Wendy a voice today because all Australian women deserve better.