Wagga Wagga MP Dr Joe McGirr visited Bourke and District Children’s Services on 3 March. Photo: Facebook.
The key message from an online ‘town hall’ forum that independent MP Dr Joe McGirr held with members of the Country Women’s Association (CWA) across the state is that healthcare services are critical and need work in regional and rural NSW.
Around 30 CWA members from Walgett to Eurobodalla Shire were invited to join the forum on 16 March.
It is part of a multi-pronged campaign to reform rural health services to close service gaps and give regional communities better care, closer to home.
Dr McGirr, the Member for Wagga Wagga, designed the campaign to keep pressure on the NSW Government to follow up recent inquiries that resulted in reports and recommendations. He wants to ensure the issue is not lost in the metropolitan focused healthcare system, bureaucracy and government.
Speaking to Region after the forum, Dr McGirr said wait times to see GPs was a critical issue, as were out-of-pocket costs and delays to see specialists.
Speakers told him that centralised recruitment was not working in rural areas. Some communities had taken recruitment into their own hands.
“There was a strong understanding that a place-based approach to recruitment and retention was better, so the community is actively involved in welcoming new healthcare professionals to the area,” he said. “It is something that government can’t do.”
Dr Joe McGirr MP visited the Barwon electorate in early March. Photo: Facebook.
The forum discussed the high cost of locum staff and how to get people to train locally and stay locally.
There is a new program whereby Year 11 and 12 students undertake school-based apprenticeship training in schools while they work with the health service. They get paid for their work and finish Year 12 with a qualification that enables them to work in aged care as an assistant nurse.
“When you bring the health and education fields together, you get great results,” Dr McGirr said. “We need to do more on innovative models that help communities build their local workforce.”
His campaign follows an Upper House inquiry into rural and regional healthcare in 2022. Dr McGirr subsequently led a Select Committee of the Lower House on Remote, Rural and Regional Health for two years to review the recommendations of the Upper House inquiry and see if the recommendations had been implemented. It was a mixed bag.
What stood out from that committee were several issues that demanded focus.
“I felt this area was not getting the priority it needed so I have this advocacy plan to push the government,” Dr McGirr said.
Dr Joe McGirr, Member for Wagga Wagga, is chair of the NSW Legislative Assembly’s Select Committee on Remote, Rural and Regional Health. Photo: Supplied.
The plan was launched in September 2025 and in November 2025 Dr McGirr delivered an open letter to Minister for Regional Health Ryan Park to implement regional and rural health reform.
“We now have 45 organisations on board the Better Care, Closer to Home Alliance,” Dr McGirr said.
The alliance supports a six-point action plan for healthcare reform that Dr McGirr developed earlier in 2025. The alliance has regrouped this year to keep pressure on the government.
The campaign includes ‘town hall’ forums with CWA, Local Government NSW and the Country Mayors Association. Additionally, Dr McGirr will introduce some private members’ bills into parliament. He plans more visits such as his visit to the Barwon electorate in early March to raise awareness of the issue, including through media coverage, again to keep pressure on the government.
He said the feedback he was getting was that the campaign was “absolutely” making an impact, “ruffling feathers”, and “annoying people in the system”.
“You have to keep going at it,” Dr McGirr said. “With 180,000 people in the organisation it is such a huge system, and I think rural and regional areas can get lost with that metropolitan focus.”
He said healthcare’s impact went beyond physical health. It affected mental health and economic health.
“Having that investment in local healthcare helps attract people to regional and rural Australia, and Business NSW recognises this,” Dr McGirr said. “It is absolutely critical for business recruitment.”
New survey results from the Regional Australia Institute (RAI) found that more than 5.3 million, or one in three (37 per cent) metropolitan Australians, have set their sights on regional Australia. The survey found access to healthcare was one of the factors holding back the exodus from the cities.
“This underlines the importance of getting the health service right,” Dr McGirr said. “Telehealth has its use, but people want face-to-face contact and services in their community.”
