Election ‘neglecting’ issues for rural women

Election ‘neglecting’ issues for rural women

By Chrissy Arthur

Posted 1 hour 3 minutes ago

The National Rural Women’s Coalition (NRWC) says the needs of rural communities have been overlooked during the federal election campaign.

The Coalition says almost one-third of women live in rural areas and they should not be considered a minority group.

Coalition spokeswoman Karen Tully from Charleville in south-west Queensland, says they want to see all parties address issues like improving access to university and health services and improvements to patient travel subsidies.

“I personally think there has been scant attention given to rural issues by all parties – it sadly has been neglected,” she said.

“[About] 30 per cent of Australia is living in rural, regional and remote Australia.

“We do have a special set of circumstances that just does not seem to be being picked up, profiled and analysed.”

Ms Tully says the group would like to see the creation of a high-level government department to ensure the needs of rural areas are taken into account.

“Before a policy is implemented, before it is even announced, can we have policies checked for their impact on rural communities?” she said.

“This is where the term ‘rural-proofing’ comes in.

“So often we sit here in rural Australia, there is some great announcement made whether it’s on health or education and we say – ‘well, how will that work out here’?”

Tags: community-and-society, government-and-politics, elections, rural, community-development, rural-women, regional, federal-elections, qld, charleville-4470, longreach-4730

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