Labor Senator Tim Ayres commits to hire domestic violence workers, work on health crisis

Senator Tim Ayres promised yesterday to not only build a new Medicare urgent care clinic in Tamworth, but staff it.

He said Labor would spend half a million dollars on upgrading existing domestic violence shelters, to help find victims of the crime a temporary place to live.

"When they are in this situation, what women and kids need is someone who can support them through the process in what is the most difficult time of their lives," he said.

READ MORE:

"And they need somewhere to go.

"We know last year, 10,000 women and their kids were turned away from their emergency accommodation, because there wasn't a place for them."

The four additional community workers would "make a real difference", but he admitted that more needed to be done.

"This is not the end of the story, it's the beginning of the story in terms of Labor's commitment to renewing government's approach to dealing with domestic violence," he said.

Senator Ayres also formally committed the party to build one of its 50 new urgent care clinics in Tamworth.

Want more local news? Subscribe to the Leader to read it here first

He also committed the party to engage in good faith with the state to conduct a 10 year workforce review, one of the main recommendations of the recent NSW parliament rural health inquiry.

"As Albo's indicated, we will work with governments that are Liberal governments or Labor governments across the states and territories, we want to build that cooperation," he said.

"If there's a commitment in NSW to work on a 10-year workforce development strategy, we will be there with bells on. Absolutely committed to working with the state government to deal with this."

The clinic will operate seven days a week from at least 8am to 10pm and bulk bill.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: