National Rural Health Alliance (NRHA), Media Release, 19 December 2025
As this final newsletter of the year demonstrates, rural health does not pause for the festive season. While many Australians take a well-earned break, rural, regional and remote communities continue to carry extraordinary responsibility—for food production, harvest, emergency response, service delivery and the steady functioning of our economy and society.
This Christmas comes at a demanding time. Fire season is already placing physical and emotional strain on farming families, health services and volunteers, many of whom are also frontline volunteer firefighters. These pressures compound existing workforce shortages, access challenges and cost pressures that feature throughout this edition—from Medicare reform and team-based primary care to clinical trials access and digital safety for young people. The message is consistent: rural Australia keeps showing up, often under extreme and under serviced and underfunded conditions, and the system must do better for them, like all Australians in return.
We also acknowledge, with respect and solidarity, the recent losses experienced by members of the Jewish community at Bondi. These events are a sobering reminder that wellbeing is broader than health systems alone—it is about safety, respect, belonging no matter who you are and care. Australia’s strength lies in its multicultural foundations and in our shared expectation that people are valued for who they are and what they contribute.
Across this newsletter, a common thread is collaboration: our National Rural Health Conference in Adelaide 14 – 16th September 2026 that bring together the sector’s policy makers, researchers, trainers and educators, as well as those who deliver care and fund health and medical care. We will hear evidence-based advocacy that turns lived experience strengthening culturally safe, team-based care into action.
We welcome our new member RANZCR joining the Alliance.
As we head into Christmas, we thank you for your collaboration and good will. We also thank the farmers, health professionals, carers, volunteers, researchers, advocates and community leaders who do not switch off—and whose work sustain the nation. We also thank those Ministers and Senators who are willing to put up the good fight for rural health care access.
The NRHA Board, staff and I wish you moments of rest, laughs and connection, and we look to the year ahead with a clear focus on equity, transformation and shared responsibility for rural Australia’s health and wellbeing. Stay safe!
