Greg Sam, CEO RFDS (South Eastern Section) spoke of the deep sense of responsibility the RFDS has for the communities it serves – especially those that are socioeconomically disadvantaged and a very long way away from Macquarie Street when addressing the Premier, the Hon. Chris Minns MP, the Health Minister, the Hon. Ryan Park MP, the Member for Barwon, Roy Butler, the Member for Wagga Wagga Dr Joe McGirr, and many other Members of Parliament.
The social and economic benefit, or social dividend, that the RFDS aeromedical service delivers to NSW is substantial. In avoided mortality and morbidity alone, the present value over 10 years of this benefit was conservatively estimated at $11b by Marsden Jacob Associates in their Early Insights Report: March 2026.
Released on 18 March 2026, this report confirms that the communities the RFDS serves in NSW’s West and Far West exist in thin or absent markets. They:
- have limited or no access to alternative healthcare services;
- experience entrenched socio-economic disadvantage; and
- have poor health outcomes, including elevated rates of preventable hospitalisation and avoidable early death.
Marsden Jacob’s Early Insights Report finds that the RFDS plays a critical role in addressing market failure and ensuring equitable access to emergency healthcare throughout NSW.
It demonstrates the significant value NSW derives from the RFDS’s presence in rural and remote communities and clearly illustrates how marginal improvements in access, timeliness and clinical capability can deliver large social and economic returns.
The report finds that small investments in organisations, such as RFDS, can deliver disproportionately large social and economic returns.
In addition, to mark RFDS’s 90th anniversary of serving the people of NSW from their Broken Hill and Dubbo bases and honour the many thousands of volunteers that support the RFDS, three commemorative remote airstrip flares started their journey from Parliament House, where they were launched by Premier Chris Minns, to Broken Hill.
These flares, named Hope, Heart and Trust, are wrapped in indigenous artwork symbolising hope over the horizon and the link between the RFDS, healthcare, community and connection across Country.
The flares will be stopping at RFDS service towns across NSW on their way to arrive in Broken Hill in time for the official 90th RFDS celebration in May of this year.
