Clive Palmer's political party distributed anti-COVID-19 vaccine brochures made to look like official medical advice in the outback NSW town of Broken Hill, the town's mayor has told a parliamentary inquiry.
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The United Australia Party targeted Broken Hill, distributing flyers with vaccine misinformation on several occasions, Mayor Darriea Turley told the NSW parliamentary hearing on Thursday.
Initially the flyers were in the UAP colours of yellow and black.
But the third or fourth round of flyers were on white paper with blue and red writing, Ms Turley said.
"It was just incredible," she told AAP.
"I worked in health for 41 years and I thought it was a medical flyer until I realised it was a (UAP flyer)."
Ms Turley told the hearing she was shocked.
"My concern is that we have a high Aboriginal population, and whether this influenced any vaccine hesitancy for that community," she said.
Ms Turley told the committee it was a shame the UAP had not been taken to task legally for distributing the misleading information.
Federal MP Craig Kelly, who quit the Liberal Party to join the UAP said Ms Turley's accusation is "nonsense".
"It's simply a tin-foil hat conspiracy," he told AAP.
He denied the flyers were anti-vaccine or contained misinformation, describing their contents as "alternate information" and "alternate opinions".
Mr Kelly also denied targeting Broken Hill, saying the information was sent throughout Australia.
The parliamentary inquiry is investigating health outcomes and access to health services in rural and regional NSW.
On Thursday it was told that Indigenous people who contracted COVID-19 during a significant outbreak in the small town of Wilcannia this year did not receive enough mental health support.
Community spokeswoman Aunty Monica Kerwin told the committee that NSW Health rang positive cases to find out about their symptoms but overlooked the mental health.
"They were scared, they were angry and they were alarmed and nobody really cared," Ms Kerwin said.
Her son took his own life recently, as did another young woman in the small community.
Wilcannia Aboriginal Land Council chairman Michael Kennedy said the average life expectancy in Wilcannia is 37 years for a man and 42 for a woman.
"Every day I wake up, I thank our God that I'm still alive," said Mr Kennedy, 39.
Ms Kerwin and Mr Kennedy also called for a dialysis machine to be installed at Wilcannia.
Kidney patients, including Ms Kerwin's husband, must travel 400km to receive dialysis several times a week, otherwise be forced to move off country.
Far West Local Health District chief executive Umit Agis told the committee installing a dialysis machine in Wilcannia would require "the right clinical environment" which the area does not currently have.
The district is "aware of the need" to increase life expectancy for Aboriginal communities and the district "would be keen to engage the community and really explore where the gaps are", Mr Agis said.
But "life expectancy is not always obviously or necessarily the outcome of health" and there a "whole raft of factors" that contribute to what's known as the "social determinants of health".
Mr Agis says the district has "invested heavily in community education right across the district around suicide prevention and health education".
"Aboriginal communities still have the worst outcomes ... it is an absolute priority of the government and the district, to say anything else would be really understating or denying reality," Mr Agis said.
He added that the district has services on the ground but acknowledge they were "not clearly meeting the need".
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Australian Associated Press