Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) Aircraft Launch Adelaide, December 14th

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1 Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) Aircraft Launch Adelaide, December 14th On Thursday, the 14th December, guests gathered in Adelaide for a special Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) Aircraft Launch. The RFDS is critical to Australia providing an essential service, not only to those in our outback, but also to those who live in the city too, who may be visiting the outback, or may need to be transferred for medical treatment in other states. Without the RFDS, there is no doubt that many Australians would not receive necessary and timely medical attention. The RFDS press release and Mrs Rinehart's speech, follow.

2 Speech by Mrs Gina Rinehart Executive Chairman of the Hancock Prospecting Group and S. Kidman & Co The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) Aircraft Launch Thursday 14 December 2017, Adelaide Good evening Governor Van Le, Mr Gui, Senator Cory Bernardi, and other distinguished guests, the Royal Flying Doctor Service, Hancock, Kidman and Shanghai CRED staff members, and friends. I am so delighted and honoured to be here with you in Adelaide today. The Royal Flying Doctor Service, an essential service in our outback, holds a special place in the hearts of many people around our country. For us at Kidman, It means that those hard-working station managers, and staff, who give up the city conveniences to work and live on our stations, are able to get the medical attention and critical emergency service they need and deserve. We at Kidman share your values including those of dedication, integrity and innovation. For me personally, it continues my family s long association with your wonderful organisation. My mother, Hope Hancock, over decades used to raise funds for The Royal Flying Doctor Service in West Australia, holding many functions at her home, and contributing to others who did so too. Our garden every year looked lovely with all the colourful umbrellas the ladies attending kindly brought to help the day. And I well recall, as many of you present would be well familiar with, the making of hundreds of sandwiches just prior to each of these events! And so many tea cups to collect, rinse and pack afterwards! I'm not sure if I should share this with you, we didn't have to wash the cups pre returning them, and we soon found that using a garden hose really sped up the cup rinsing process! Well, even if I can't say the sandwich making and the tea cups were highlights for me, I did like so much the ladies who came to these happy functions, lovely people usually from the country, or had spent part of their lives working in the country. The work you do is incredible, so too are the stories of the people you help. And, although we know of the essential work the Royal Flying Doctor Service does to help people in the country, I would also like it better known, that their services are important too to those living in cities. For instance, a friend of mine, Richard, embarked on a road trip with his daughters from Adelaide to Darwin. He has kindly permitted me to share his story with you this evening. On the way, he and his daughters ventured off-road to see Oodnadatta and were involved in a terrible accident where his vehicle went over an eight-foot embankment, flipping his car on its side.

3 Luckily, he was able to free himself and his daughters from the accident and climb back up to the road. For past seven hours on the way to Oodnadatta, he had not seen a single vehicle other than his so they decided they must start walking, in their injured and bloody state, to find help before sundown. They then spotted a vehicle that was miraculously driving towards them and he and his daughters waved at the car to stop. The miner driving the car kindly drove them over four hours to the nearest hospital at Cooper Pedy, my friend was assessed, and in much pain due to his several broken ribs and bones. Thankfully, his daughters only had minor injuries. The Hospital contacted The Royal Flying Doctor Service and he was flown to the Royal Adelaide Hospital for further assessment and treatment. To quote my friend, he said: The Royal Flying Doctor Service is absolutely critical to our country I don t know what my health would be like today without them. I was in severe pain with multiple injuries and broken bones that needed to be assessed and treated by specialists and experts in a major metropolitan hospital. The Royal Flying Doctor Service made sure I got the medical attention I needed. They made me feel safe and well cared for. Their professionalism and level of care for those stranded and injured in the outback is unmatched. There are many people like Richard who might have painful accidents in the country and who would not get the medical help and assistance they needed to make a full recovery if it was not for The Royal Flying Doctor Service. And please I repeat, let's not forget, not only those who live in the country, may need our crucial Royal Flying Doctor Service. With that story in mind, I am very delighted to ask Ms Lorretta Reynolds, Chairman RFDS Central Operations and CEO Mr John Lynch and Mr Richard Collins and Joanna Collins to join me please, as Richard has a wonderful donation to present to the Lorretta. Please join me in applause. To try to put your great efforts in perspective, The Royal Flying Doctor Service flew nearly 27 million kilometres last year, the equivalent of more than 600 flights around the Earth! The Royal Flying Doctor Service also helps someone every 2 minutes and had contact with over 330,000 patients last year. Everyone at the Royal Flying Doctor Service should be very proud of your history and what you continue to accomplish. We are delighted to be supporting you, one of the world s largest aeromedical organisations and one with a truly proud history, dating back about 90 years.

4 We hope that our sponsorship of your organisation and the Pilatus PC 12 single engine aircraft, and the new Pilatus PC 24 twin jet engine aircraft being introduced to your fleet late next year, will assist you in helping Australians in their time of need. God bless the Royal Flying Doctor Service, their doctors and nurses and all support staff, their planes, and all who fly in them, and the many volunteers and supporters who assist this iconic and essential Australian organisation. Thank you.

5 Adelaide Base 1 Tower Road T Adelaide Airport SA 5950 F PO Box 381 E enquiries@flyingdoctor.net Marleston SA 5033 > MEDIA RELEASE 14 December 2017 S. Kidman & Co joins ground crew as major sponsor The Royal Flying Doctor Service Central Operations (serving SA/NT) has announced the launch of a major partnership with outback icon and one of the nation s largest beef producers, S. Kidman & Co. In recognition of the $500,000-plus sponsorship deal, a RFDS flying intensive care unit bearing the S. Kidman & Co logo was unveiled today by the company's Executive Chairman, Mrs Gina Rinehart, at the RFDS aeromedical base at Adelaide Airport. The medically-equipped aircraft, the Pilatus PC-12 VH-FXW (Foxtrot-X-ray-Zulu), is one of 67 RFDS aircraft located across the country, many of which serving the outback areas of central and northern Australia where the S. Kidman & Co stations and communities operate. S. Kidman & Co runs over 160,000 beef cattle across 11 pastoral properties and a feedlot covering 80,000 square kilometres in three states and the Northern Territory. It is owned by Australian Outback Beef, a joint venture of Hancock Prospecting and Shangai CRED. Hancock Prospecting Executive Chairman, Mrs Gina Rinehart, says she is very pleased to be aligning the S. Kidman & Co brand alongside Australia s leader in aeromedical and primary health care in rural and remote Australia. The RFDS has provided a lifeline to the bush communities for almost 90 years. It s remarkable to think that in South and Central Australia alone the RFDS airlifts 25 patients every day over 100 across the country every day, Mrs Rinehart says. Our board and our staff are proud to be playing a role in helping to make this happen, and to now have the Kidman brand on a RFDS flying intensive care unit that will conduct two missions every day is something we hope will be helpful to many people and help to save lives, she says. RFDS Central Operations Chairman, Loretta Reynolds, says the impact of S. Kidman & Co. s direct financial support will be far reaching. The RFDS relies on bequests, corporate partnerships and donations to bridge the gap in our operational funding and to finance our capital-raising for the purchase of our aircraft, medical equipment and infrastructure upgrades, Ms Reynolds says. RFDS Central Operations will invest $50 million in capital over the next five years for the replacement of existing aircraft in our fleet, as well as the introduction next year of the RFDS PC-24 Jet South Australia s first purpose-built aeromedical jet together with medical equipment and infrastructure upgrades, she says. Port Augusta Base Port Augusta Airport, PO Box 4161, Port Augusta SA 5700 > T F Alice Springs Base Alice Springs Airport, PO Box 2210, Alice Springs NT 0871 > T F Alice Springs Tourist Facility 8-10 Stuart Terrace, Alice Springs NT 0870 > T F Darwin Tourist Facility 39 Stokes Hill Road, GPO Box 3646, Darwin NT 0801 > T F Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia Central Operations ABN

6 The continued support from the entire community our ground crew of donors, community fundraisers, corporate sponsors and volunteers will be critical to us meeting our financial challenges, and we re very delighted to have Mrs Rinehart and S. Kidman & Co on board with us on this very important and critical journey. VH-FXZ or Zulu as it is known to crews, is the newest $7 million flying intensive care unit to join the RFDS Central Operations fleet located across Adelaide, Port Augusta, Alice Springs and Darwin bases. Zulu is the 1,500 th PC-12 manufactured by Pilatus and the 20 th delivered to RFDS Central Operations who was also the global launch customer of the Pilatus PC-12 in In just its first ten weeks of service to the community, Zulu has transported 119 patients from 38 rural and remote locations throughout South Australia and beyond. The aircraft came into aeromedical service on 1 October this year and has been tasked to airlift injured and critically-ill patients throughout South Australia, from regional centres such as Mt Gambier, Renmark and Port Lincoln, to outback locations as diverse as Coober Pedy, the Nullarbor and Marree on the Birdsville Track. Its first interstate flight came on 10 October; the transfer of a newborn baby from Adelaide to Melbourne for life-saving heart surgery. For the next decade VH-FXZ will continue to assist members of the community, delivering services ranging from the: emergency evacuation of the injured or critically-ill from outback communities; aeromedical transfer of patients interstate for live-saving surgery such as organ transplant and heart surgery on newborn babies; delivery of essential primary health care such as GP consultations and immunisation of children during fly-in health clinics to remote communities; and transfer of patients from regional and bush hospitals to major hospitals in Adelaide, Alice Springs and Darwin for higher levels of care. (ends) MEDIA CONTACT Charlie Paterson General Manager, Marketing & PR RFDS Central Operations Mob: Hon Adam Giles General Manager, External Relations Hancock Prospecting Mob:

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