David Crisafulli started debate day in central Queensland, where he announced $50 million for two specialist youth mental health centres, and $4.5 million for new netball courts in Yeppoon.
The opposition leader showed off his netball skills at the Barmaryee Sports Precinct, before heading down the road to the Family Practice at Emu Park.
There, Crisafulli announced two six-bed “Step Up, Step Down” mental health facilities, one in Rockhampton and the other in a location to be determined.
“For those who are early on suffering anxiety and depression, they are able to step up into a facility like this, where they can go in, get round-the-clock care for up to 28 days, and it can be that circuit breaker that prevents them having to go to hospital,” he said.
While there, opposition health spokeswoman Ros Bates, a trained nurse, dusted off her skills when she attended to Guardian journalist Andrew Messenger, after he came off second best in a head clash with an awning at the surgery.
A woozy Messenger has his wound glued back together by a clinic nurse before the media conference, but by its conclusion his head had started bleeding again.
Enter Bates, who donned the latex gloves and inspected the wound, under the watchful eye of a nurse at the clinic.
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