Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the fabulous member for Dickson for her question and her advocacy for women. She is such an important member of this place, and I'm very proud to have her here. This week is Women's Health Week. It's an important reminder to all of us of the issues that affect over half of our population, and it is time to reflect on the work that's been done. Of course, there is always more to do.

This government is a government that backs women whether it is in our workplaces, in our communities or, of course, in our healthcare system, and I want to recognise the work of Assistant Minister White and Assistant Minister Kearney who, before her, worked on this package. It's why we've delivered the most significant investment in women's health in decades. We know that women deserve access to the health care that they need. Through strengthening Medicare and delivering cheaper medicines, this investment means more choice, lower costs and better health care for women across the country at all stages of their lives.

We committed over $790 million for a women's health package—prescriptions for oral contraceptives being part of that package—and they are, of course, making a real difference across our community. Since 1 May, as the minister said, we've seen over 365,000 patients access more than 715 prescriptions for oral contraceptives, menopause hormone therapies and endometriosis treatments. That is a huge number of patients accessing those treatments. We've listed new contraceptives on the PBS for the first time in 30 years, making it cheaper and much easier for women to actually access long-lasting contraceptives. Before the listings of Yaz, Yasmin and Slinda on the PBS, women were paying around $380 a year for their contraception. They are now paying half that and, of course, much less—around $30.80—if they're concession card holders. Before the listings of Estrogel, Prometrium and Estrogel Pro on the PBS, again, women might have paid up to $670 a year. Now they're paying only $31.60 a script—again, a really enormous cost-of-living relief for women to access health care.

We know that, already, more than 20,000 women have taken up the new perimenopausal and menopause health assessments since they were subsidised just on 1 July. The opening of the 22 endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics, with 11 more to come, and expanding of all 33 clinics has been, again, an enormous benefit to women across the country. And, of course, from 1 January, we will see every prescription listed on the PBS costing no more than $25. This is all targeted at helping and supporting women's health. We've listened to women's health needs, and now we're getting on with the job of actually delivering.

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