Emma McBride (Dobell, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention) Share this | Hansard source

I am proud to have secured an endometriosis and pelvic pain clinic for the Central Coast. The clinic will be located within the Central Coast Community Women's Health Centre in Wyoming and is due to open early in the new year. It will provide multidisciplinary care for endometriosis and pelvic pain as well as support for women like me seeking support for perimenopause and menopause.

Endometriosis affects at least one in seven Australian women and can have a devastating impact on their daily lives, with pelvic pain being similarly debilitating. The Albanese government is rolling out 33 clinics across Australia—a key part of the government's landmark women's health package—investing almost $800 million in funding to deliver improved health care and access for women and girls. Through the Central Coast Community Women's Health Centre, local women and girls will have a place where they can access the specialist care they need close to home. Sara Foster, CEO of the Central Coast Community Women's Health Centre, said:

This investment builds on the strong foundation of care our team already provides and enables us to offer even more responsive, multidisciplinary, women-centred health services for women on the Coast to experience disadvantage or barriers to care.

Summer on the coast just got even better with the reopening of Vera's Water Garden. I was proud to deliver $750,000 for this project as part of a more than $1 million revitalisation package for The Entrance. This funding has provided new water-play equipment and a zero-depth splash design. I'm delighted that the Central Coast Council listen to feedback from right across the community, including myself, and kept Vera. After all, there isn't a Vera's Water Garden without our much loved Vera. Vera has been watching over The Entrance foreshore for nearly 30 years and, with this investment and the strong community campaign to protect Vera, she'll be around for many more.

I've heard from locals right across the Central Coast who have visited the Lake Haven Medicare Urgent Care Clinic—at its convenient location at the Lake Haven Shopping Centre—because it offers fully bulk-billed care over extended hours seven days a week. In fact, since opening in 2023, 27,000 locals have visited the clinic—locals like Marion from Warnervale, who said:

After experiencing a deep cut on my hand, I sought treatment at the Urgent Care Clinic at Lake Haven. From reception through to treatment, the care I received was brilliant. I am grateful to have had access to professional and expedient care so close to home.

That's why, at the election, as part of our plan to strengthen Medicare, I was proud to commit to expanding the clinic to meet growing need. Now we're delivering on that commitment with funding to grow the workforce, extend opening hours and remodel the treatment spaces. We're also opening a third Medicare Urgent Care Clinic in the coming months to deliver care closer to home for people right across the Central Coast.

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