Alice Jordan-Baird (Gorton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Health Legislation Amendment (Prescribing of Pharmaceutical Benefits) Bill 2025 brought forward by the Minister for Health and Ageing, and I commend him for doing so. This bill is about making it easier for Australians to access the prescription medicine they need. It's about lightening the load for hospital emergency departments and GPs. It's about empowering our highly skilled, highly educated workforce of registered nurses to do what they were trained to do. It's about equitable access to health care for all Australians, including those managing chronic diseases and health conditions and those living in regional, rural and remote areas, who feel issues with access to health care even more keenly.

This bill is just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to the Albanese Labor government delivering on our commitment to make sure that health care is affordable and accessible for every Australian and that, for Australians with a chronic health condition, looking after their health is easier and more manageable. It's a practical bill which mobilises our existing workforce of registered nurses to deliver timely, affordable and accessible prescriptions and delivers for all Australians.

With this bill, we amend the National Health Act 1953 to allow a registered nurse endorsed against the registration standard to prescribe certain medicines that can be supplied under the PBS and attract Commonwealth subsidy. We also amend the Health Insurance Act 1973 to include registered nurses, enabling review of the provision of their prescribing services by the Professional Services Review Scheme. This bill will allow registered nurses to prescribe medicines under the PBS, and the medicines able to be prescribed under the PBS will be considered by the independent Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee, or PBAC. With this legislation, registered nurses will be empowered to deliver high-quality care directly to people in the community. For those who receive care from RNs, it will mean less GP visits or long waits in hospital emergency departments. For others, it will mean better access to doctors and emergency care when they need it.

In Australia, we have a workforce of more than 450,000 registered nurses and midwives. It's the largest clinical workforce in Australia. Registered nurses go through intensive training, often including more than 800 hours of clinical placements. And I know my friend the member for Bullwinkel is a wonderful nurse. We have many nurses in the House on our side of the chamber. There's no doubt they are highly skilled and highly educated. They work in many contexts, including hospitals, clinics, general practices, residential aged-care services, urgent care clinics and also in the House of Representatives, yet their expertise has not been fully utilised in primary care. Allowing them to prescribe under the PBS will boost efficiency, strengthen care coordination and free up GPs and nurse practitioners to focus on patients with more complex needs, as well as support the discharge and outpatient processes in hospitals so that more people can be seen quicker. And it will strengthen the health system by easing workforce pressures and building long-term capacity and sustainability.

This change has been landed on after extensive research and consultation. In 2022, we announced that, if elected, we would establish a strengthening Medicare taskforce to provide advice on boosting affordability, access and support for patients with ongoing and chronic illness in primary care. This bill is the product of our continued commitment to better health outcomes for Australians with ongoing and chronic illness. It seeks to implement reforms identified by the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce and the subsequent scope-of-practice review. It's also underpinned by comprehensive research and consultation by the Nursing and Midwifery Board, who investigated the potential for registered nurses working to their full scope of practice to better health outcomes for Australians.

A designated RN prescriber registration standard has been developed and came into effect in September 2025. The standard describes the necessary qualifications that a registered nurse must demonstrate when applying to the NMBA to attain and retain the endorsement of scheduled medicines. This registration standard was developed in consultation with numerous stakeholders in the industry, including the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, the Australian Medical Association, palliative care services, the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives and the Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association.

I'm really proud to be up here supporting this bill. This bill brings in practical, grounded change that will have real-world impacts when it comes to affordable, accessible health care for all Australians and, so importantly, support for Australians managing chronic health conditions. It's us looking at the system, recognising that there's potential for the better use of resources and effectiveness and making a change that will have an immediate impact. For everyday Australians it will mean more available appointments with your GP, with RNs helping out with long-term prescriptions, easing the pressure on GPs. And it will relieve pressure on our emergency departments so you can see a doctor faster. For older Australians, it could mean having your medicine prescribed in the comfort of your own home instead of making the trek out to the doctors. And, for nurses, it'll mean the opportunity to use the full scope of their practice.

In my electorate of Gorton, access to health services is an area that's struggling to keep up with demand. According to the last census, more than 28,000 people in Gorton have a long-term health condition. In the city of Brimbank, a staggering 28 per cent of residents 18 and older have been diagnosed with two or more chronic diseases, conditions they'll need to manage for the rest of their lives. Some of these conditions might have been prevented with greater access to health services earlier on. That's why record investments we're making into bulk-billed GP clinics, cheaper PBS scripts and hospitals are so incredibly important. But these Australians need support to manage these conditions right now. For my constituents with chronic conditions, this will make a huge difference. They'll have another option to have their long-term medications prescribed to them, and it'll take pressure off the health system they rely on, meaning better access to doctors and hospitals when they need them.

For older people in my electorate, such as the amazing folks at the Burnside Retirement Village, this will be a huge help too. Many retirement villages, like Burnside, have a registered nurse who make the rounds to residents. Under this new legislation, that nurse may be able to redo the resident's prescriptions, meaning no need to hike over to the GP just to get a new prescription. For those residents on pensions, it'll mean more of that money in their pocket. For GPs in the surrounding areas, it'll mean newly available appointments to service other people in the area.

This will be a big change for women too. According to the NMBA annual report, women made up 87.9 per cent of nurses in 2025. In nursing as well as in other segments of the care sector, including aged care and disability supports, women are hugely overrepresented. The underpayment of workers in this female dominated sector accounts for a significant part of the persisting gender pay gap in Australia, alongside other factors, including persistent differences in pay for the same work, higher rates of part-time work due to caring responsibilities, lack of flexibility to accommodate caring and other responsibilities in higher paying roles, and more. The compensation and opportunities we afford workers in the care sector speak to how we value them. They speak to how we value women. Empowering registered nurses to prescribe on the PBS will bring financial benefit to women, and it'll also mean the chance to put the full breadth of their expertise to use. It's a commonsense change that recognises the potential of women in the care sector to bring even greater benefit to our society, and it's a recognition of their value.

It'll also benefit those women needing prescriptions. Women are 10 per cent more likely than men to be dispensed medication prescriptions. That means more time at the doctor and less money in their pockets. For many women, this change will enhance their safe and timely access to medicines. It's another piece of the puzzle of addressing gender inequality and ensuring that women's time, money, health and expertise are properly valued.

We're a government that recognises the value of these things, a government that's invested in landmark commitments in women's health after decades of neglect, including $573.3 million to deliver more choice, lower costs and better health care for women; the first new contraceptive pills added to the PBS in 30 years, Yaz, Yasmin and Slinda; the first new menopause treatments on the PBS in 20 years, Estrogel, Estrogel Pro and Prometrium; better access to IUDs and birth control implants; and 22 endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics, with another 11 opening soon. We also brought in paid prac for nurses, teachers and social workers because we understand that doing hundreds of hours of placements without being paid and without time to work is another way that women experience disadvantage. I couldn't be happier to return to work in 2026 knowing that I'm serving alongside so many other brilliant women in our government. We know our own value, the value of the work we do and the value of our health. Because we're here representing these things on a national stage, our policy reflects the value of women too.

This bill is part of our broader commitment to ensure that, when it comes to affordable and accessible health care, no Australian is left behind. Last week, National Cabinet reached a landmark agreement to deliver record funding to state and territory hospitals—$25 billion in additional funding for public hospitals, three times more additional funding for public hospitals than under the last five-year agreement. For my constituents in Gorton, that's money flowing to Sunshine Hospital, Werribee hospital and the brand new Footscray Hospital, just a hop, skip and a jump away in the inner west, which will open for patients in the next few weeks, making sure that, as we look to the next five years, access to high-quality public hospitals and health care is a certainty.

We'll also keep working to take the pressure off these hospitals by opening more urgent care clinics and Medicare mental health clinics across the country. As of this week, we've now opened 120 of the 137 Medicare urgent care clinics. We've opened 50 of the 91 Medicare mental health clinics in our national network, and we're making strides towards our commitment of 90 per cent of GP visits bulk-billed before the end of the decade. Last week, I was lucky enough to visit Our Medical in the heart of Caroline Springs, a bulk-billing clinic. They have 22 bulk-billed GPs, as well as bulk-billed radiology and pathology and a bulk-billed respiratory specialist. There is no need to make an appointment; you can just walk in and see a GP until 10 o'clock at night, every night. They have a pharmacy open extended hours, a full dental clinic, physios and a dietician.

Quality local care is so important to the health and wellbeing of a community. For Caroline Springs residents, having a bulk-billing clinic in the heart of the community, right across the road from Lake Caroline where locals walk, cycle and use the outdoor gym equipment, makes it easy to prioritise health. That's why it's so important to continue our investment in bulk-billing. In my electorate of Gorton, the GP bulk-billing rate was 88.8 per cent in June 2025, and an additional 17 GP practices in Gorton indicated their intent to become a Medicare bulk-billing practice. I'll keep visiting these medical centres in my electorate and talking about the benefits of bulk-billing so that as many of my constituents as possible know they can access free primary health care.

Nationally, over 3,300 general practices now bulk-bill every single one of their patients—1,300 of which are new as a direct result of our tripling of the bulk-billing incentive. This is huge for Australians. It's accessible primary health care. It's not worrying about money when you get sick. It's more people going to the doctors when they feel unwell. It's about proactively looking after your health—and making that easier to do. It's taking pressure off the system down the track and making the future of our healthcare system more sustainable. It's good policy underpinned by the principle that no matter who you are or where you live you deserve access to quality health care. I'm so passionate about improving access to quality health care for my constituents and all Australians.

Those opposite are fighting amongst themselves. Health care is the last thing on their minds. That's actually a good thing for Australians, given those opposite voted against cheaper medicines six times. But we're not worried about that; we're getting on with the job of delivering for Australians with the bill before us. I'm so excited to go back to Gorton and talk to my constituents about this bill. I'm excited to talk to the older Australians, like the residents of the Burnside Retirement Village, who might be able to have their prescriptions written at home instead of waiting at the doctor's office; to the nurses in my electorate, who'll have the opportunity to see more patients and use their full scope of practice; to the almost 30,000 people living with chronic conditions, who'll have more options to receive their long-term prescriptions; and to all of my constituents, who'll benefit from relieved pressure on our healthcare system. I'm really proud to support this bill, and I commend it to the House.

See this speech in context