Libby Coker (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Australians expect a health system that is accessible, affordable and built around patients. The Albanese government understands this and has been working to make it a reality since coming to office. We have strengthened Medicare. We have invested in the workforce. We've expanded access to care in the community. And the bill before the house today is the latest step in that work.

I rise to speak in support of the Health Legislation Amendment (Prescribing of Pharmaceutical Benefits) Bill 2025. This bill delivers a practical reform to the way our health system operates and to the way Australians access timely care. It amends the National Health Act to allow designated registered nurses to prescribe certain medicines under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. It is a significant reform that goes to the heart of our government's agenda, strengthening Medicare, modernising the workforce and ensuring Australians can receive high-quality care when and where they need it. This legislation builds directly on the work of the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce and the Unleashing the Potential of our Health Workforce review. Both found that highly trained nurses are too often prevented from working to their full scope of practice by outdated regulatory settings. Allowing trained and endorsed registered nurses to prescribe under the PBS is about using the skills already in our system more effectively. It makes sense. It will reduce unnecessary duplication of appointments. It will ease pressure on general practice and, importantly, emergency departments. It will improve access to care, particularly in regional and outer metropolitan communities like mine.

Importantly, only registered nurses who meet the standards set by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia will be eligible for endorsement as designated nurse prescribers. The list of medicines will be assessed by the independent Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee, ensuring clinical rigour and patient safety remain paramount. The legislation also extends the Professional Services Review Scheme to designated nurse practitioners and prescribers, providing the same peer review oversight that applies to other PBS prescribers and safeguarding the integrity of the system. These safeguards matter. They demonstrate that the government is expanding access and. importantly, maintaining the high standards Australians rightly expect. This is reform done properly.

This bill also sits within the Albanese government's broader effort to rebuild Medicare after a decade of neglect. This government has responded with the largest investment in Medicare in its history. We have tripled the bulk-billing incentive for concession cardholders and children. We've expanded Medicare urgent care clinics to take pressure off hospitals and provide walk in care for urgent but non-life-threatening conditions. In my electorate, that includes the Torquay Medical Urgent Care Clinic, which is already making a real difference for families across the Surf Coast and the rapidly-growing township of Armstrong Creek. Like the Belmont urgent care clinic in Geelong, the Torquay service is giving people confidence that they can get seven-day-a-week bulk-billed care close to home. They are easing pressure on the Geelong University Hospital emergency department and they're ensuring that local health workers can deliver care in the right setting at the right time.

We have invested in general practice, headspaces, aged care, women's health, mental health support and primary care infrastructure, and we're investing directly in our GP workforce. The Albanese government is investing $14.5 million to deliver an additional 306 new GP training places in 2026 through the Australian General Practice Training Program. This investment will bring the total number of doctors starting GP training to around 2,100, a 14 per cent increase on 2025, something we should be proud of. With the Albanese government's continued investment, more doctors have joined the Australian health system in the last three years than in any time in the past decade. Doctor registrations jumped more than 30 per cent in 2024-25 compared to 2021-22. No health system can function without the people who staff it, and no amount of bricks and mortar can substitute for a well-supported workforce.

The future of primary care is team based. It is multidisciplinary. It recognises that doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners and allied health professionals all have an essential role to play, and this bill reflects that reality and builds on it. Designated registered nurse prescribing does not undermine general practitioners. It supports them. It ensures straightforward cases are dealt with efficiently, freeing doctors up to focus on complex and chronic conditions. It strengthens continuity of care and it helps practices operate more sustainably in a tight labour market. In community clinics, aged care and disability services, the ability for trained nurses to prescribe PBS medicines will mean fewer delays and better outcomes for patients, which is what we all want. In community clinics, aged-care and disability services, the ability for trained nurses to prescribe PBS medicines will mean fewer delays and better outcomes for patients which is what we all want. That is good policy.

The benefits of this reform will be felt most strongly in regional and fast-growing communities like the one I represent. In places such as Armstrong Creek, Torquay and across the Bellarine, population growth continues to drive demand for local health services. Residents regularly tell me how much they value being able to access high quality care close to home, particularly after hours or on weekends. Workforce reforms are not an abstract thing for these communities. It's about making local clinics stronger and more accessible. It's about ensuring emergency departments are reserved for the most serious cases, and it's about supporting older residents and people with disability to stay healthy in their own communities.

This bill also complements the government's work to make medicines cheaper and more accessible to Australian families. More than 610,000 Australian women have already saved money since essential women's health medications were listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme last year. New contraceptive pills, the contraceptive vaginal ring, three new hormone therapies for menopause and medicine for endometriosis were among the treatments made available at subsidised PBS prices for the very first time. Women suffering from endometriosis have the greatest individual benefit. More than 6,000 women accessed endometriosis treatments at PBS prices, saving over $4 million in total, more than $668 each on average. That is an important cost-of-living measure.

Latest data shows that in the nine months to 30 November, women filled out more than 1.7 million prescriptions for these medicines and saved nearly $62 million. Around 340,000 women obtained menopause hormone therapies through more than 1.25 million scripts saving almost $38.3 million compared to previous prices, and more than 275 women accessed newly listed oral contraceptives, with total savings of almost $19.5 million and more choice. Savings have increased further as our government reduced the maximum out-of-pocket cost for PBS medicines from $31.60 to $25 while keeping the concessional co-payment at $7.70.

These listings are part of the Albanese government's landmark $792.9 million women's health package in the 2025-26 budget. That package also delivered new Medicare benefit scheme items for menopause and perimenopause health assessments, commencing on 1 July 2025. In the first five months alone, more than 61,000 women benefited from these new services. As Minister Butler has said:

All Australian women deserve to have their health issues taken seriously and given the priority they deserve.

What welcome news! Our government is doing exactly that, with a focus on giving women more choice, lower costs and better access to services and treatments. Many women in my electorate are thrilled with these changes. They tell me about it regularly. They can talk about contraception, and they are so pleased with the savings they are making. They told us they were being left thousands of dollars out of pocket for basic contraceptive scripts and could not access support for menopause for endometriosis. So we have acted, and women are now saving hundreds of dollars on the medicines they need.

These results show that record investment in women's health is working, and, from 1 January, all Australians are now saving even more with $25 PBS scripts. These reforms are making a real difference to household budgets and everyday lives. This bill builds on this philosophy. It's about lowering barriers and improving accessibility to health services. It's about making the system work better for patients, and it's about ensuring care is delivered where people live.

This legislation sits alongside the government's broader work to strengthen Australia's health and disability systems. Last week, National Cabinet reached a landmark agreement to deliver record funding for state and territory hospitals and to secure the long-term future of the NDIS. These reforms ensure Australians can rely on world-class public health care and disability supports while keeping those systems sustainable for future generations. The Commonwealth has committed an additional $25 billion for public hospitals—three times more than under the previous five-year agreement. Commonwealth funding will reach $219.6 billion between 2026-27 and 2030-31. That includes $24.4 billion through base funding and more than $600 million in targeted investment.

The Albanese government is backing in Medicare and our public hospitals, and this bill forms part of that wider commitment to strengthen our health system. For communities like mine, that means stronger regional services and better connected care. It means urgent care clinics working alongside hospitals, it means general practices supported by nurses and able to provide greater access for people to get the health support they need, and it means families having confidence in the future of our health and disability systems.

Taken together, this bill and the government's wider agenda reveal a clear and determined focus. We are strengthening Medicare. We are investing in the workforce. We are expanding access to health services in the community, and we're doing so responsibly, safely and with patients at the centre. This is not about grandstanding; it is about fixing everyday problems that are barriers to health and wellbeing, it is about reducing waiting times, it is about improving affordability and it is about securing the system for decades to come.

This bill is sensible and necessary. It empowers highly trained nurses, it improves access to PBS medicines, it relieves pressure across the system and it strengthens Medicare for the future. It reflects this government's commitment to evidence based policy and patient centred care. For these reasons, I commend the bill to the House and urge all members to support its passage.

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