Ged Kearney (Cooper, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

Medical misogyny and gender bias are rife in the health system. Every single woman has a story, and I am incredibly proud that this Labor government has launched a national conversation about this. You see, before you even consider the compounding effects of intersectionality and women with disability or LGBTIQA+ communities, First Nations or people from a CALD background, we hear stories from women about how their pain has been dismissed. There are misdiagnoses. Symptoms are minimised. Health guidelines around diseases have been written over centuries by men, about men and for men. We now know that there are very vast differences between the pathophysiology of a male body and a female body. Women are not small men.

Our gender bias survey found that two out of three respondents reported they experienced discrimination and bias in the health system; 70 per cent of that was from GPs and half of it in hospitals. I myself was really launched into action around this issue when my cousin presented to an emergency department with some symptoms of tingling from her waist down. She felt unwell, a bit faint. Her feet were numb, and she had pins and needles. She was barely examined in that ED; she was just told she was being anxious, that she was tired, that she needed a rest. She was sent home with some panadol and told to call her GP. My cousin Resa died that night, alone in her house, from an abdominal aortic aneurysm that had ruptured. I couldn't help but wonder: if she, a single woman in her late 50s, had been a man of the same age who walked into that ED in a suit and a tie and gave the exact same symptoms, would they merely have sent her home as anxious and worried and tired? I don't think so.

I'm not suggesting, of course, that there is some national conspiracy about this, that there are a whole bunch of doctors, nurses and health professionals out there conspiring against women—of course not. We all know our health professionals work incredibly hard under terrible circumstances, and they do the very best they can. But this is a systemic issue. I myself, as a nurse, was taught in that system. I know how it is built into everything that we do in those health facilities. That is why, when I became the Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, I was laser focused on tackling gender bias in the health system.

I'm incredibly proud to say it's now been one year since we announced over half a billion dollars for women's health, a package that meant cheaper contraception, increased rebates for IUDs and birth-control implants. We added huge bulk-billing incentives for women, who will save up to $400 when they have an IUD implanted. We added Yaz, Yasmin and Slinda to the PBS. It's the first time in 30 years that a contraceptive has been added to the PBS, saving women up to $350. We're opening up centres of training excellence.

The package meant transformative menopause care. We added Estrogel, Prometrium and Estrogel Pro to the PBS for the first time in 20 years. My goodness! This is saving some women up to $600. People actually stop me in the street and thank me for that. We introduced an MBS item number for menopause. We've created the first ever national guidelines around this. We're providing training for health professionals in women's health, a review of bone densitometry, expansion of endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics, and better access to UTI treatment and contraception through pharmacies—over-the-counter medicines from pharmacists. We've had conversations with medical schools and deans of medicine about how they teach medicine to their students. This is huge work that all goes into making the health and wellbeing of women better.

But the work is not done. Assistant Minister Rebecca White is now a champion for women as the Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, and she knows and is going to be working on what really needs to be done in the next steps. There's so much more to do for women's health, social services, housing, employment, law, communications, disability and finance. I see a really bright future for women under an Albanese Labor government. Thank you.

Question agreed to.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 13:25

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