Julie-Ann Campbell (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House notes that:

(1) twelve months into the landmark $792.9 million women's health package, the Government is continuing to deliver on its promise of more choice, lower costs and better care for Australian women and girls; and

(2) since the announcement, more than 660,000 women have accessed more than 2 million cheaper scripts for new contraceptives, menopausal hormone therapies and endometriosis treatment listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

When you come into this place at the beginning of any given sitting day, when the opening of the parliament happens, you only have to look around you: the 48th Parliament has a record-breaking number of women representatives. The Labor caucus is 56 per cent women, and, for the first time, cabinet has more women than men. Women are drivers of our national economy, women are drivers of our local communities and now women are drivers of the places where we make laws for this country.

This representation means that this parliament mirrors the gender make-up of the broader Australian population more closely than ever before. For the first time, parliament is starting to look like the people we represent, parliament is starting to look like the communities that we call home and parliament is starting to look like Australia. Crucially, it broadens the perspectives shaping policy, boosting work on priorities such as safety, workplace equality, families and health.

It's health that I want to talk about today. We recently marked 12 months of the Albanese Labor government's landmark women's health package, a package worth nearly $800 million, representing the largest single investment in women's health in the history of this nation. I want to pay tribute to the member for Cooper and the member for Lyons for their work in making that package become a reality. This package is enabling expanded access to essential health services. It's delivering more choice, lower costs and better care for women and girls nationwide. It pulls women's health out of those dark corners, it pulls it out of taboo and it pulls it out of the hushed conversations and into the sunlight.

It's important because it means women's health is a national priority. It is addressing longstanding gaps in access, affordability and specialised care, and it is ensuring that women receive timely, evidence based health care that was previously out of reach for so many. This not only improves individual wellbeing but supports women's participation in work and in the economy as well. For the first time in 20 years a new hormone therapy for menopause was listed on the PBS, and, for the first time in 30 years, a new contraceptive pill was listed. That's right—women went without additions to the PBS for these medicines for decades. These additions have already seen 383,000 women save $53 million across 1.6 million menopause therapy scripts, and 328,000 women have saved more than $27 million on 660,000 contraceptive pill scripts.

The package's focus on support for women and girls with endometriosis has had a significant impact too. It builds on work already undertaken by the Albanese Labor government in 2024, such as funding for Southside based QENDO for its national endometriosis mentor program, providing crucial peer support. I'm very proud to have one of QENDO's pioneers in MacGregor in my electorate, Jude Perryn, who has put in close to 40 years of advocacy for women facing endometriosis. Now not only have 7,000 women saved $5.7 million on 30,000 scripts; they've benefited from the rollout of 33 endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics. We're also expanding the role of several clinics so that they can offer perimenopause and menopause services, with the first of these enhanced clinics already seeing patients and the rest set to come online in the first half of the year.

We've introduced Medicare funded menopause health assessments, and these have already been accessed by more than 71,000 women, reflecting the often complex nature of conditions and additional supports required. This year the government will roll out Australia's first national awareness campaign on perimenopause and menopause, finally giving women the recognition and the clear information they have gone far too long without. We're supporting the development of Australia's first national clinical guidelines for perimenopause and menopause—crucial for ongoing evidence based care. This historic women's health package provides support for women across a range of women's health conditions that were simply never discussed before.

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