Ali France (Dickson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. How is the Albanese Labor government—

Hon. Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member will pause. Just like we did before for the deputy leader, we're going to have silence. We did it for the deputy leader. Now we're going to do it for the member for Dickson. She's earnt the right to be heard in silence as well. The member for Dickson will begin her question, we'll hear it in silence and then question time will continue.

Ali France (Dickson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. How is the Albanese Labor government delivering more choice, lower costs and better health care for Australian women after a decade of cuts and neglect?

Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you to my friend the member for Dickson for the question but also for joining us in the Mural Hall this morning with the Minister for Women, the Assistant Minister for Health and Ageing and so many others of our colleagues. She is one of a record 69 women who sit in the government party room, and every single one of them regularly reminds me that you can't be serious about strengthening Medicare without being serious about strengthening women's health, because, of course, women consume about 60 per cent of all health services, often not because they're sick but because they're women taking responsibility for their own and their families' reproductive health and planning or because they're going through menopause or perimenopause. The truth is women spent decades in this country simply not getting the support that they needed and that they deserved—no new contraceptive listed on the PBS for more than 30 years, no new menopause treatment listed on the PBS for more than 20 years and no new endometriosis medicine for more than 30 years, not because they didn't exist but forcing Australian women to pay top dollar for the best medicine on the market.

Well, this government changed that with a landmark women's health package that we announced one year ago today, and I want to pay credit to the Assistant Minister for Social Services, who crafted that package, and to the Assistant Minister for Health and Ageing, who has spent the last several months implementing it, because this package has made a real difference to Australian women. More than 660,000 women have filled two million scripts for new medicines we listed on the PBS, saving them tens and tens of millions of dollars, after decades of inaction. Every primary health network now has a dedicated endometriosis and pelvic pain clinic either open or due to open over the next several weeks. More than 70,000 women have used the new Medicare menopause assessment just since July, and thousands and thousands of women have used bulk-billed visits to access long-acting contraceptives like IUDs or implants without having to pay the hundreds and hundreds of dollars they had to pay for that service before 1 November.

For too long, Australian women were getting short-changed by our healthcare system—not enough attention to keeping the PBS updated, not enough support during phases like menopause and perimenopause, and too often, frankly, being expected simply to suck it up with conditions like endometriosis and pelvic pain. Well, this package has already gone a long way to righting those wrongs and making sure that Australia's women reap the benefits from a stronger Medicare.