Carina Garland (Chisholm, 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 working to deliver better health outcomes for Australian women? Why is the government so committed to investing in the health of Australia's 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 the member for Chisholm. She is one of 69 women who sit in the government party room and one of 50 women who sit on this side of the House of Representatives, compared to five Liberal Party women who sit on that side of the House of Reps. There are twice as many women who sit on this side whose names start with A as there are Liberal Party women on that side of the House overall. And I can tell you that every single one of my female colleagues reminds me regularly that you cannot be serious about strengthening Medicare without strengthening women's health. Women consume about 60 per cent of the nation's health services, often not because they're sick but because they're women taking responsibility for their own and their family's reproductive health and reproductive planning or because they're going through menopause or perimenopause. The truth is that women have not been getting the support from our healthcare system for decades that they deserve and they need.

This morning, I want to pay tribute to the Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, who made a statement to update the House on our progress in this area and other areas relevant to her responsibilities in the women's portfolio, and I thank her for her tireless work in this area. Last year, the government added the first new contraceptive pills, the first new menopause hormone treatments and the first new endometriosis medicines to the PBS for literally decades. Since then, almost 400,000 women have been able to access their menopause hormone treatments at affordable PBS prices instead of having to pay top dollar. One of those women, Anne, recently messaged me and told me that she was saving more than $600 a year because of that listing. More than 300,000 women are accessing their oral contraceptive pills at PBS prices.

We didn't just modernise the PBS in this respect. We've added new MBS or Medicare entitlements as well. Almost 80,000 women just since July have accessed the new comprehensive menopause health assessment. Women are benefiting from higher rebates for complex gynaecological care. Larger Medicare payments now mean that women can access implants and contraceptive IUDs free of charge instead of paying up to $400, which is what they were doing before last year. This package is focused on providing women with more choice, with lower costs and with better care, and it is already making a huge difference, righting the wrongs of decades—frankly—in too many areas, and is delivering a stronger Medicare for Australia's women.