I rise to support this motion from my friend and colleague the member for Dickson and recognise the importance of continuing to improve women's health care in Australia. I am proud that the Albanese Labor government remains vigilant in our plans to maintain momentum in this regard. Just this morning we announced an expansion of our pharmacy trial to make accessing medicines easier and more affordable for women. Previously limited to concession cardholders, the trial will now be available to all women, potentially benefiting 900,000 Australians through treatment for uncomplicated UTIs and access to hormonal contraception. The government will cover pharmacist consultation costs, saving women up to $38 per visit, with prescriptions capped at $25. This is our record $800 million women's health package in action—delivering more choice, lower costs and better care for Australian women and girls.

Since announcing the package in March last year, more than one million women have filled almost 4.9 million cheaper prescriptions for contraceptives, menopausal hormone therapies and endometriosis treatments all now listed on the PBS. That has delivered more than $150 million in savings for women and girls. For a woman managing endometriosis, whose medication would have previously cost up to $2,700 a year, that is a huge difference. For women experiencing menopause, who may have been paying hundreds of dollars for treatment, it means more affordable access to the care she needs. For young women, the first new PBS listings for contraceptive pills in more than 30 years means greater choice and fewer cost barriers. These are not abstract policy changes. They are real savings for women and families in Newcastle and right across Australia.

We are also making it easier and cheaper for women to access IUDs and contraceptive implants with higher Medicare rebates and new incentives to support bulk-billing. We're investing in training so that more health practitioners can provide these services locally, including in regional communities. We're establishing eight LARC Centres of Excellence, giving women access to expert advice and contraceptive services at no cost—because where you live, how much you earn or whether you can afford an appointment should not determine whether you can access quality reproductive health care. For women in regional and rural communities, that means more than reducing the cost of a prescription. It means having a trained health professional closer to home and having a genuine choice about the care that works for you. We're also finally giving menopause and perimenopause the attention they deserve.

More than 137,000 women have undergone a Medicare-covered menopause health assessment. All 33 endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics are now open, with expanded support for perimenopause and menopause care, and our national awareness campaign is helping women recognise symptoms, find evidence-based information and have informed conversations with their healthcare professionals. That matters because women's experiences are not all the same. Some women experience mild symptoms, for others it's a lot more impactful. But every woman deserves to be heard, taken seriously and supported to find the right care. That's why this government is establishing a ministerial expert panel on women's health, making things like cardiovascular our priority, because women are experiencing different symptoms. We need to acknowledge that and we need everybody to be aware of that.

I'm particularly encouraged that First Nations women, culturally and linguistically diverse women, and LGBTQIA+ communities are also part of that sharing of experiences. We need to hear from women right across our communities who've struggled to access the care and whose symptoms have been dismissed. We are saying, 'No more of that.' We want to see a situation where young women make informed choices, where women experiencing menopause can get reliable information and appropriate treatment without stigma, where women's pain is recognised. The Albanese Labor government is getting on with the job and I commend this motion to the House.

For too long, women's health has not been taken seriously in this country. Women have been told that their pain is normal, and they've waited years for diagnosis. They've been dismissed, overlooked and left to push through. That is a failure, and everyone in this place should be willing to say so, but I'm very frustrated and disappointed at how this government thinks it has changed things for women in the regions, opening 33 endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics across the country. How many of those are in my electorate? One—one for 95 per cent of South Australia. My electorate is larger than the state of New South Wales, yet New South Wales has 10 endo clinics. How is that fair? The one in my electorate was one of the very first to open in Australia, and I thank Dr Ann Kearney for the amazing work that she does for my constituents and many more, because people travel far and wide to see her. Dr Kearney has told me women travel from as far as Whyalla, Roxby Downs and Adelaide Hills to access her clinic on the Yorke Peninsula, but this care is not available everywhere. This care is available at only one clinic in my entire electorate, and that is not right.

I openly criticised the announcement of 11 new endo clinics late last year. That announcement included none in South Australia. That call has gone unanswered. It is great that menopause health assessments have been added to Medicare, but when this government says free urgent Medicare clinics are available within a 20-minute drive for five out of four Australians, I wonder if regional South Australia was deliberately left out of that count. In my electorate, we have one urgent Medicare clinic and it's in Whyalla, where 10 per cent of my constituents live. From my own home, that's a three-hour drive one way, and I know it is much, much longer for many people in the electorate of Grey, so I cannot sit here and listen to people commend this government for listening to women and girls in Australia when it is listening to only a select few.

Women and girls should not have to suffer because they live in the regions. They should not be left behind because they were born and raised in the regions. Even now, the Labor government has imposed a birthing trial on hospitals in Jamestown and Crystal Brook without consulting the communities, the mothers this affects or the doctors who deliver these services. One woman told me that if this trial had been in place when she gave birth, she would have had to deliver on the side of the road. Things change fast during birth. Babies do not arrive by a roster. So why are families in Jamestown and Crystal Brook expected to give birth on an alternating one? If this were proposed in our cities, it would be laughed out of the room. Clearly, this arrangement does not preserve local birthing services. It is turning two permanent services into one service that moves between hospitals. Labor is managing a staffing problem by making maternity care less reliable and accessible for the communities that depend on it. We cannot afford to compromise care for regional families by failing to listen to the people who know these services best—the mothers, the midwives and the doctors. Why are regional women treated differently? I'm glad this government is making progress on its support for women, but it is not enough. Women in the regions should not have to suffer because of where they live.

I start with a story:

I suffered for many years with migraines, not realising they were hormonal. I also became severely anaemic, but was told it wouldn't be because of my period. My Mum had polycystic ovaries, and had a total hysterectomy at 42. She never really talked about why (no one really talked about women's problems then). It would have helped my sister to know more, as she has PCOS too. When I was 18 weeks pregnant, I started bleeding and was instructed by the public hospital midwives to go to ED. As a first time mum I was extremely worried. I had to wait 6 hours before a midwife was available to check the foetal heart rate. This could have been done easily by an RN or Dr with a simple foetal monitor available in ED. I work in health (Nuclear Medicine) and I see women every day for their PET scans for breast and gynaecological cancers, plus pre-surgical mapping of the lymph nodes in breast cancer. I acknowledge how far we've come with early detection and better treatments, but there's still so much more research and improvements that can be made. For example, I am currently caring for my 15 year old daughter who has high clinical suspicion for Endometriosis. It has made her so unwell that she was hospitalised for a month. Her GP was excellent helping her from the start, but there was quite a wait to see the Gynaecologist. Some of the paediatricians dismissed her symptoms while she was in hospital. I think there had been access to a multi-disciplinary women's health service she may not have ended up as unwell as she is now.

This is the story of a woman in South Hurstville, in my electorate of Barton. It chronicles not only the pain of ill health but also the pain of being misunderstood across generations of her family. This is what we mean by women's health: real, debilitating chronic pain that is simply not understood by a health system build for men's bodies.

I ran a survey to understand what women in Barton are experiencing in the health system so that I could best represent them to the current Select Committee on Women's Health. This excerpt reflects most, though not all, of the responses I received—misunderstanding, misdiagnosis and years of pain, culminating in conditions that are now extremely hard to treat or worsening because there was no accessible service that listened to these women. I've now compiled these responses and put them to the select committee because I know we can change this system. We can reform it. That means equipping out GPs with a real understanding of women's health and giving them the support and resources they need. It means creating spaces where all women can speak openly, particularly women from multicultural backgrounds who may not be used to discussing these issues at home because they are seen as taboo. It means making the medicines that treat these illnesses affordable and accessible.

We need to make these changes because I don't want to hear these stories anymore—not because I'm not listening or because I don't think it's important, but because I don't want it to exist anymore. I want women experiencing pelvic pain to be able to go to their doctors, explain what's happening and receive timely treatment. It's a simple ask: to be seen, to be heard and to be treated. But that's not what happens for many women. We have made progress, and I acknowledge that, but there is still a long way to go. Thank you to all those women who participated in sharing their stories with me. I'm sorry that our healthcare system has let you down. You'll have a champion in me for as long as I'm in this place and beyond.

I rise to speak on the motion moved by the member for Dickson. Let me say at the outset that there is a great deal in this motion that the coalition welcomes: new contraceptives for the PBS; Medicare rebates for menopause assessments; more support for women going through IVF. These are good reforms, they matter to women and I acknowledge them.

But I would gently make one point. Women's health does not belong to any one side of this place, and this work did not begin in 2022. It was, in fact, the coalition that launched the National Women's Health Strategy. In a single budget, we invested more than $350 million in the health of Australian women. That included new Medicare items for gynaecology and assisted reproduction, so women could get that care affordably. We also listed new medicines for ovarian and breast cancer on the PBS. It was also the coalition that first committed funding for dedicated endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics—the very clinics this motion celebrates.

Where this government has built on that foundation, we have welcomed it. At the last election, both sides of this parliament committed the same: $573 million for women's health. That is how it should be. Women should be able to expect that, whoever sits on either side of this chamber, their health is never a political football.

But a commitment on paper only counts when a woman can actually use it. A Medicare rebate for a menopause assessment only helps a woman who can get in to see a GP and afford the gap payment, and we know that, right now, in this Albanese Labor government cost-of-living crisis, too many women are going without the health care they need because household budgets are already stretched to breaking point.

Women are more likely to live with a chronic condition, more likely to be the carer in their family and more likely to put their own health last. They delay the scan; they put off the specialist; they wait, and they hope it is nothing.

Endometriosis affects around one in seven women, and it takes, on average, around seven years to diagnose—seven years, too often, of being told, 'It's nothing.' So there is more to do. We need more training for the health professionals women rely on. We need national clinical guidelines, so a woman gets the same standard of care wherever she lives, and we need secure, ongoing funding for the endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics.

There is one part of a women's health that this motion does not mention at all, and that's maternity care. Since 2022, at least 13 private maternity units have closed across Australia—in Darwin, in Hobart and on the Central Coast. In parts of this country, an expectant mother now has to travel for hours, away from her family, simply to have her baby safely. For a woman in labour, distance is not an inconvenience; it can be seriously dangerous. Every ward that closes puts more pressure on public hospitals that are already stretched. This is a challenge the whole parliament should take seriously, and I would urge the government to bring the same energy to it as it brought to the reforms in this motion.

The coalition will keep working with obstetricians, midwives and the hospitals on real solutions. In the end, it's women's health that is important, not who takes the credit. It is about whether a woman can get care that she can afford, care that she can reach and care that understands her.

I thank the member for Lindsay. However, I've just been advised by the Clerk that the member for Lindsay spoke to this motion beforehand, the previous time it was before the Federation Chamber. If you could just seek leave of the Federation Chamber to speak a second time—

I seek leave to speak a second time on this motion.

Leave granted.

I thank the member for Lindsay. I've never had that happen before! The question is that the motion be agreed to, and I give the call to the member for Bass, who I hope is speaking for the first time!

I believe so, Deputy Speaker. Imagine going to your doctor because you're in pain, only to be told that that's normal. You go home, you get on with things and you try not to make a fuss. But that pain doesn't go away. Months pass—sometimes, years—before someone finally listens and you get an answer. For too many Australian women, that experience is painfully familiar. Whether it's endometriosis, menopause or another health concern, women have spent far too long being told that what they're experiencing is simply part of being a woman, and I think we need to ask ourselves why we accepted that for such a long time.

I'm pleased to support this motion, because women deserve to have their health taken seriously and to have real choices about their care. The Albanese government's $800 million Women's Health Package is helping to make that happen. Since March last year, more than one million women have accessed cheaper prescriptions for contraception, menopause and endometriosis, saving more than $150 million. That's money back in household budgets at a time when every dollar counts. It's about more than just saving money. It's about women being able to choose the treatment that's right for them, rather than the one that they can afford. For the first time in more than 30 years, new contraceptive pills have been added to the PBS. Higher Medicare rebates are also making IUDs and contraceptive implants more affordable.

For women living with endometriosis, these changes are particularly important. It's years missing school, struggling through work and cancelling plans because of pain without understanding why it's happening. More than 11,000 women have accessed endometriosis treatments now at PBS prices, including treatments that previously cost up to $2,700 a year. All 33 endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics are now open across Australia, with services expanded to include perimenopause and menopause care. Endometriosis is something that has been spoken about a lot more in the last 18 months than I think I've ever heard it spoken about in the other 38 years of my life. Finally, we are able to talk about this at a national level, in media. It's not something that is hidden away. It's not something that women need to feel ashamed of. I think that is something that we need to celebrate as a nation.

We really are leading the way not just on endometriosis but also on menopause. For some women, menopause might mean sleepless nights, anxiety, brain fog and symptoms that can completely disrupt their lives. And yet, for generations, like endometriosis, it was barely discussed, with many women trying to work out for themselves what was happening to them. Now, more than 137,000 women have accessed Medicare funded menopause health assessments, and new hormone therapies are available through the PBS. These practical changes do make an enormous difference to people's quality of life. I have colleagues that I've worked with in the past who thought they were going crazy. They were told they were going crazy by their family. But, when they got the help and the medicine that they needed, they could feel themselves again. And it was years until they felt that way.

In regional Tasmania, as you well know, getting the care you need is not always straightforward. An appointment might mean travelling for hours, taking time off work or finding someone to look after the kids. After so many of these women have already spent years trying to get answers, those extra barriers—that travel, that cost, that time—can be exhausting, and they can make you put it off for even longer. That's why making this treatment more affordable and supporting more health professionals to provide services locally is so deeply important. I also want to acknowledge my friend and Tasmanian colleague, the member for Lyons, Bec White, who has been such a strong advocate and voice for improving women's health care. Bec understands the challenges, as we do, facing regional families, and I'm deeply, deeply grateful for the work that she's put into this.

There is still so much more to do, but I hope we're moving towards a future where women don't have to spend years convincing someone that their pain is real, where they can make informed choices about their treatment without cost standing in the way and where every woman who walks into a medical appointment knows that she deserves to and will be heard, believed and cared for. I commend this motion to the House.

Some of the greatest barriers to improving women's health in Australia are the silence, shame and embarrassment that still surround so many women's health conditions. Every day, women delay seeking medical care because they feel uncomfortable talking about intimate health issues. Conditions such as prolapse, incontinence, pelvic pain, menopause and heavy menstrual bleeding remain surrounded by stigma and untreated. Many women suffer in silence. They put up with debilitating pain and discomfort. They delay seeking help, sometimes for years, and often, when they finally do seek help, their concerns are dismissed or minimised.

That's why the recent public mocking of Senator Jacqui Lambie's experience of pelvic organ prolapse in a One Nation cartoon is particularly damaging and, I would say, deeply shameful. At a time when we are trying to encourage women to speak openly about their health, overcome embarrassment and seek treatment, we have a female parliamentarian's deeply personal medical experience turned into a punchline. What message does that send to women already too embarrassed to discuss their symptoms with their GP or their partners? As a doctor, I know just how difficult it can be for women to raise these issues, and I know how important it is that they feel safe, respected and confident that their concerns will be taken seriously. Personal health journeys like Senator Lambie's should not be ridiculed. They should prompt us as parliamentarians to demand better.

Pelvic organ prolapse is a common, often debilitating and underrecognised women's health condition. It can profoundly affect a woman's mobility, bladder and bowel function, intimate relationships, confidence and quality of life. Yet many women delay seeking treatment because of embarrassment or because they mistakenly believe it is simply an inevitable consequence of childbirth or ageing. When they do seek help, they can face lengthy delays, limited specialist access and significant out-of-pocket costs.

Senator Lambie's experience highlights a much broader issue. The treatment of women's health in Australia is still not where it needs to be. Evidence of gender bias in our healthcare system is deeply embedded and concerning. More than half of Australian women report having their pain ignored or dismissed by health professionals while around two-thirds report experiences of medical misogyny. Evidence to women's health inquiries reveals that women are too often not believed when reporting pain, that they are forced to see multiple practitioners before receiving a diagnosis and that they are left navigating fragmented care and costly specialist appointments. We heard similar stories during the 2024 Senate inquiry into menopause and perimenopause. Women described having their symptoms dismissed as stress or ageing, inadequately investigated or simply misunderstood. The consequences extend far beyond physical discomfort. Women lose confidence in themselves and in the healthcare system. Their work, relationships, mental health and quality of life can all suffer. Some stop seeking help altogether.

I acknowledge the government's investments in women's health, including the expansion of the endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics, dedicated Medicare items for menopause and increased support for clinician education and research. These are really welcome and necessary reforms, but there is still much more to do. We need to confront gender bias and medical misogyny in our healthcare system. We need faster diagnostic pathways, better training for GPs and specialists, improved Medicare support for multidisciplinary care and greater investment in women's health research. We need better collection of women's health data so that the gaps in care can no longer be overlooked. Alongside these reforms, we must change the culture of silence and shame that continues to surround women's bodies and women's health. That starts with the example that we set here in parliament. Senator Lambie chose to share her story to draw attention to the barriers women veterans face in accessing treatment. She did not deserve to be ridiculed then told by a fellow political leader and colleague to get a sense of humour and get over it. What Jacqui Lambie did took courage, and it deserves immense respect.

For far too long, women's health has been overlooked, underfunded and in many cases misunderstood. We believe that women's health is central not only to gender equality but for community and economic wellbeing, which is why it is at the heart of this government's agenda. A woman's ability to get the healthcare she needs should never depend on how much money you have, the postcode that you live in or how many times you are prepared to ask for some sort of medical care. Yet too many women know what it means to put their own health last—to postpone that appointment because of cost, to maybe keep working through the pain, to leave a consultation feeling their concerns weren't really heard.

That's why this government is investing in women's health. It's about making care more affordable, giving women greater choice and building a health system that takes their needs seriously. Through our historic $792 million women's health package, the Albanese government is investing in contraception, in endometriosis treatments and in supporting women experiencing perimenopause and menopause. These are practical changes that reach into everyday lives of women around this country.

Think about contraception. Choosing the right contraception is a personal decision made with the appropriate medical advice, but when cost limits that option that choice becomes smaller. We have added new contraceptive pills to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and the first new pill listing in more than 30 years. We've also increased Medicare support for the insertion and removal of intrauterine devices and contraceptive implants, helping reduce the upfront financial barriers for these options. For a young woman studying, a mother managing household expenses or someone working a casual shift, a lower health bill can make a meaningful difference. The principle is pretty straightforward: women deserve to make decisions about their bodies based on their health needs and preferences with affordable options available to them.

Then there's the endometriosis and persistent pelvic pain clinics. We should ask ourselves what it means when someone begins to organise their life around pain. She worries about missing work. She may cancel a plan when she wonders whether she'll be taken seriously again when she asks for help. Women deserve a clear pathway to assessment, treatment and ongoing support. Labor's expanded network now includes 33 endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics across Australia, which also support women experiencing perimenopause and menopause. Brisbane's first GP endometriosis and pelvic pain clinic is operating out of Toowong and is supporting women across the Brisbane electorate, giving them the care that they need. A clinic can't promise every woman an immediate answer, but what it can do is provide access to care that recognises her symptoms and helps her navigate the treatment options in a meaningful way forward.

The same commitment must extend to menopause. For too long, we've expected women to manage this stage of life quietly, often while juggling demands of jobs, family responsibilities and care responsibilities. Women should be able to discuss their symptoms openly and receive the care suited to their individual circumstances. Since July last year, Medicare has supported dedicated menopause and perimenopausal health assessments and we've also expanded access to subsidised menopausal hormonal therapies alongside investment in professional training and better information. That means more opportunity for a proper conversation about what a woman is experiencing, the options that are available and the support that she needs.

We can already point to practical results. In September, the data revealed that more than one million women had access to cheaper medicines for contraception, menopause and endometriosis, filling out more than four million scripts and saving over $150 million collectively. Those savings matter. They matter for households who are paying rents, mortgages, groceries and electricity bills, but we must also be honest. Money committed and prescriptions filled cannot be our only measures of success. Women have to be able to get appointments. They have to, yes, afford their treatment but also understand their options and actually get in the door.

Our responsibility as a government is to keep asking where the gaps are in women's health and keep working to close them because women's health affects every part of their life and our lives: education, employment, relationships, family and financial security. Investing in women's health is an investment in women's freedom to live the lives they choose, and it's investment in families and their communities.

Women deserve to have their pain taken seriously. I welcome this opportunity to again discuss the health of Australian women and girls. In May, I stood in this chamber to discuss endometriosis and pelvic pain. I said then that too many women suffer, often silently. I also welcomed the government's continuation of important work begun under the former coalition government. Australia's first national action plan for endometriosis was established by the coalition in 2018. It recognised the need for awareness, research, earlier diagnosis and multidisciplinary care, including better accessibility for regional and rural Australians.

Then in March 2022 the coalition government further committed a record $58 million under that action plan, including $16.4 million to establish specialised endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics across every state and territory. The Albanese government subsequently increased that originally proposed network, and, today, there are 33 clinics. I welcome that expansion, but a clinic on a map does not equal access. The government now quite correctly says all 31 primary health networks have at least one clinic. Consider what that means in my electorate. For women in Mildura within the enormous Murray PHN, their clinic is in Bendigo, which is 400km away.

In May, I told this chamber about my constituent, Teila from Merbein, who had travelled to Melbourne seeking the specialist gynaecological care she could not obtain close to home. Following the disturbing allegations concerning the treatment she received, Teila's message to me was simple: she wanted local doctors appropriately trained, and she wanted to keep her care local. There could hardly be a more powerful demonstration that availability and accessibility are not the same thing. This problem goes well beyond Mallee. Look across Australia. For the entire Northern Territory PHN, the listed clinic is in Darwin; western Queensland's clinic is in Blackall; county Western Australia's clinic is in Albany; and western New South Wales has a clinic in Orange.

I acknowledge the government has expanded these clinics to provide menopause and perimenopause care as well. That is positive. However, expanding the services that a clinic offers hundreds of kilometres away does not make that clinic more accessible to the women and girls nowhere near it. We need to measure isolation, not lines on a map. This points to a much broader problem in regional health policy. The current Modified Monash Model does not recognise actual isolation and access. Where is the nearest service? Is the specialist workforce actually available? How long does it take the patient to travel to a clinic? What public transport is available? Is primary care available to follow up closer to home? These questions matter for endometriosis and pelvic pain, they matter for menopause and perimenopause and they matter for fertility treatment and women's health throughout life.

I welcome the progress for women's and girls health. The coalition began Australia's national endometriosis strategy. This government has continued and expanded it, which is excellent. But our job is not finished when every PHN has a dot on a map; our job is finished when a woman or girl in Mildura, Swan Hill, Kerang, Maryborough, the outback or remote Australia has a genuine pathway to timely, affordable and high quality care. A woman's or girl's postcode must never determine whether her pain is treated or whether the treatment she needs is genuinely within reach. We must do better.

Women's health care is everybody's health care. It is the health of our mothers, daughters, sisters, partners, our friends and indeed our colleagues. Yet, for generations, too many aspects of women's health have been spoken about quietly behind closed doors or not spoken about at all. As a doctor, I know how important it is for every patient to feel heard, believed and supported when they seek medical care.

Since becoming the member for Robertson, I have held a number of women's health forums on the Central Coast. These forums have given me the opportunity to hear directly from women about their experiences. Women have spoken about difficulties accessing appropriate care. They have spoken about experiencing pain or debilitating symptoms and feeling that they were not being heard. They have told me about the importance of finding a doctor who listens. And they've spoken about how important it is to have partners and family members who understand what they are experiencing and know how to support them. These conversations have stayed with me, because, for too long, conditions affecting women have been surrounded by silence. Endometriosis, pelvic pain, menstruation, fertility, contraception, perimenopause and menopause should not be taboo subjects. We need to raise the blinds on the taboos surrounding women's health care. We need to talk openly and honestly because no-one should be embarrassed to talk about their health. There should be no stigma attached to asking for help.

No woman should ever feel that chronic pain or debilitating symptoms are simply something that they have to put up with. That is why I'm so proud of what our government is delivering. Our government has made a landmark investment in women's health that is focused on delivering more health care for Australian women and girls, and we are seeing the results. By September 2026, more than one million Australian women have accessed cheaper medicines for contraception, endometriosis and menopause, with more than four million cheaper prescriptions filled. We've delivered new contraceptive pills on the PBS for the first time in more than 30 years. We have also made long-acting reversible contraception, including IUDs and contraceptive implants, more affordable through Medicare.

We are changing the way Australia responds to menopause and perimenopause. For generations, women were too often simply expected to get on with it. That is changing. New hormone therapies have been listed on the PBS—the first new listings in more than 20 years—and Medicare funded menopause health assessments have now been introduced, with more than 137,000 women receiving one of these assessments. We've also expanded the network of endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics right across Australia, including one on the Central Coast, and all of them are supporting women experiencing perimenopause and menopause. We've also invested in additional services for women with complex gynaecological conditions, including endometriosis, polycystic ovarian syndrome and chronic pelvic pain.

These are significant reforms, but improving women's health cannot just be about funding, programs or statistics. It must also be about changing culture. It is about creating a community where a young woman can talk openly about debilitating period pain and know that she will be taken seriously; where a woman experiencing menopause feels comfortable talking to her doctor, her family and her workplace about what she is experiencing; and where a woman living with persistent pain knows that asking for help is not complaining. That means this conversation can not only involve women. Men need to be a part of this too. As husbands, partners, fathers, sons, brothers, colleagues and friends we all have a responsibility to listen, to understand and to support the women in our lives, because women's health does not exist in isolation, and when someone is struggling with their health it can affect their family, relationships, employment and participation within the community. That is one of the strongest messages that I have taken from the women on the Central Coast who have shared their experiences with me.

There is more work to do. We must continue improving access to care and we must continue strengthening Medicare and making medications more affordable. But we must also continue to break down the silence and stigma that has surrounded women's health for far too long. Above all, we must continue to listen when women tell us they're in pain, they cannot access health care or they don't feel heard. Every woman deserves to be heard, every woman deserves to be supported and every woman deserves access to high-quality and affordable care. Women's health care is everyone's care, and that is something worth speaking loudly about.

I thank the member for Dickson for bringing forward this motion. Whilst I'm here and he's still here, I thank the member for Robertson for the work he continues to do in the medical field on the Central Coast in his electorate. I acknowledge, too, the role the member for Macarthur has played over many decades in his part of the world and the advocacy he does—they both do—for health in this parliament. Also, whilst I'm being very bipartisan, I want to acknowledge the Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, the member for Dobell, perhaps in the context of the words I'm about to say: 'regional health'. Each time she comes to Wagga Wagga, my home town, she makes sure that I'm aware and allows me to be with her for those important discussions. I'm very appreciative of the investment—continuing on from the former coalition government—that she has advocated for and delivered, particularly in Wagga Wagga—certainly in the space of mental health.

When it comes to women's health, Wagga Wagga is fortunate to have the services of the Wagga Women's Health Centre. It was established in the 1970s, when women were finding it very difficult to have the contraceptive pill prescribed. The women responded by setting up their own centre. Certainly, in recent years, from its Peter Street premises, and before that, from opposite the civic centre and council chambers in Morrow Street, it has provided important work for and on behalf of local women—and not just women in the regional city that is Wagga Wagga but, indeed, women in the wider area.

Recently the Wagga Women's Health Centre had its funding for domestic violence cut, and this was a huge body blow to them. I know the work that Jan Roberts did in making sure the women's health centre gained the recognition it needed. In more recent years, Vickie Burkinshaw and Johanna Elms have certainly continued Jan's legacy. But 70 per cent of police call-outs in the Riverina are for domestic and family violence related issues, and that is simply not good enough. We are in a situation at the moment where we're trying to lower the temperature. I know some people have problems with that. I do not, in fact. But we do need to acknowledge that there is a problem, and, generally speaking, that problem is with men. It is; let's call it as it is.

The Wagga Women's Health Centre does a remarkable job in providing a face-to-face service for women in domestic violence situations. It finds women the housing, and this is health related because, if the matriarch of the home has no safe place to live, then that affects not just her but, indeed, the whole family. Certainly the children in these cases are often affected. Thankfully, the primary health network came to the assistance of the Wagga Women's Health Centre, and I know the state government did as well, but more needs to be done to ensure the ongoing funding. It's not good enough that the Wagga Women's Health Centre has to constantly bring out the begging bowl and justify why it needs ongoing recurrent funding. It should be provided. Quite frankly, it should be provided by all levels of government for the valuable work it does.

When this funding was cut in 2025, I know that Cecilia O'Rourke came from Junee with her daughter and granddaughter to support the organisation. She said: 'If they take the money away, it will not be just a few women left hanging, but it will be generations that are the reason today we come with my daughter and my granddaughter because it's a generational issue. It's important that people realise that domestic violence doesn't respect money, nationality, education, nothing, and I think that it's an issue that needs to be addressed constantly.' Ms O'Rourke is a retired mental health worker. She knows, because she has seen it all before. We need to provide that funding. If there is a women's health issue in Wagga Wagga that does require addressing, it is the ongoing funding for this important organisation.

There have been no further speakers, the debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.