Nita Green (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

It's good to have you back, Senator Lambie, and thank you for that contribution. We and many people in this chamber know that having a baby is the most wonderful thing in the world. But, for some families, the experience can be incredibly physically and mentally difficult. Before my daughter, Stevie, was born, I had heard the term 'birth trauma', but I didn't really understand how common an experience it can be. I never thought that I would experience this trauma, and I never thought about how it would impact my life years after Stevie was born. Birth trauma can relate to physical and psychological trauma. For me, it was both. I was in pain and possibly in labour, but, for a variety of reasons, I was turned away. Among other circumstances, that led to an emergency C-section, a difficult recovery and a very close call for me and for the little, tiny baby that I had wanted for so very long. Of course, it was all worth it. Stevie is turning four in four weeks, and she just started soccer lessons on Saturday, so I'm a very proud soccer mum finally. But we know that, when pregnancies or births don't go to plan, women often suffer in silence, so I am sharing this story tonight.

We also know that, when you don't know where to go to get help, it embeds trauma instead of allowing people to recover from it. That's why I'm just so grateful and proud that our government, working alongside the Gidget Foundation, is delivering perinatal mental health centres across the country. I want to thank Assistant Minister Emma McBride for being in Townsville last week to announce that Townsville will be one of the very first places to establish one of these centres. The Townsville perinatal mental health centre will mean so much to parents, offering the specialised and important care that new parents need and deserve. This is a hallmark of our Labor government—a government that has set out to strengthen Medicare for all Australians.

After a decade of neglect, cuts and freezes under the former government, we are getting on with the job of delivering a better, fairer and stronger Medicare for all Australians, because, for Labor, Medicare is not negotiable. We're delivering more bulk-billing; cheaper medicines; more urgent care clinics across the country, particularly in regional areas; and, finally, better health care for women. Just last week, we delivered record hospital funding for every single state and territory. Our government has tripled the bulk-billing incentives for pensioners, concession card holders and children. We more recently expanded that to every single Australian. That single change has meant that millions more free GP visits across the country are happening right now. You can see this firsthand in how it has changed the way that bulk-billing is occurring in our communities. We know there's more work to do, but we're up for it, because everywhere signs are popping up that loudly and proudly show that clinics have gone 100 per cent bulk-billing.

But we did not stop there. We recognise that strengthening Medicare means strengthening access, and our Medicare urgent care clinics have been a game changer. For Queensland families, these clinics mean that, when they need care close to home, they can get it just with their Medicare card. Strengthening Medicare is also about recognising that, for too long, women's health has been underfunded and underacknowledged. Our government is changing that.

On top of introducing the perinatal mental health centres, we have expanded endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics and invested in more, including in my home town of Cairns—shout-out to Dr Sam and the team at the pelvic pain clinic; you guys are awesome! This team is providing specialised care to women who for years were told that their pain was normal or who were dismissed entirely.

On top of this, we're reducing the financial burden of contraception by improving access through the PBS. We've increased Medicare rebates for procedures like IUD insertions for women who are now not forced to pay hundreds of dollars of out-of-pocket costs for essential reproductive health care. For the first time, we've introduced Medicare supported menopause mental health care. Labor created Medicare. We will always protect it, and now we are strengthening it.