Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That these bills be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading speeches incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech es read as follows—

HEALTH LEGISLATION AMENDMENT (PRESCRIBING OF PHARMACEUTICAL BENEFITS) BILL 2025

The Health Legislation Amendment (Prescribing of Pharmaceutical Benefits) Bill 2025 introduces historic reforms to health legislation that empower nurses to work to their full scope of practice and improve access to medicines for people across Australia.

This Bill advances scope of practice reforms identified by the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce and the subsequent Unleashing the Potential of our Health Workforce Review.

It amends the National Health Act 1953 to authorise registered nurses, endorsed under the Registration Standard: Endorsement for Scheduled Medicines—Designated Registered Nurse Prescriber, to prescribe certain medicines under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), attracting Commonwealth subsidies.

This change empowers nurses to provide safe, high-quality care directly to people in the community, reducing the need for GP visits or long waits in overcrowded hospital emergency departments.

Enabling prescribing under the PBS by designated registered nurse prescribers ensures the medicines they prescribe are affordable for patients. This reform aligns with the Government's commitment to cheaper medicines, and with the National Medicines Policy. It promotes equitable, affordable, and timely access to high-quality medicines and services.

Currently, our registered nurses, who are highly skilled and highly educated, remain underutilised in primary care. Allowing them to prescribe under the PBS will boost efficiency, strengthen care coordination, and ensure GPs and nurse practitioners can focus on patients with more complex needs.

Designated registered nurse prescribing strengthens the health system by easing workforce pressures and building long-term capacity and sustainability.

Improved access to primary healthcare reduces avoidable hospital visits and preventable hospitalisations. In rural and remote communities, people often travel long distances and face long wait times for basic care.

This reform allows people, especially those in rural and remote areas, to receive affordable treatment with greater equity.

Designated registered nurse prescribers will help relieve pressure across acute and primary care. They will ensure individuals receive care when and where they need it.

The list of medicines able to be prescribed under the PBS by a designated registered nurse prescriber will be considered by the independent Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee.

Since 2017, the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia and Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officers have conducted extensive research and consultation on nurse prescribing models. The NMBA developed the standards for designated registered nurse prescribers through multiple rounds of public consultation, which received strong support.

All Health Ministers endorsed the scheduled medicines standard, which came into effect in September 2025. The first cohort of nurses is expected to complete their education and receive endorsement as designated registered nurse prescribers by July 2026.

To maintain integrity and safety, the Bill also amends the Health Insurance Act 1973. It subjects designated registered nurse prescribing under the PBS to the Professional Services Review scheme, a peer-review mechanism that safeguards the PBS and other programs.

This Bill delivers on the Government's commitment to ensure our health workforce operates at full scope, enhancing safe and timely access to medicines. It's a win for nurses and a win for all Australians.

TRANSLATING AND INTERPRETING SERVICES BILL 2025

Australia's translating and interpreting services have a long history and play a vital role in our community. This Bill will establish a new Act to provide a clear statutory foundation for these services, reflecting the Government's commitment to the work of the Translating and Interpreting Service—TIS National—and the important role it plays in our modern, multicultural Australia.

The Australian Government began providing translating services in 1947, and interpreting services commenced not long after. These services were introduced to support post-World War II migration. The Government recognised then—as it does today—the critical importance of these services to migrants making their new home in Australia.

Since 1947, these services have continued to grow and evolve to meet the needs of the Australian community. In 1973, Australia established the world's first telephone interpreting service, which remains a core component of the services today. The Government's translating and interpreting services are now provided by TIS National in the Department of Home Affairs.

TIS National's services facilitate communication between people with limited English proficiency and the agencies and businesses rely on for vital services. TIS National operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and provides over 1.3 million interpreting services each year, in over 150 languages.

Australia is a diverse, multicultural society with a rich Indigenous heritage and a successful migration story. Over one quarter of us were born overseas, having migrated from over 200 countries. The diversity of the Australian population provides us with a variety of languages, beliefs, traditions and cultures. That is why we have the Multicultural Access and Equity Policy—a key policy ensuring that all Australians, whatever their cultural and linguistic background, are able to access Government programs and services, which in turn means they can fully participate and contribute to our society. The services that TIS National are vital in upholding this commitment to Australians.

Beyond helping us achieve access and equity outcomes, the Government's translating and interpreting services also play a vital role in supporting social cohesion in our multicultural nation.

Australia's multicultural diversity is fundamental to the character of our nation. It is who we are.

All Australians have an equal right to participate in the social, political and economic life of our country.

However, this often isn't always the experience of diverse Australians. This is why the Government recently established an Office for Multicultural Affairs and elevated to Cabinet, for the first time, the stand-alone position of Minister for Multicultural Affairs.

The Government's translating and interpreting services play a vital role in supporting a multicultural Australia. Over the years, new migrants and humanitarian entrants have relied on these services to engage with the community and build their lives as full participants in Australian society.

Services like this help new Australians navigate the complexity of our country and access essential support. They make it easier for people to engage with government and community services. For patients, these services can mean better access to healthcare, the ability to explain their symptoms in their own language, receiving the care they need.

During the height of the COVID pandemic, Translating and Interpreting Services were absolutely vital. For many families with limited English, a simple call to TIS number 131 450 meant they were able to access life-saving information, where to get vaccinated, how to stay safe, and the latest health advice when they needed it most.

And day to day, we know that TIS National provides an invaluable service with its Free Interpreting Service—available to all parliamentarians and ensuring that their constituents are able to access assistance and support from their representatives, regardless of their English ability.

Ultimately, the Government's translating and interpreting services help us to harness the economic and social benefits of our diversity and build a more productive and socially cohesive Australia for all of us.

This Bill does not seek to change the way in which the services of TIS National are provided or funded. It will simply provide a clear legislative framework for the services, providing certainty and ensuring their continued availability to support our community into the future.

To achieve this, the Bill will establish express legislative functions for TIS National, as functions of the Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs. These functions include the provision of translating and interpreting services to government departments, across all levels of government, and private sector entities to facilitate communication by and with people with limited English language proficiency, including visa holders and newly settled migrants.

The functions also enable the operation of TIS National's 24/7 phone interpreting service, which supports calls to triple zero emergency services. Further, the functions will enable the development, training and support of translators and interpreters, and ensure ongoing powers to enter into contracts and arrangements to provide these services.

The Bill also includes provisions to make clear that arrangements entered into before commencement of the legislation, including those arrangements that continue to be in force when the legislation commences, will continue to have effect. This appropriately ensures that established arrangements are able to be maintained and provides certainty for all parties—and reinforces that the purpose of this legislation is to provide a statutory framework for existing, longstanding functions and services provided by TIS National.

The Bill will also provide a power for the Minister to make rules—a disallowable legislative instrument—to prescribe matters required or permitted by the proposed Act, or necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act. This will enable the Minister to specify further functions to support and sustain TIS National's operations and important role in the provision of translating and interpreting services for the Australian community, into the future.

The Bill sends a strong signal about the Government's commitment to a united and prosperous multicultural Australia.

I commend this Bill to the chamber.

Debate adjourned.

Ordered that further consideration of the second reading of these bills be adjourned to the first sitting day of the next period of sittings, in accordance with standing order 111.