Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that children and young people who are in youth detention centres and prisons are excluded from accessing Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme;

(b) recognises that these policies disproportionately impact First Nations peoples who are overrepresented in the criminal justice system;

(c) acknowledges that children and young people in detention should have the right to the same health services and pharmaceutical benefits as the rest of the population; and

(d) calls on the Commonwealth Government to implement the recommendations from the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory that relate to this issue:

  (i) to enable the payment of Medicare benefits for medical services provided to children and young people in detention, and

  (ii) to ensure that supply of pharmaceuticals to children and young people in detention is provided under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries) | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Scott Ryan (President) | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute.

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries) | Link to this | Hansard source

Prisoner health care is the responsibility of state and territory governments under corrective services legislation. This has been so since the inception of Medicare and is reflected in the Health Insurance Act 1973. In the case of publicly provided health care for custodial prisoners, the Health Insurance Act 1973 prevents state and territory governments from transferring healthcare costs associated with their correctional programs to the Commonwealth's Medicare program. States and territories are best placed to manage the provision of health services to the prisoners in their care.

Scott Ryan (President) | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that motion No. 155 in the name of Senator Siewert be agreed to.