Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It is a rare occasion that the Speaker is in the chair when I am on my feet. It will give me great pleasure to speak while you are here. We are debating today important legislation which covers several areas. Most contentious of course is how it has dealt with midwives and homebirths, and as I am the first speaker to deal with the Health Legislation Amendment (Midwives and Nurse Practitioners) Bill 2009 and related bills since the minister’s backflip on Friday I will be able to make some remarks on that. But firstly I will deal another aspect of the bill, the PBS and MBS access for midwives and nurse practitioners, which is included as part of the maternity services review which this government has undertaken. It is one of the many hundreds of reviews that the government has held since it came to office, particularly in the area of health, where it has had more reviews than days in office so far.

The coalition’s view is that there needs to be a more holistic approach to health care in Australia, especially in the areas of preventative health and chronic illness. The skills of all health and medical practitioners should be utilised to their full potential and in accordance with appropriate scope of practice. It is important that PBS and MBS access for all professionals is carefully restricted and monitored in accordance with professional qualifications and experience. Of course we are very fortunate in Australia to have a high-quality healthcare system. It has its challenges, particularly with state-run public hospitals. There are many challenges in all states at the moment, particularly in my home state of South Australia, and in regional areas such as mine it is a very challenging area of government policy, one where the state governments are clearly not up to the task. I note that the Rudd government, since coming to office and prior to being elected, have promised that if the states do not achieve certain benchmarks or certain standards they will take a full takeover of the health system to the Australian people. Whether that is the right or wrong approach, it will be dealt with at some other time; however, it is worth noting that their approach to that promise has been reduced since they have come to government and realised how challenging this area of policy is. The buck appears not to have stopped anywhere.

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