Geoff Lyons (Bass, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in the House about the Midwives Professional Indemnity Legislation Amendment Bill 2011. Most people who provide professional services and advice to the general public take out a form of insurance that covers and protects them and their clients against adverse incidents that may lead to injury or some kind of financial loss. Civil engineers, for example, take out professional indemnity cover against the possibility that structures they build will become unsafe or may cause injury to people. Doctors take out medical indemnity cover against the possibility that they may injure their patients during the course of a medical procedure or as a result of a prescribed course of treatment.

In the 2009-10 budget, the government announced the 'improving maternity services package'. The package provides for the introduction of Medicare supported services to provide greater choice for women during pregnancy, birthing and postnatal maternity care, including the provision of professional indemnity for midwives. The Midwife Professional Indemnity Scheme, which commenced on 1 July 2010, enabled a Commonwealth contribution to be paid to insurers for the cost of eligible claims against eligible midwives. This act provides that the Commonwealth contribution and the run-off cover for Commonwealth contribution are not payable for a claim that should be covered by the midwife's employer. This is to ensure that there is no intentional cost-shifting from the employer to the Commonwealth.

Following the passage of this legislation, it was brought to the government's attention that the operation of this provision effectively excluded self-employed midwives. This exclusion was not the government's policy intention. The member for Dickson, a born-to-ruler from the other side, did not raise this oversight during the passage of the original legislation, even though the opposition would have us believe that they have some divine right to knowledge and ability. To give a little background on this issue, before the enactment of the Midwife Professional Indemnity (Commonwealth Contribution) Scheme Act 2010, midwives were generally unable to obtain insurance to cover their practice. In order to protect their personal assets in case of a negligence suit, many midwives chose to set up a company, either alone or with other midwives, through which they operated. This meant that any legal actions taken were taken against the company, not the midwife personally.

This bill also amends the Midwife Professional Indemnity (Run-Off Cover Support Payment) Act 2010 to ensure that the tax on insurers of eligible midwives is correctly calculated.

This bill amends the Midwife Professional Indemnity (Commonwealth Contribution) Scheme Act 2010 to ensure that self-employed midwives can access the Commonwealth contribution. Essentially, this bill tidies up minor technical errors by placing the intended words in a more appropriate section of the act and corrects a typographical error.

This bill is an important component of the government's maternity reform package. The package aims to improve the choices that are available to women in relation to maternity care. The total cost over four years of the professional indemnity for midwives component of the package is $25.2 million. I commend these changes to the House.

Women and their babies must be the focus of maternity care. They should be able to feel they are in control of what is happening during pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period, based on their individual needs and having discussed the issues fully with their care providers. Australian women and their babies should be able to access high-quality, safe maternity services.

This government has a proud record of delivering better health services for all Australians. Helping Australia's hospital system to recover from the dark days of the Howard-Abbott years was a daunting task for Labor when we came to office in 2007. In 2008 we boosted hospital funding by $20 billion, a 50 per cent increase. We have also invested over $2.4 billion in health workforce measures. That is helping us to train over 1,000 nurses each year and double the number of GPs in training, and we have seen the Commonwealth's specialist training program expand from just 51, when Mr Abbott was the health minister, to 518 this year. Plus, we have made a record $872.1 million investment in preventative health. And just last night we announced measures to assist those with a mental illness.

The government is delivering major reforms across the health system to improve the quality of services, responsiveness at a local level and access to care. We are governing for Australia's future. We are supporting Australian families. This is a small but important amendment. I congratulate those opposite, as they do support this amendment because it promotes choice and protects our valuable midwives.

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