Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The point I was making is that we have a shortage of nurses and midwives in rural Australia. We have a shortage of gynaecologists, obstetricians and GPs who will deliver babies. There is a policy solution to all this. Firstly, immediately remove the three-year qualification period after graduation when a midwife cannot access the new government supported insurance scheme. This government should immediately address the problem of homebirthing and insurance. With the exemption running out in June next year, midwives need to know what is going to happen after that in regard to insurance and homebirths. This government must also realise that a threshold of performing 30 births before you can access insurance is far too high for midwives in rural and regional Australia. Many of these midwives have decades of experience. They may be delivering 25 or 27 babies. There should be a case-by-case assessment of their insurance needs and competencies rather than a 30 baby cut-off in their ability to access this MIGA scheme.

I am concerned that the next generation of midwives who should be from rural and regional Australia and who are most likely to go back and practice in rural and regional Australia will not be able to access tertiary studies because of the new independent youth allowance policy implications. Their families cannot afford to help them live away from home during their years of study. They simply do not have the means.

As a member of the coalition, I support the fixing of the mistakes in these bills before us today, but the legislation does not comprehensively address the problems facing Australian midwives or the problems facing women and families wanting to have safe, well supported births in country areas, particularly those seeking homebirths. In the 21st century what is happening in Australia is a disgrace. It is akin to the discrimination against midwives that occurred centuries ago. We just have to get over it and understand that women need choices, and that professional midwives must be given the same insurance support and considerations that other professions receive.

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