Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Women) Share this | Hansard source

I appreciate the remarks of the assistant minister, but I'm very disappointed—we are very disappointed—that the minister is not here. When I was a minister, I always attended consideration in detail in the Federation Chamber; I think it's a critical matter of respect for the parliament and its processes, particularly around the budget.

We are, as a coalition, strongly committed to improving the health, safety and wellbeing of Australians and ensuring that all Australians have affordable access to the health care they need across the country. We understand that our healthcare system should be equitable and accessible to all Australians, no matter their postcode. As we stated, we will support good policy put forward by this government. But, equally, we will not hesitate to hold them to account when we think they should be doing better.

On that basis, a measure that certainly has our support is the provision of $16.8 million to introduce new MBS items for EndoPredict tests that determine a patient's risk of recurrent breast cancer. We know that genetic testing is a critical way to increase early diagnosis of breast cancer and to increase breast cancer prevention for at-risk women. So this is a great women's health item for the MBS.

The extension of the Medicare health checks was also a welcome inclusion in this budget. The coalition introduced these items to Medicare when in government, to ensure Australians had affordable and timely access to heart-health screening and advice. So I commend the government for listening to the sector, to the peak bodies and to the coalition's advocacy on this matter and deciding not to remove Medicare-funded heart-health checks for Australian patients.

However, we are concerned that, although there is significant funding that has been included in this budget for the health portfolio, the lack of an urgent or comprehensive workforce strategy puts the effective implementation of Labor's health measures into serious doubt. Workforce shortages are undoubtedly the most pressing issue currently facing our healthcare system, and we know that they are putting pressure on access in rural and regional and remote communities. Minister, do you accept that measures like increasing the bulk-billing incentive will not be effective if the current workforce crisis is not urgently addressed? How will Australians have access to bulk-billed consults if they cannot get access to a GP in the first place?

Another glaring omission was the lack of additional access to mental health support provided by this budget, which is particularly concerning given that the government has slashed Medicare-subsidised psychology sessions in half. Minister, what has your government introduced to increase affordable access to psychology sessions, since you ripped away this critical support from vulnerable Australians?

The absence of key funding for ovarian cancer is also a concern. We were disappointed to see that the government ignored Ovarian Cancer Australia's budget submission and didn't provide this support. So, Minister, can you confirm whether the government considered the important support that Ovarian Cancer Australia's budget submission would provide to Australian women battling ovarian cancer? Why did your government choose not to support it? Will your government commit to matching the coalition's $4 million commitment for Ovarian Cancer Australia, to support their critical work? Every woman with ovarian cancer should feel as though they're supported on their journey in battling this terrible disease. I sincerely hope that they get the funding to help achieve that goal.

The coalition government would also allocate $5 million to review women-specific health items on the Medicare Benefits Schedule and corresponding treatments on the MBS. This review would identify what best-practice, women-specific medical services are not listed and ensure that clinically-effective services and treatments remain affordable and accessible. As our opposition leader, Peter Dutton, stated in the budget reply, we, as the coalition, do have a proud record of committing funding for endometriosis, stillbirths, breast cancer and ovarian cancer. In continuing this strong support for women's health, the opposition leader committed to investing $4 million for Ovarian Cancer Australia. That, I think, is not a great deal of funding for an incredibly important outcome for so many women. We know, having seen the investment of funding to support ovarian cancer in the past, that it actually does make a difference. It's not just for the treatments for the disease; it's for support. It's for psychosocial support. It's for helping women who are at their lowest and most vulnerable, with respect to something that, 10 years ago, was completely unrecoverable from, in the short to medium term. But now there's hope; there's light at the end of the tunnel, and I think this government has an obligation, where they see that there is that light, to lend a modest amount of money to support it. I don't understand why this health minister has ignored women with ovarian cancer and their requests.

I also want, in the last 20 seconds, to mention pharmacy, Deputy Speaker Sharkie. I know that you actually asked a question in the House, and I know that Assistant Minister McBride is a pharmacist. I'm not going to give her a hard time about that, because I actually sense that she's not very happy with the government's position on pharmacy. I really want to say that every single pharmacist who sends me their experience and what they do for their patients and their vulnerable patients really breaks my heart.

See this speech in context