Anne Stanley (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

All Australian citizens have access to what is arguably the best universal healthcare system in the world. It's called Medicare and it celebrated its 40th birthday this year. The green credit card sized piece of plastic is surely the envy of the world, and it comes as no surprise that it was a Labor idea. What other party in Australia apart from Labor could have possibly had the vision for Medicare? The simple answer is no-one. And what other party has continued to be committed to strengthening Medicare for the full 40 years? Again, no-one but us.

Despite the constant attacks from those opposite, Medicare still continues to deliver for all Australians. This is particularly the case given the massive cash injections into Medicare announced by the Treasurer in the most recent budget, measures specifically aimed to bolster access to bulk-billing. Further, this government's changes to medicine, through the 60-day scripts, also strengthen our healthcare system, as does the recent, historic eighth Community Pharmacy Agreement. It all adds up to good news for Australians and our essential health services.

But, like in all matters, there is always more that needs to be done, reforms to be enacted and changes to be made, and that brings me to the legislation before the House today. Australia is home to the world's most trained and highly skilled health workforce. Our standards for training, regulation and continued development are second to none. Essential to our highly trained health workforce are nurses and midwives. Quite simply, without either of them, there would be no Medicare or health system.

Under current legislation, nurse practitioners and midwives are required to have a collaborative arrangement with a doctor in order to provide MBS services and prescribe PBS medications. The government commissioned the Medicare Benefits Schedule Review Taskforce to conduct an independent review of these collaborative arrangements. The review was thorough and included a literature review and extensive stakeholder consultation. The review affirmed the need for collaboration between healthcare professionals, but it also determined that the need for collaborative arrangements was duplicating existing professional standards and guidelines of the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia.

Further, the need for collaborative arrangements could indeed create any number of barriers to accessing care, especially for those living in regional, rural and remote areas. This is because there is a known challenge in attracting GPs to these areas. The professional standards for practice and safety quality guidelines issued by the NMBA already require registered nurses, midwives and nurse practitioners to engage collaboratively with other health professionals. These standards and guidelines are the most appropriate mechanism for the regulation of these health professionals, and they do it in a manner that does not impose the barriers to care that the legislative requirements for specific collaborative arrangements can create. Today's bill, therefore, is good news for all Australians, but especially for our nurse practitioners and midwives, as it further empowers them. Supporting these workers means that more may be encouraged to take up the professions and, in doing so, address some of the nation's workforce issues.

The bill is also good for women. It strongly aligns with the recently released Working for women: a strategy for gender equality and supports the implementation of a women-centred care strategy, by providing birthing women with greater choice and access to care. I know from my own experiences that it was the midwives who made a difference when I had my children, and they are the ones that I remember. It is good that the government is going to better support their ability to help many more women into the future.

There are a number of pillars to our healthcare system—Medicare, bulk-billing, research, quality hospitals, rigorous training and the PBS, just to name a few—but underpinning all these are the incredible staff that work in it. We see this every day in every clinical setting. This bill supports some of these staff—in particular, midwives and nurse practitioners—to do the very jobs they're trained to do, without the burdensome encumbrances. I commend the bill to the House as yet another significant step in ensuring that all Australians have access to the healthcare system they deserve.

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