Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I hear some sort of interjections on the other side, so I will back up this statement. In south-west Sydney, our nearest women's health centre is in Mittagong—hundreds of kilometres away. Mittagong is not even in Sydney; this is the Southern Highlands. So, women in my electorate who need to access a pelvic pain clinic—whether it is for endometriosis, PCOS or menopause—are required to travel hundreds of kilometres. I have been petitioning the Minister for Health, Mark Butler, almost since the day I got here requesting that one of these clinics be placed in my electorate, either in the Sutherland shire, in southern Sydney, or in south-western Sydney. To date, that has fallen on deaf ears. The minister does not appear to be terribly interested in women's health in my part of the country. It might be useful if he came out and actually saw the lack of infrastructure that's in place for women in my electorate.

What the coalition will do for women, if elected, is match the government's funding that was announced only today. But we will also enhance menopause care for women. We'll have a new Medicare rebate. We'll expand health professional training. We'll develop national clinical guidelines and increase funding for endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics. And it is noted that some of the good work that the other side have done on pelvic pain clinics was started under the former coalition government when we first committed to developing a nationwide strategy and framework on endometriosis. I thank the House.

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