Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the bill be now read a second time.

This bill provides for the consequential and transitional provisions required to support the operation of the National Cancer Screening Register.

The National Cancer Screening Register Bill 2016 and the National Cancer Screening Register (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2016 will establish the National Cancer Screening Register (the register), authorise collection, use and disclosure of information for the purposes of the register, authorise the migration of state and territory cervical screening data to the register, and mandate reporting of screening information to the register to facilitate clinical decision making. The designated cancers for the purpose of the NCSR bills are cervical cancer and bowel cancer.

A number of amendments to other legislation are required once the National Cancer Screening Register Bill 2016 receives royal assent to enable certain information to be provided to the register. These are described in the National Cancer Screening Register (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2016.

Amendments will be made to the Australian Immunisation Register Act 2015, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Act 1987 and the Health Insurance Act 1973to facilitate the provision of information to the register.

The Health Insurance Act 1973will be amended to enable the ongoing provision of Medicare enrolment and claim data to the register. This information will be used as part of the process for determining the individuals who are to be invited or not invited, as appropriate, to participate in the cervical cancer and bowel cancer screening programs.

The Australian Immunisation Register Act 2015will be amended to authorise the disclosure of information kept on the Australian Immunisation Register to the National Cancer Screening Register. This will allow for the human papilloma virus vaccination status to be included in an individual's record on the register.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Act 1987 will be amended to authorise the disclosure of specific information kept by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare to the National Cancer Screening Register. This will allow information from the National Death Index to be provided to the register, to ensure that individuals who are deceased are not invited to participate in the cancer screening programs.

This bill authorises the disclosure of information from prescribed cervical screening registers to the register. This will facilitate the transfer of information from the state and territory based cervical screening registers to the National Cancer Screening Register without the states and territories being required to amend their legislation to authorise that transfer.

This bill provides for the limited operation of the National Cancer Screening Register Bill 2016 prior to 1 May 2017, to allow the register to be established.

The bill provides for the civil penalty for failure to comply with mandatory reporting obligations to commence on 1 May 2018, allowing a 12-month grace period after commencement of the register to give healthcare providers time to transition to the new mandatory reporting scheme.

The provisions in this bill will commence at the same time as the National Cancer Screening Register Bill 2016 commences. However, if that bill does not commence, the provisions in this bill do not commence either.

I thank the House.

Debate adjourned.