Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I am pleased to introduce the Medical and Midwife Indemnity Legislation Amendment Bill 2021. This bill amends the Medical Indemnity Act 2002and the Midwife Professional Indemnity (Commonwealth Contribution) Scheme Act 2010to expand eligibility for claims against privately practising midwives under the Commonwealth's medical and midwife indemnity schemes.

Specifically, this bill amends the Medical Indemnity Act 2002 to ensure that claims made against midwives in private practice whose registration is not endorsed by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia to prescribe scheduled medicines (registered only midwives) and covered under their own insurance contract are now eligible under the Allied Health High Cost Claims Scheme and Allied Health Exceptional Claims Scheme, where the claim relates to incidents that occurred on or from 1 July 2020.

This change will ensure that the medical indemnity legislation reflects the Commonwealth's policy that all registered only midwives have coverage under the allied health schemes since its commencement on 1 July 2020, ensuring parity of arrangements for all other registered allied health professionals eligible under the allied health schemes.

This bill also amends the Midwife Professional Indemnity (Commonwealth Contribution) Scheme Act 2010 to expand the Midwife Professional Indemnity Scheme and the midwife professional indemnity run-off cover scheme, otherwise known as the midwife schemes, to remove criteria relating to the employment arrangements of midwives that have resulted in certain privately practising midwives being excluded from the midwife schemes.

Importantly, this amendment will enable key Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services to choose to access professional indemnity insurance for their employed midwives who have been endorsed by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia to prescribe scheduled medicines.

This means that employed endorsed midwives, including those employed by Aboriginal and Community Controlled Health Services will be eligible for indemnity coverage under the midwife schemes if they enter into policies with the eligible insurer under these schemes.

Without this change, these employed endorsed midwives would not have been eligible for the midwife schemes, which provide capped premiums (and have not been increased since the scheme's inception 11 years ago) and access to the midwife professional indemnity run-off cover scheme, that provides free cover for midwives who permanently retire from private practice.

These changes support an employed endorsed midwife's choice about whether or not to participate in the Midwife Professional Indemnity Scheme or remain under the allied health schemes. This flexibility in arrangements supports midwives to work in a variety of different engagements, without their indemnity insurance being a barrier.

This bill also provides certainty to insurers of the Commonwealth's ongoing commitment to subsidise the costs associated with medical negligence claims against privately practising midwives, further incentivising insurers to provide professional indemnity insurance to midwives in private practice. The bill has been developed in consultation with key medical indemnity insurers currently participating in the Commonwealth's medical and midwife indemnity schemes and the Australian College of Midwives.

I want to thank key leaders in the sector, such as the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation. I met yesterday with Annie Butler, the national head of the federation. Over recent days, I've met and spoken with the Australian College of Nursing, led by Professor Kylie Ward. We've met with nurse practitioners. I'd also like to thank Liz Wilkes. In the department, I particularly want to thank the deputy secretary, Penny Shakespeare, and her team. In my office, I particularly want to thank my co-chief of staff, Joanne Tester, Nicole Green and Stacey Edamson for all of their contributions. Ultimately—and I say this as the son of a nurse and midwife—this bill is about supporting our midwives, but it's also about supporting our families. It's about giving mums-to-be choice and control. That's what's so fundamentally important, as well as protection.

Amendments made by this bill will mean that all privately practising midwives can access one of the Commonwealth's medical or midwife indemnity schemes. This supports the principle that women are the centre of maternity care and that they should have access to a wide range of birthing choices. Importantly this bill provides certainty to our midwives to continue their fundamental roles of supporting women in their birthing journey with the knowledge that they will have access to Commonwealth subsidised indemnity schemes if needed.

Debate adjourned.