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

The Health Legislation Amendment (Improved Medicare Integrity and Other Measures) Bill 2024 implements a number of public health measures intended to protect the integrity of Medicare, enhance the regulation of goods under the therapeutic goods act and make minor amendments to the tobacco act. A number of these amendments form part of the response to recommendations of the Independent Review of Medicare Integrity and Compliance undertaken by Dr Pradeep Philip.

The Philip review identified a range of issues impacting the effective administration of health benefits schemes, including the Medicare Benefits Schedule, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and the Child Dental Benefits Schedule. As such, this bill is seeking to address some of the issues inhibiting the ability of the Department of Health and Aged Care to conduct efficient, timely and effective compliance activities. Given the widespread implications of this bill, the coalition will seek further scrutiny of its effect and implications through a Senate inquiry. While we support measures to strengthen the effective administration of Australia's important health benefits schemes, we want to ensure there are no unintended negative consequences created by this bill for Australia's hardworking healthcare professionals.

It's also important to note during this discussion about Medicare integrity the Albanese Labor government's concerning record on Medicare to date. Labor went to the last election promising Australians they would strengthen Medicare, but over the last three years Medicare has only been weakened. GP bulk-billing has fallen 11 per cent under the Albanese government to 77 per cent, whilst Australians are now paying the highest out-of-pocket costs on record.

To put this in perspective, the GP bulk-billing rate rose under Peter Dutton as health minister to 84 per cent. It continued to rise under the former coalition government to 88 per cent, before we left office. Again, it is now 77 per cent under Mark Butler and Anthony Albanese. In fact, Australians are now covering 45 per cent more of the cost to see a doctor from their own pocket under this government, in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. This is forcing Australians to make the difficult decision between paying the bills and seeing their doctor.

We know that 1.5 million Australians avoided going to a GP in 2023-24 due to cost concerns. That is a direct result of this government's mismanagement—its mismanagement of our economy and its mismanagement of Australia's health workforce crisis—which has meant that it has literally never been harder or more expensive to see a doctor. We know that this is only putting further pressure on Australia's struggling hospital system as Labor's primary care crisis pushes patients towards emergency departments. On the other hand, the coalition has put forward our plan to grow a strong pipeline of homegrown GPs and safeguard Australians' healthcare access.

An elected Dutton coalition government will invest $400 million to provide junior doctors with direct financial incentive payments, assistance with leave entitlements and support for prevocational training. This will ensure junior doctors who pursue training as a GP in the community are not financially worse off compared to doctors who remain in the hospital environment. We understand that a strong pipeline of home-trained GP graduates is critical to delivering essential health care to all Australians, and we are focused on further ways to ensure that all Australians have timely and affordable access to a doctor.

So, once again, the coalition supports the bill's aim to improve compliance activities in Australia's health benefits schemes. However, we condemn this government's concerning record on Medicare. That is why I will be moving a second reading amendment noting that Australians' access to affordable health care has only gone backwards under the Albanese Labor government, and it has never been harder or more expensive to see a doctor.

Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Farrer may formally want to move the amendment.

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

I move:

That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

"the House notes that under the Albanese Labor Government, Australians' access to affordable healthcare through the Medicare Benefits Schedule has only gone backwards, and it has never been harder or more expensive to see a GP".

Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the amendment seconded?

Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the amendment and reserve my right to speak.

Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before I begin speaking on the Health Legislation Amendment (Improved Medicare Integrity and Other Measures) Bill 2024, I have to call out the emotive, manipulative spin Labor uses in the health portfolio. This bill and Labor's track record demonstrate that outcomes do not match the pre-election rhetoric. Those of us on this side of the House believe in outcomes rather than spin. Labor's rhetoric about saving Medicare and celebrating anniversaries is desperate when you compare that to actual outcomes, because their record is not good.

Not only do they keep the Department of Health under the thumb and unable to provide us or the public with data on outcomes; they manipulate departmental resources to claim bulk-billing rates are improving. They're not. GP bulk-billing has fallen by 11 per cent to 77 per cent under the Albanese government, while out-of-pocket costs have increased by 11 per cent, and that is in the past year alone. To put this into perspective, the GP bulk-billing rate rose to 84 per cent under Peter Dutton, the Leader of the Opposition, as health minister, and it continued to rise cent under the former coalition government, getting to 88 per before we left office. Under the Albanese government, Medicare is currently covering the lowest percentage of GP fees on record. On average, Australians are being forced to cover 45 per cent more of the cost to see a doctor from their own pocket, in comparison to what they covered under the former coalition government. Labor loves talking about when Mr Dutton was the health minister, but they don't like to talk about those facts.

This bill implements measures intended to protect the integrity of Medicare, enhance the regulation of goods under the Therapeutic Goods Act and amend the tobacco act. Some amendments in the bill form part of the response to the recommendations of the Independent Review of Medicare Integrity and Compliance, undertaken by Dr Pradeep Philip. The Philip review identified potential improvements to administering health benefits schemes—in particular, the power to detect, respond to, investigate, disclose and deter misconduct, fraud and noncompliance. The bill seeks to address a range of impediments to the department conducting efficient, timely and effective compliance activities.

Given the widespread implications of this bill, the coalition is seeking further scrutiny of its effect and implications through a Senate inquiry. While we support measures to strengthen the effective administration of Australia's important health benefits schemes, including the Medicare Benefits Schedule, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and the Child Dental Benefits Schedule, we want to make sure that there are no unidentified negative consequences created by this bill for Australia's healthcare professionals.

It is rather ironic that this legislation aims to make efficiencies in the way Medicare works and improve its integrity, yet, under this government, wait times for Australians trying to access vital health services through Services Australia have blown out dramatically, with Australians waiting almost three times as long for PBS patient refunds to be processed. Now, who would have thought it! This Labor government is excellent with the headlines but not so great on the implementation. They are great at beating their chests and at two-word slogans with the word 'Medicare' in them but not great at beating the delays and delivering Medicare funded services to needy Australians, especially in the regions.

New data obtained by the opposition through Senate estimates reveals a massive spike in the time it took for the agency to process key health claims during a cost-of-living crisis. The new data also shows that more health claims in 2023-24 were completed outside the agency's own internal timeliness standard than not, with 8.3 million completed after the official deadline, compared with 5½ million claims completed on time. At that level, you could excuse Australians for thinking that, under Labor, waiting an inordinate amount of time for outcomes is the norm. In 2023-24, 77 per cent of all bulk-billing claims were completed past their official deadline, the second-worst result across Services Australia's entire health work program. Now, more than ever before, it is critical that the government ensure Australians can have their Medicare and PBS claims paid on time, but instead they have sent the system backwards.

Residents in my electorate of Mallee have not seen improvements to Medicare under this government. Labor promised to strengthen Medicare, but they have weakened it. It has never been harder or more expensive to see a doctor than under the Albanese Labor government. Bulk-billing rates are falling, and the cost of seeing a doctor is rising. The bulk-billing data I gave earlier points to a primary care system at crisis point. When primary care becomes unaffordable, difficult decisions must be made in families and households and by individuals, regarding how to spend their limited resources. Australians are making the trade-off between paying their bills and seeing the doctor. Under the Albanese government, health costs have gone up by 10 per cent. We know that 1.5 million Australians avoided going to a GP in 2023-24 due to cost concerns. The proportion of people who reported that cost was a reason for either delaying seeing a GP or not seeing a GP when needed increased to 8.8 per cent in 2023-24 from seven per cent in 2022-23.

This is a concern not only in and of itself but also because people who do not receive the primary care they need in a timely manner often become sicker and need to access the hospital system, including overburdened emergency departments, when their symptoms become more severe. This is not good for patients, and it is costly for the health system. These circumstances are amplified in the regions, where the primary care system has long been stretched and is now approaching breaking point. People living in the regions, including in my electorate of Mallee, already have reduced access to primary care, rely more heavily on emergency departments and are admitted to hospital at a greater rate than those living in major cities. Worse still, those emergency departments are a long distance from where rural, remote and regional Australians live.

Earlier this sitting fortnight, I visited the CareFlight helicopter that landed in Federation Mall to promote their work. Medical evacuation to capital cities for emergency treatment has become the norm in rural, regional and remote Australia. A 2023 report published by consulting firm Nous clearly articulated the relationship between Medicare Benefits Schedule, or MBS, expenditure; emergency department, or ED, presentations; and hospital separations. MBS expenditure reduces as you get more geographically remote, and, in concert, ED and acute hospital usage increases. When this existing system strain is coupled with the degradation that is occurring under the Albanese government, the outcome is magnified.

People in the regions are really doing it tough when it comes to getting the primary care they need and deserve, and this government has not done them any favours. The Australian Bureau of Statistics data corroborates this finding, illustrating that people living in outer regional, remote and very remote areas were more likely to report waiting longer than they felt acceptable for a GP appointment in 2023-24 than those living in major cities were—36.3 per cent compared to 26 per cent. They were also less likely to see an after-hours GP, 5.6 per cent compared to 3.9 per cent; and more likely to visit a hospital ED, 20.4 per cent compared to 13.8 per cent; or be admitted to hospital, 14.2 per cent compared to 12.1 per cent. Constituents regularly tell me of the significant challenges they face just getting to see a doctor.

Here are some of their comments. 'There are no GPs in my town. The nearest is 70 kilometres away.' 'Our previous clinic closed, and it took six months to find a new GP clinic that would accept new patients. My family now has three different clinics between us, but we still do not have access to a regular doctor, because they keep leaving town.' 'The last doctor I was seeing left the nearest town. Now there are none taking new patients, so I see locums in a town further away.'

All Australians should be able to access the care of a GP when they need it, yet, under the Albanese government, this is becoming a pipedream for a few. There are just not enough GPs in the regions. This longstanding workforce crisis was amplified thanks to Labor bleeding the regions of doctors through the expansion of the distribution priority area, which funnelled international medical graduates into peri-urban settings. There is a significant and persistent maldistribution of the GP workforce, resulting in shortages in the regions, especially in small rural towns—and I have 72 in Mallee.

We know that small rural towns like Dimboola, in my electorate, have, on average, almost 60 per cent fewer health professionals than major cities do—just imagine. As older GPs retire, more young GPs are required to replace them as they're no longer willing to work the kinds of hours that were required in the past. One retiring GP might require two or even three younger GPs to cover their workload into the future. Then there is the issue of supervision. Younger GPs are pushing back against the requirement to supervise trainee GPs in their practices—and I have some in Mildura in exactly that position—in part because they are just not remunerated adequately for the time and energy involved to train the next generation of doctors to a high standard. It also takes them out of seeing their own patients. If you have a level 1 registrar, it requires for the GP—their supervisor—to sit with that registrar in every appointment. It's a requirement and it's needed, but the remuneration is not there to match the workload.

That is not to mention—as time doesn't permit—the woeful approval times at Ahpra, on this government's watch, to get doctors up and running and practising here, which at times leaves our health services desperately short, as it did in Maryborough last year. These are key issues which must be addressed to make it easier for people in the regions to see a doctor, yet this government has been moving the dial in the wrong direction. I haven't even touched on the challenges posed by the higher costs of running a GP practice in the regions, including to fund locum doctors or incentivise GPs to move to an area by reimbursing relocation costs and providing subsidised housing. All this is coupled with patient populations who have lower incomes on average and, therefore, a reduced ability to pay out-of-pocket costs.

Stephen Bates (Brisbane, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move, as an amendment to the amendment proposed by Ms Ley:

That all words after "the" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

"House, whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading:

(1) notes that:

(a) Medicare cannot be a universal healthcare system while essential dental care is excluded; and

(b) the Australian Dental Association's Annual Oral Health Survey found that over 60 per cent of Australians had delayed a trip to the dentist in the previous 12 months, with cost being the main barrier; and

(2) calls on the Government to legislate the inclusion of dental care into Medicare".

Medicare is crucial to Australia's healthcare system, and strengthening Medicare needs to be a top priority as Australians endure this cost-of-living crisis, because our healthcare system, as it stands right now, is struggling. It's becoming rarer by the day to find a bulk-billing GP, it's nearly impossible to access mental health care support without huge gap payments, and the cost of dental care has become so expensive that millions of Australians are putting it off entirely. A properly funded universal healthcare system actually saves the country money in the long run. It reduces poverty, creates jobs and drives economic productivity. It is achievable and desperately needed, as a matter of urgency, because everyone should be able to afford to go to the dentist when they need help.

Too many Australians cannot access the dentist because it is too expensive, and more people are not eligible for public dentistry than ever before. As things stand, millions of Australians are putting off going to the dentist because they simply cannot afford it. It doesn't just lead to worse teeth; it leads to a host of other health concerns that also come from this lack of access.

Now, I was really fortunate that, after I was elected to this place, I was able to afford, finally, to go to the dentist and get some fillings done, because I couldn't afford them while I was in my previous job, in retail. But, because I had waited so long, those fillings had become root canals, costing thousands and thousands more dollars than they previously would have. You shouldn't have to be elected to this place or rely on your income to be able to get access to life-saving and essential healthcare treatment, and that includes dentistry.

I also had the fortunate experience of growing up in the UK, where, up until the age of 18, all your dentistry and orthodontics are actually covered by the National Health Service. I was able to get my teeth looked after. I was able to get orthodontics done, all without costing my family a penny, which was an incredible experience. Then we moved over here, and my family had to pay about $4,000 in orthodontics to get my braces removed. That's a worlds-apart experience of engaging with the healthcare system—about what could be and what families could look forward to, compared to the situation that we find ourselves in in this country.

And we can't forget that, while Australians can't afford to go to a doctor or dentist in greater and greater numbers, we have one in three large corporations in this country paying no income tax. These large corporations can use all these various offsets and loopholes to get out of paying tax while everyday Australians cannot afford basic health care. The system is fundamentally broken, and we all know this. We all feel it.

Now, we fix this by changing the rules of the game. We make billion dollar companies pay their fair share of taxes so that we can expand Medicare to include dental care. In 2012, the Greens were able to secure dental care for kids into Medicare. In this term of parliament, we conducted the first Senate inquiry into access to dental care in Australia. In addition to expanding Medicare to include dental care, the Greens are calling on the government to create a chief oral and dental health care officer within the department of health, because having healthy teeth should not be a luxury in this country. Everyone should be able to use their Medicare card to go to the dentist when they need it. We have no other choice but to bring dental care fully into Medicare.

Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the amendment seconded?

Elizabeth Watson-Brown (Ryan, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the amendment.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In this the 42nd year of Medicare, which was brought in by the Labor Party, I'm happy to rise to speak on the Health Legislation Amendment (Improved Medicare Integrity and Other Measures) Bill 2024. I heard the member for Mallee speaking, before we drifted into Greens political party stunts, about the reality of Medicare. She kept saying, 'I need an apology from the Labor Party because bulk-billing rates aren't what they should be.' She failed to mention what they were when Labor came to office. She failed to mention the axe that had been taken to Medicare and to so many other aspects of the health sector by the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison conga line of prime ministers. We know that, in the coalition under those people, we had some of the worst health ministers ever, and the current leader of the coalition in opposition was voted the worst health minister ever.

I do agree with my colleague from Brisbane and my next-door neighbour from Ryan that it would be great to bring oral health care into the public domain. It was envisaged by Labor prime ministers back in the forties and fifties. In fact, it was even put in the Constitution with the idea that—and it was a unity ticket from both sides of the parliament; you had Labor and the coalition. So it is something that we'd like. I have been to QEII hospital, seen people at the emergency dental facility and seen the hell on earth that can be in terms of people trying to access oral health care when they can't afford it.

But we do need to get the balance right, including by reforming the taxation system, especially the international taxation system, so that all corporations, big and small, pay the right amount of tax, their fair share of tax. We know what happens in those countries where they don't pay the right amount of tax. You end up stepping over homeless people everywhere you go. We know that corporations and individuals need to pay for our hospitals, for our GPs, for our schools, for our roads and for our defence forces—all of those things that make up a harmonious and modern society. But we do know, unfortunately, that 99.9 per cent—or whatever the percentage is—of our doctors, health professionals and nurses are all honest and hardworking and comply with the Medicare rules. We all know those people from the health profession that we interact with in our electorates. Obviously, they're a bit like MPs in that none of them ever knock on your door to tell you that everything's going great. When you see a health professional, it's normally because you're probably having your worst week or sometimes the worst day of your life.

But, unfortunately, there are occasionally people who see the medical system as a business model to exploit rather than as an opportunity to provide care to Australians, and that's why this legislation is here. This legislation is all about strengthening Medicare so that the taxpayer funds paid by all 11 million or 12 million Australians who pay tax are well directed and properly utilised. Unfortunately, whenever it comes to big buckets of money, it attracts ne'er-do-wells, criminals and shark practice. That's why this legislation is here.

In November 2022, the Minister for Health and Aged Care, the Hon. Mark Butler, commissioned a health economist, Dr Pradeep Philip, to look into Medicare in terms of integrity and compliance. In the last budget, the Albanese government funded the Medicare Integrity Taskforce to look at the findings and implement any recommendations coming out of that Philip review, and this legislation in front of us makes some minor amendments to the TGA's operation and to the government's vaping and tobacco reforms.

This legislation amends a couple of different acts. The amendments are all about protecting the integrity and supporting the ongoing sustainability of our health benefits schemes—the Medicare Benefits Schedule, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and the Child Dental Benefits Schedule. They're all expensive items in the budget, but there can be savings made by making sure that they are done efficiently. And, as I said, it's for that very, very small percentage of people, even doctors, who sometimes, through circumstances, end up doing the wrong thing or deliberately do the wrong thing—the people that are seeing 60 patients in an hour or something like that. I know it's a business, but sometimes people have to be set back on the right path. I should recognise, as there are doctors in the House, that there is an oversight body that makes sure GPs and other specialists are doing the right thing professionally, but it is the government's job to set up something to make sure medical practices are doing the right thing.

The reality is that when I was born, nearly 60 years ago, most—

Opposition members: No!

What's that? Well, it's the Year of the Snake, which is my year. To continue, most medical practices were run by individual GPs. Sometimes there were two or perhaps even three together, but mainly they were very much sole operators.

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You only look 50!

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'll take that interjection from the honourable member! Nowadays, GPs or people working in the sector are mainly employees and are often employed by businesses that operate for profit. Caring and profit can go together, but melding those two concepts can be difficult. Sometimes the caring slips and the profit is what's focused on. Obviously, no medical practitioner dreams about doing more paperwork, but the modern medical process is all about records—being able to access data and the like—so often that is outsourced to professional businesses, and that's where some of the errors can develop. The Philip review made a couple of recommendations in terms of making sure that we have more integrity in the Medicare system, and I commend this legislation to the House.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's always a great pleasure to talk about Medicare and the importance of health. Getting health and other services into our area is something that I've been very passionate about, and this gives me a chance to remind the chamber of the last time we were in government, when we built superclinics throughout Australia. One of the great things about the superclinics was that they brought doctors together, brought allied services together and went into places where we had real issues in the medical workforce. Of course, the former government removed the District of Workforce Shortage classification from country areas, making it harder to attract doctors.

One thing I'm always reminded of with that opposition over there is the Wallan superclinic. It has been open since we built it in 2013, but technically it was never opened, because the leader and deputy leader of the Liberal Party, who were the health ministers at the time, didn't want to do an official opening. That was because they could then stand back and say Labor had never delivered their 22 superclinics. That was the pettiness we had under the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison mess. It's beyond belief that you wouldn't officially open something because you wanted to use it as a political opportunity. It talks about just what those opposite think of Medicare and of our medical profession.

As the member for Moreton rightly said, most of our doctors, nurses and health professionals are exemplary people and do absolutely amazing work. In the work I used to do with Ambulance Victoria I saw firsthand the ability of people to work in high-pressure, emergency and life-threatening situations. The care and compassion they showed was second to none. But, of course, we had 10 years when Medicare was attacked. There was an attempt to turn it into a profit-driven exercise through a GP tax by what the Australian Medical Association referred to as 'the worst health minister in living memory'. He is, of course, now the Leader of the Opposition. That leopard ain't changing its spots. We know that those opposite have no interest in protecting Medicare as an opportunity where it's your Medicare card that gets you service, not your credit card, as they don't think you'd value that service. They don't think Australians value Medicare if it's free. It's a slightly bizarre concept, but that's what you get with those sitting in the modern Liberal Party these days.

There was a time when, as the member for Moreton said, Medicare was a bipartisan issue, where people worked together and actually did that. But the change we've seen in the Liberal Party, which has pushed itself further and further to the knuckle draggers on the right, has meant that they've taken that away. That's why we see so many of these small-l liberal seats now occupied by Independents, because those Liberal members who would support free health care and unified health care and who have a social conscience have been pushed aside. It's a terrible thing we see happening. That's why it's important that we keep a government that actually cares about Medicare and cares about our doctors.

One of the first things we did when we got into government was address the workforce shortages after we had a committee, chaired by my friend and former colleague Peta Murphy, on the shortage of doctors in outer suburban and regional areas. We found that, for some stupid reason, those opposite wanted to treat areas like Wallan and Whittlesea the same as Brighton and Elsternwick. We still have that issue today of the hangover where we can't get doctors out. We're working closely with the states and with our local providers to actually get more doctors into our region. You should be able to see a doctor when and where you need to, and we should see more work being available for nurse practitioners. We should be able to see that, no matter where you are, you can get access to quality health care in your area when you need that service.

As the member for Moreton said, there are a lot of new businesses these days that have started up. They're big companies that run medical practitioners and that actually do work doctors to the bone, and I don't think they treat them fairly. We see that happening in areas such as Mernda, where nearly every single practice is now owned by one company, and then they remove bulk-billing. That makes it hard for people who are doing it tough. And, of course, as anyone that's had kids knows, kids don't fall sick between nine and five. It's usually three in the morning when it's freezing cold and it's all a problem, and you've got to then travel for miles to try and find access to a medical professional. That's part of the reason those superclinic programs were so successful.

This year, as we head to the election, we'll be fighting very hard to get an urgent care clinic into the seat of McEwen. We know the importance of that. Through the redistribution, we've now lost our only hospital in that seat. It's now gone into Nicholls, so make sure you look after it, mate. It's a good hospital with great people, and they've done great service for years. But we need to get those services into those growing areas, throughout the northern suburbs, through Kalkallo and all the way up to Wallan, to be able to have services available. There are areas in the north-east of the electorate, like Diamond Creek and out that way, that also have difficulty getting access to doctors and health care. It's one of the most important things that we do, and the protection of Medicare is something that Australians value because Medicare means that we all get the opportunity to go and see a doctor or a nurse practitioner, who do great work, when we need to.

But we've got to make sure we've got governments that back that in. The importance of having governments back that in means that we will get things like our superclinics and the change of the Monash medical rating done. In one town in McEwen, if you live at No. 82 and set up a practice, you're MM 2. If you go in at No. 84, you're on MM 3. It's a bizarre set-up. It's one small, little town, but a street divides the different ratings. I know that the health minister has been working diligently on this and I understand that it's not as simple an issue as just moving a line. I know that for each one of those towns there are probably hundreds of them around the country as well.

The other thing that's important about this bill is around moving in relation to tobacco and vapes, in particular, and the issues there. The bill also changes the timeframe during which Medicare claims for bulk-billed services may be made. The minister will keep discretion on how that service works. It's also important to note that what this is about is strengthening the integrity of Medicare and making sure that wherever you are, you will get access to doctors. You will get access to healthcare professionals. It's so important that this bill passes the House in a hasty manner.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 43. The debate may be resumed at a later hour, and the member will be granted leave to continue speaking if needed when the debate is resumed.