Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Waters for her question on this very important subject. In terms of the work that is underway at the moment—and this is work that the Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, Minister Kearney, will be doing alongside the Minister for Health and Aged Care—it is looking at, essentially, access to health services for women and putting together a plan around that. I have had some discussions with her already about this.

We also had discussions at the first meeting of women's and women's safety ministers a fortnight ago, where there was some discussion about looking at whether legislation that regulates access to termination of pregnancy services around states and territories could be aligned better—harmonised. That's work that we'll leave to the states and territories, as that's the appropriate place. But I did say that access to health services is really important to the Albanese government—making sure that we are looking at those areas, particularly for women living in rural and remote communities, who have less access to termination of pregnancy services or, in some cases, no access. Those issues will be discussed and examined through the work that the assistant minister for health will be doing.

So I'm not in a position to answer your question directly, but the answer I give you is that there is work underway, consultations that will happen at the appropriate level, and then we'll go through a further process around that.