Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by Senator Gallagher to a question without notice I asked today relating to reproductive health care.

I asked why the government is taking so long to respond to the Senate inquiry into universal access to reproductive health care. That inquiry produced a consensus report with 36 recommendations that every political party that was involved, and every party in this chamber, agreed upon; and still it's 10 months later and we haven't heard boo from the government. I asked the minister: when are we going to get a response? When can the women of this country—who are desperate to have affordable and timely access to reproductive health care, whether it be terminations or maternity care or anything in between—expect a response? I am so disappointed I did not get a time frame. The minister says there will be one. Great—there has to be. That's what is required. But it was meant to be seven months ago. You're meant to take three months, not to take 10 and still say it's under consideration.

There were great and meaty recommendations, but, with entire departments and a minister who I know is committed to this area dedicated to this, what is taking so long? I didn't get a response from the minister on why there is the delay. I know that so many women and experts that work in this area will be disappointed that there seems to be continuing delay and yet no action and no explanation for it. I note that in the women's health summit last Thursday many of the expert presenters, who spoke so eloquently and articulated the problems in access to health care—reproductive health care in particular—endorsed these recommendations. They want them to happen. Women deserve affordable and accessible reproductive health care.

I also asked the government: if you won't tell us when you're going to respond, can you at least give a commitment that you will implement these recommendations—these consensus recommendations, which were not as strong as the Greens would have liked in all respects but which would generally improve access to the health care that we all pay Medicare and taxes for and that we all deserve as citizens in a wealthy nation? Again, the minister did not give the commitment that the 36 recommendations of this consensus report would be acted upon.

There are still so many barriers—financial, physical and geographical—in accessing abortion and contraception and sexual health care and maternity services right across the country. We know the problem is even worse in rural and regional areas. We know there are workforce shortage issues that are further compounding this problem. This issue is urgent. We need a response. In particular, on terminations, given that the Labor Party has ruled out returning to their 2019 policy, which said that if you are a hospital getting public funding you need to provide the full range of reproductive health services—given they have resiled from that formerly strong and good position—we really do need action on the recommendation that says that you will fund alternative pathways so that people can get accessible terminations when they want one.

There has been no action on changing those funding arrangements with private hospitals, and women are still not able to get terminations when they need them. We hear stories of women having to travel hundreds of kilometres—assuming they can even afford the travel costs—to get a termination for an unwanted pregnancy. It is absolutely unbelievable that, in 2024, pregnant women are still facing that level of inaccessibility to basic health care. It needs to be fixed immediately. We also heard that there are newer birth control pills, newer contraceptives, that don't have as many side effects as the old ones that are on the PBS. But these newer ones that are better are not on the PBS, so you have to have squillions of dollars to get them, so most people can't. That is when they are even available; sometimes we have supply and import issues. Again, there needs to be action on that.

The committee recommended that we look at expanding the scope of practice for midwives to include, for example, the insertion of LARCs, long-acting reversible contraceptives. That should be on the agenda for a minister that has a strong background in these areas. There was also a recommendation that the midwife reforms proposed in the MBS review finally be dusted off and implemented. Again, it has been, what, six years now, since those decent recommendations. They should be acted upon; instead they are ignored. The government is making women wait for a response to this inquiry, and women deserve better. They're making you wait for super on PPL, they're making you wait for longer PPL and they're making you wait for universal access to reproductive health care. Why are women having to wait when a whole lot of other budget priorities don't have to wait?

Question agreed to.

(Quorum formed)