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

I thank Senator Waters for the question, and I would like to acknowledge her longstanding work in this area. She has been a strong advocate for improving women's health in this country, and I do acknowledge that. In government, obviously, there is no shortage of ideas or policies that would warrant the attention of government. What we've done with this is consult with women about the areas that they think that the government should invest further in. We've balanced that up with a whole range of other things that the budget has to accommodate, and we have found that these measures—listing of the new oral contraceptives, listing of additional hormone replacement therapies and doing those from 1 March, plus increasing the rebates for insertion of IUD and birth control implants—are saving, again, hundreds of dollars for women with regard to these costs. We've also got a new Medicare rebate of $110 for GP menopause health assessments, which will, I think, encourage GPs to bulk-bill those longer sessions with women. Also—I should have said before—there will be two national trials into how pharmacists can provide straightforward UTI care for people on concession cards, and some other measures that I've already announced.

This is a big package for women's health. While we have costed it, we have also funded it. We're in a position in government to make that change. We've found half a billion dollars that will make women's health care cheaper. It will provide better care and ensure that there are more choices available for women in this country, and we are very proud of this policy.