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

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Health and Aged Care, Senator Gallagher. The Senate inquiry into universal access to reproductive health care found that it was a postcode lottery. Consensus cross-party recommendations to improve access were made, including that all public hospitals be equipped to provide abortions or timely referral to an affordable local provider. Will this government consider a return to their 2019 policy of requiring publicly funded hospitals to provide the full range of reproductive healthcare services?

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

I thank Senator Waters for the question about a very important report to the government from this chamber, Ending the postcode lottery: addressing barriers to sexual, maternity and reproductive healthcare in Australia. The short answer is that the government will respond to the report. We welcome it. We acknowledge that there is an inequity in the health system when it comes to maternal and reproductive health care. We acknowledge there's a lot of work to do, particularly when we inherited a healthcare system in the state that we did—particularly in primary care, where many women access maternal, sexual and reproductive health care. We are working towards tabling our response to the 36 recommendations within the usual time frames, which is around 25 August.

I'd like to thank all the committee members who sat on that inquiry, under, I think, the leadership of Senator Smith. It's a very important inquiry. It's got a lot of recommendations—36 recommendations. We have made some investments in women's health in this budget. Assistant Minister Kearney and Health Minister Butler are very focused on looking at what we can do to make sure we are providing the right support to women where they live, and are working through those issues. Unlike the former government, we will take responding to committee reports seriously.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Waters, first supplementary?

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

What will the government do to ensure that people who are refused an abortion at their local hospital can get timely and free access to an alternative service? Will you commit to funding the alternative pathways to provide affordable abortions referred to in the Senate inquiry report?

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

We will work through the recommendations, as I said. We come from a position where we acknowledge that, depending on where you live and what services are available, there is a lack of fairness in terms of access to services across the country, and that particularly women living outside of major metropolitan areas struggle to access affordable reproductive health care. We will be working through those. Again, I would say some of the intention of the government can be shown in the way we are making substantial investments in the area of women's health care, and we will continue to do that in our future budgets. We see access to reproductive health care as an essential healthcare service for women, and we will work through those recommendations as the ministers finalise those and take them through our cabinet process.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Waters, second supplementary?

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

Minister, in countries where contraception is free, there are fewer unintended pregnancies and fewer sexually transmitted diseases. Will the Labor government follow the lead of France, the UK and others, and make contraception free?

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

We will wait for the recommendation to the report. That hasn't been the government's position at this time, but we are working through the report, and the issues, and the submissions to the report. It hasn't been our position to date. I think, once you get our response to the committee report, that will make clear the government's position on all those matters.