Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I stand to note that the coalition will be supporting this particular piece of legislation, the Health Legislation Amendment (Removal of Requirement for a Collaborative Arrangement) Bill 2024. This comes at a very critical time for our healthcare system because it's under such extraordinary pressure. It has never been harder or more expensive to see a GP in Australia, bulk-billing is collapsing and ramping has reached record levels at emergency departments across the country. We believe that this is necessary, but the Albanese government desperately needs to listen to Australia. It needs to understand the magnitude of the challenges that are before us, particularly when it comes to workforce because the budget on Tuesday night almost single-handedly ignored workforce.

As I said, the coalition will not stand in the way of this legislation. We will support it because it removes a barrier to Australians accessing primary care. But we would also like to put on the record that we believe that there is an absolute necessity for us to address, with a greater level of urgency, the issues around workforce. That's why the coalition will be moving an amendment that calls on the government to work with the states and territories to ensure nurse practitioners and midwives can work to their full scope of practice and to reduce any restrictions on their scope of practice at the state and territory level.

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

I rise to speak very briefly, with the two minutes we have left, in strong support of this bill, the Health Legislation Amendment (Removal of Requirement for a Collaborative Arrangement) Bill 2024. This bill will remove that legislative requirement, and it will enable a midwife or nurse practitioner to prescribe under the PBS and to provide services under Medicare.

With the mandated collaborative arrangements currently in place, women are bearing the financial burden due to increased travel time and the cost of finding a GP who will provide a referral for midwifery care. This is even more problematic in rural and regional areas, where access to care is already limited. Removing these mandated collaborative arrangements is a very positive change for women's access to maternity care, sexual and reproductive health care and nurse led care. It's one that the Greens have supported for many years, and we're thrilled to see this legislation come to the chamber today. These are particularly important changes for women in rural and remote areas. We support this bill.

We also urge the government to get on with its response to the unanimous recommendations in the report from the Senate inquiry into universal access to reproductive health care. I'll flag that we will be supporting the coalition's second reading amendment, but we won't be supporting One Nation's second reading amendment.

Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Greens fully support this bill, which seeks to remove legislative requirements for collaborative arrangements between nurses, midwives and medical practitioners. I will flag that we will be moving an amendment, but, to facilitate the passage of the bill—

Debate interrupted.