Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That these bills be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading speeches incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech es read as follows—

FUTURE MADE IN AUSTRALIA (PRODUCTION TAX CREDITS AND OTHER MEASURES) BILL 2024

Today I am proud to introduce the Future Made in Australia (Production Tax Credits and Other Measures) Bill 2024.

This Bill is another major step in implementing the Albanese Labor Government's Future Made in Australia agenda, to deliver our country's next generation of prosperity.

The net zero transformation is a golden opportunity for Australia.

We have been dealt the most incredible set of cards as a country to make ourselves the primary beneficiaries of the net zero economy.

We have a unique combination of geological, meteorological, geographical and geopolitical advantages.

And we know it would be an egregious breach of our generational responsibilities as a government if we didn't play this winning hand.

This legislation is part of how we make the most of that opportunity—but it's not the only part.

It builds on the two other pieces of Future Made in Australia legislation that have already passed the House and will embed into law the disciplined and rigorous approach that will govern this agenda.

It also builds on the significant and substantial progress we've made in delivering cleaner and cheaper energy since coming to office:

Unlocking $67 billion in private investment through the Capacity Investment Scheme, introducing a new vehicle fuel efficiency standard, providing low-cost finance for household energy upgrades and reforming the safeguard mechanism.

Our Future Made in Australia agenda is all about making Australia indispensable to the global net zero transformation.

It recognises we'll do that by attracting and enabling private investment—not replacing it.

Well-targeted public investment is an important and substantial part of our plan.

But it is only a sliver of the private investment needed to transform our economy.

The most important role for public investment will be to help unlock the vast amount of private sector investment we will need to deploy -

An additional $225 billion by 2050 to transition the energy system and realise net zero opportunities in heavy industries, by one estimate.

That's what this legislation and our production tax credits are all about.

This Bill does three main things:

Firstly, it will establish a hydrogen tax incentive worth $2 for every kilogram of renewable hydrogen produced by eligible projects that have reached a final investment decision before July 2030.

Secondly, it will establish a critical minerals tax incentive worth ten per cent of the value of relevant mineral processing and refining costs for the production of any of Australia's 31 critical minerals.

Both incentives apply for hydrogen or minerals produced between 2027-28 and 2039-40 and for up to ten years, per project.

Thirdly, it will expand the role and remit of Indigenous Business Australia to help support more investment into Indigenous communities.

These communities have some of the most to gain from the transition to net zero—and this legislation will help unlock these benefits.

Renewable hydrogen and critical minerals are both essential to the world's path to decarbonisation.

The government sees them playing a central role in Australia's net zero future and these tax incentives make that clear.

This legislation provides industry the clarity and certainty it needs to invest in Australian renewable hydrogen and critical minerals projects with confidence.

But it is not a free-for-all.

The incentive is only provided once projects are up and running, producing hydrogen, or processed critical minerals for things like wind turbines, solar panels and electric vehicles.

Renewable hydrogen will open the door to create green metals, like iron, steel, alumina and aluminium, and decarbonise other parts of industrial supply chains.

Our world class renewable energy resources make us one of the best placed countries globally to produce green hydrogen at internationally competitive prices.

Some of our biggest trading partners have already expressed a significant appetite for importing renewable hydrogen from us, including through trade in products that are produced from green hydrogen like green ammonia or green metals.

Our unique combination of geology, meteorology and geography all play a role here.

The tax incentive enabled by this legislation will complement our Hydrogen Headstart program.

Hydrogen Headstart is helping early movers invest in the industry's development, and these tax changes provide broader support to projects that reach the production stage.

Critical minerals are the building-blocks for our clean energy future.

From manufacturing to transport, and medicine to telecommunications, so many industries rely on critical minerals to function.

Some scenarios estimate global demand for critical minerals will increase by around 350 per cent by 2040 to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

Australia is in a strong position to supply these minerals, with some of the world's largest reserves of lithium, cobalt and rare earths.

But we don't intend on just digging them up and shipping them overseas.

We want to capture more value onshore by refining and processing the minerals here and that's what this tax change will incentivise.

It will encourage more Australian critical mineral companies to create more value on our shores and create more diverse, resilient and sustainable global supply chains.

It will help critical minerals miners become critical minerals refiners and processors.

The final part of the Bill expands the role and remit of Indigenous Business Australia by amending the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Act 2005.

We know that Indigenous communities have some of the most to gain from the transition to net zero, and the growth in our renewable hydrogen and critical minerals industries.

The community benefit principles in our other Future Made in Australia legislation are about ensuring those benefits flow to those communities.

And we want to make sure they're well-placed and well-prepared to embrace the benefits—that's what this change is about.

Indigenous Business Australia promotes First Nations economic self-determination through lending and investment in areas like home ownership and business support.

This change will allow Indigenous Business Australia to raise capital to support investment in more First Nations individuals, communities and businesses around the country.

It will support more First Nations people to start, grow and sustain businesses, purchase homes, and invest in commercial ventures.

This change will give Indigenous Business Australia the flexibility to pursue a range of opportunities with Government and private partners to support First Nations economic empowerment.

This Bill has been developed through a detailed and comprehensive consultation process.

We released a public consultation paper on the design of the production tax incentives in June.

It attracted more than 130 submissions from industry groups, companies and community organisations.

We took their feedback seriously and worked through it methodically and diligently—taking those views into account in the final design of the legislation.

I'd like to take this moment to thank everybody for their time and contributions to this Bill.

I'd also like to particularly acknowledge Chris Bowen and Madeleine King for being two of the driving forces behind the production tax incentives, along with Ed Husic and Tim Ayres for their ongoing and substantial role in the entire Future Made in Australia agenda.

I'd like to acknowledge the former Minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, for her important and tireless work on our changes to Indigenous Business Australia, now being taken forward so ably by the current Minister, Senator Malarndirri McCarthy.

Our production tax incentives are the biggest part of our $22.7 billion Budget investment in the Future Made in Australia agenda.

But it's only a fraction of what we need.

Public investment will show us the path to a Future Made in Australia but private capital will pave the way.

That's why our agenda is an investment strategy and a growth strategy.

To provide investors with the clarity, certainty and the cooperation they need.

To build and grow new industries in Australia, and make sure those benefits flow to communities all over the country.

The time to act is now.

The world is changing with or without Australia.

The golden opportunity in front of us will start shrinking if we take any longer.

To seize the vast economic and industrial opportunities which come from the global energy transformation to net zero we need to engage and invest not protect and retreat.

And that's exactly what this legislation does.

Full details of the measure are contained in the Explanatory Memorandum.

HEALTH INSURANCE (PATHOLOGY) (FEES) (REPEAL) BILL 2024

The Health Insurance (Pathology) (Fees) (Repeal) Bill 2024 relates to the fees imposed on the pathology sector for certain categories of pathology applications. This Bill provides reforms for the current charging arrangements imposed on the sector for categories of accreditation applications.

Under the Health Insurance Act 1973, pathology services must be rendered by or on behalf of an Approved Pathology Practitioner (Approved Practitioner), in an Accredited Pathology Laboratory (Accredited Laboratory) operated by an Approved Pathology Authority (Approved Authority,) to be eligible to receive Medicare benefits.

Practitioners (pathologists) are required to sign an undertaking to the Minister that they will comply with the requirements of the legislation and certain administrative arrangements. They must pay an acceptance fee to become an Approved Practitioner. Similarly, the proprietor of a laboratory must sign an undertaking and pay an acceptance fee to become an Approved Authority. Laboratory premises may be approved by the Minister as an Accredited Laboratory following the submission of an application and relevant supporting documentation. This includes an accreditation assessment and payment of the accreditation fee once the premises are provided with an in-principle approval.

The accreditation requirements impose obligations on Approved Practitioners, Accredited Laboratories and Approved Authorities to undertake to meet, or demonstrate compliance with, quality assurance standards for pathology services provided under Medicare.

The Health Insurance (Pathology) (Fees) Act 1991 (Pathology Fees Act) specifies the fees which must be paid for the acceptance, and approval of, applications for the Approved Practitioner, Approved Authority and Accredited Laboratory. This allows approved providers to be identified in the Services Australia billing system of Medicare eligible services. These fees were arbitrarily set to be between $500 and $2,500 in 1991.

The 2022 Health Portfolio Charging Review identified that the fees set against each of these application categories have not been reviewed or changed since the Pathology Fees Act came into force. Further, when investigated, the fees were found to exceed the administrative cost of processing these application categories. As such, this arrangement does not align with the Australian Government Charging Framework (2015).

Removing the fees applied to the three categories of applications through the repeal of the Pathology Fees Act will resolve this misalignment with Government Charging Policy. It will provide fee relief in addition to reducing the administrative burden for the pathology sector.

The consequential amendments included in this Bill remove all references to the payment of fees for these application types from 1 July 2025. However, to preserve the high level of confidence in the accuracy of pathology testing in Australia provided under Medicare, the administrative requirements including accreditation obligations will remain unchanged.

HEALTH LEGISLATION AMENDMENT (MODERNISING MY HEALTH RECORD—SHARING BY DEFAULT) BILL 2024

Since Medicare was introduced 40 years ago, technology has advanced immeasurably.

Back in 1984, "cutting edge" meant a Sony Walkman in your pocket, an Apple Macintosh on your desk, and a fax machine in your office.

Walk into so many health settings today, you'll find a smartphone in your pocket, a fitness tracker on your wrist, and in the corner where the fax machine used to sit is another fax machine.

That's right: a technology first invented in 1964—20 years before Medicare—is still frustratingly, maddeningly, all too common in Australian healthcare settings.

When we came to government, My Health Record was in dire need of an upgrade.

It was still using the old PDF format that Labor installed when we were last in government.

It was cutting edge then, but it is beyond clunky now.

For almost ten years, nothing was done to upgrade the technology that underpinned it.

While the broader economy went through a digital revolution that reshaped industries, My Health Record sat there, gathering dust.

Without investment, My Health Record remained little more than "a shoebox of PDFs".

Unsurprisingly, there isn't much confidence in such an outdated system.

In the most recent Health of the Nation survey by the Royal College of General Practitioners, 31% of GPs said they rarely, or never, use My Health Record.

Even fewer specialists use it: half of them haven't even registered with it.

We have to do better.

The Strengthening Medicare Taskforce, which brought together clinicians, consumers and experts from right across the health sector, called on us to do better.

In the 2023 Budget, we announced almost $1.1 billion in funding to modernise digital health infrastructure and upgrade My Health Record to a data rich platform.

This Bill gives effect to recommendations made by the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce.

The Taskforce recommended that My Health Record should be modernised to significantly increase the health information available to individuals and their health care professionals, including by requiring the sharing of health information by default.

It also called for significant improvements to the way that patients' information is shared across the health system.

Consumers expect their healthcare providers to have access to the information they need.

Far too often, they do not.

When we announced the Government's intentions to introduce these reforms, just one in five diagnostic reports in radiology were being shared.

The other four disappear into the digital ether.

And only one in two pathology reports were shared.

Patients find this so frustrating, because every lost test result means another day off work, another waiting room, another procedure and yet another gap fee.

What a waste of time and money. For patients and for the health system.

If a patient gets a diagnostic scan or pathology test, then those results should be shared to their My Health Record.

This was happening by exception. It was not the norm.

Implementation and Engagement with the sector

Last year, the Government announced that we intended to make it the norm.

Australians are accessing their My Health Record in unprecedented numbers.

In September this year, individuals' views of their health information via My Health Record are up 70% on the same time a year ago.

These numbers highlight that consumers are crying out for better access to their information.

In the past year, the Department of Health and Aged Care and the Australian Digital Health Agency have worked tirelessly to support the pathology and diagnostic imaging sectors to uplift their systems and staff, in readiness for sharing tests and scans by default.

This has already seen results.

Many labs that were not sharing, or sharing only in limited circumstances, are now routinely making patient results available to My Health Record.

In May last year, just one in five diagnostic imaging reports were being sent to My Health Record.

A year later, and one in three reports are now being uploaded.

While this is an improvement, it is still too low and too slow.

Framework for sharing to My Health Record

The reforms I introduce today introduce a framework that will require key health information to be shared to patients' My Health Record.

We are starting with pathology and diagnostic imaging. However, this framework will position the My Health Record system to deliver access to key information, and become a routine part of the health system.

Medicare provides universal access to healthcare for Australians. Today we are enhancing the My Health Record framework to provide better access to Australians' health information to reduce the fragmentation and duplication that currently exists and to deliver better health outcomes.

The Bill will establish requirements so that where Medicare rebates are claimed for key services, there will be a requirement to share information about that service to My Health Record.

And the Bill will require healthcare corporations to share health information about their patients to their patients' My Health Record.

This complementary framework will not affect a patients' Medicare benefits.

It will however empower patients to actively engage as partners in their own healthcare.

Patient controlled

The Bill complements the existing consumer-controlled nature of My Health Record, and continues to put patients first.

Patients will have access to their information so they can have informed discussions with their healthcare providers, if they choose to.

The Strengthening Medicare Taskforce told us that when people can access and are supported to use and understand their health information, they are better able to actively participate in their care and make informed decisions.

The Bill will not change the patient-controlled nature of My Health Record. Individuals can continue to choose not to have a My Health Record. Or they can choose for certain records not to be shared. Patient choice will remain under these amendments.

Whether or not a patient chooses to engage with the information in their My Health Record, under the changes this bill introduces, they can expect information will be available to their healthcare team.

Patient safety

The framework puts patients first and is designed with patient safety in mind.

We heard during consultation that it will not always be in an individual patient's interests for them to access their information before discussing with their healthcare team.

If a healthcare provider is concerned that it may not be in a person's interest to access information via My Health Record without the support of a qualified healthcare provider, a healthcare provider can elect for an individual record not to be shared.

Electing not to upload should not be the norm. But where a healthcare provider has a reasonable concern for an individual's safety or wellbeing so as to warrant not uploading, this exception will provide an appropriate safeguard so that the right supports are in place for patients when needed.

A Clinical Reference Group, chaired by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care and the Australian Digital Health Agency, was established to advise on this proposal and ensure the safe implementation of these reforms.

This Clinical Reference Group, with representatives from government, peaks and consumers, will also develop guidance materials to support healthcare providers with the new framework for sharing to My Health Record.

Support for providers to connect

The Australian Digital Health Agency has invested to support providers to connect to My Health Record.

However, notwithstanding that investment, we understand some healthcare providers have not made the decision to connect to My Health Record.

The framework I announce today is not designed to be punitive. It is designed to bring about a culture of sharing.

For those providers that require assistance to connect, they will be able to make formal application to request time to put the necessary technical settings in place to enable them to engage with the My Health Record System.

While this formal extension period is in place, they will be able to continue to claim Medicare, while working with the Australian Digital Health Agency to set up the necessary connections so that eventually all patients will be entitled to the same levels of access to their information.

Enforcement

I said the Bill is not designed to be punitive. However, if organisations do not do the right thing by their patients, this Bill will provide the powers necessary to ensure compliance with the requirement to upload.

Patients will not have to wait for uploads to get their Medicare benefits.

And patients will not lose benefits if providers fail to share to My Health Record.

Where Medicare is payable, if uploads do not follow, providers will be liable to repay the cost of the benefit.

Conclusion

Let's be clear about why our government is so committed to this.

Yes, it will make healthcare professionals' lives easier, by helping them to be more efficient and effective.

Yes, there will be flow on benefits across the system, helping to ensure that every precious dollar in the Medicare system goes to patient care.

Sure, those are important.

But the reason we are driving so hard toward that digital future is not provider benefit or system benefit, but patient benefit.

Patient benefit is—and always will be—our North Star.

Patients desire and deserve access to their own health data, and agency over how it is used and shared.

Patients should not have to rely on the goodwill or good management of private providers to be able to access their own health data.

Digital health technologies should empower patients to monitor and take charge of their health and wellbeing, so they can interact confidently with healthcare providers and build their health literacy.

This is what drives our government's efforts, in the year of Medicare's 40th birthday.

As well as being better for patients, this is also better for the bottom line for healthcare providers.

Because every dollar that goes to a needless or duplicate test or scan, is a dollar that doesn't fund lifesaving medicines or our hard-working doctors, nurses and health professionals.

Every minute a GP doesn't spend searching through My Health Record for a result that may or may not be stuffed into "the PDF shoebox", is a minute they can spend with a patient.

Every minute a practice nurse doesn't have to spend manually entering a patient's data into their My Health Record, is a minute that they could be administering a childhood vaccination.

The Productivity Commission estimates more than $5 billion a year could be saved by reforming Australia's digital health infrastructure.

Beyond the savings, it is—quite simply—what patients expect and deserve.

By the time Medicare reaches its next milestone birthday, we can confidently expect that the humble fax machine will no longer clutter the offices of health settings.

Like the Sony Walkman or Apple Macintosh, the fax machine will finally become little more than a museum relic.

I'm sure I speak for patients everywhere when I say: that day can't come soon enough.

NAVIGATION AMENDMENT BILL 2024

This Bill makes minor amendments to the Navigation Act 2012 in order to give effect to an amendment to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea 1974, known as SOLAS. Specifically, the Bill amends the definitions of passenger,seafarer, industrial personnel and industrial personnel vessel within the Navigation Act 2012, as well as providing a specific regulation-making power for industrial personnel vessels.

The SOLAS convention commenced in 1980 and Australia signing the convention in 1983. SOLAS is administered by the International Maritime Organization, or IMO, a specialised agency of the United Nations. The IMO's Maritime Safety Committee is responsible for updating SOLAS and related codes. The main objective of SOLAS is to specify minimum standards for the construction, equipment and operation of ships, to ensure their safety. In Australia, the Navigation Act 2012 implements our obligations under SOLAS, including regulating international ship and seafarer safety, and protecting the marine environment.

In November 2022, the Maritime Safety Committee adopted resolution 521(106) to amend SOLAS to insert a new chapter, Chapter 15, titled Safety Measures for Ships Carrying Industrial Personnel. This chapter includes a requirement to comply with the International Code of Safety for Ships Carrying Industrial Personnel.

The carriage of industrial personnel differs to that of other passengers, as the vessels used are primarily offshore support vessels, and the transfer of industrial personnel often occurs in challenging environments. This requires specialist skills and control measures not required in usual passenger operations.

The SOLAS amendments provide minimum safety standards for ships that carry industrial personnel, as well as for the personnel themselves, and addresses specific risks unique to these operations. Such personnel may be engaged in the construction, maintenance, decommissioning, operation or servicing of offshore facilities, such as windfarms, as well as offshore oil and gas installations, aquaculture, ocean mining or similar activities.

On 20 March 2024 the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties resolved that binding treaty action be recommended to give effect to the SOLAS amendments.

This Bill gives effect to the SOLAS amendments and ensures Australia's compliance with its international obligations under the convention, and will allow foreign vessels in Australia to rely on the newly established International Code of Safety for Ships Carrying Industrial Personnel.

Debate adjourned.

Ordered that the bills be listed on the Notice Paper as separate orders of the day.