Minister for Finance, Minister for Women, Minister for the Public Service, Minister for Government Services
SENATOR THE HON KATY GALLAGHER, MINISTER FOR WOMEN: Thanks very much for coming. It's great to be here and absolutely fantastic to be here with all of my colleagues across federal Labor to reinforce and promote the big, historic announcement yesterday into women's health. A whole range of measures that Ged Kearney and her team have been working on for two years now, to make sure that when women raise issues with us, we listen and we respond. And in these areas in women's health, there was unanimous agreement that not enough had been done. That not enough had been done in terms of access to good medicine and contraception, not enough was being done about the cost and lowering the cost, and not enough was being done to promote training and making sure that women get the best care they can as they go through their reproductive life and into those perimenopause and menopause years. So, it's fantastic. And we're doing all this, of course, because we are the first majority-women government in Australian history. And when you have that, the conversations change. And we can see it not only in women's health, but we've been doing it in terms of women's wages, in terms of access to PPL, super on PPL, in women's safety, in women's sport, in housing for women. In all of those areas where we've got all of these fantastic women behind me advocating for policies and making sure that women get a fair crack at opportunity in this country. So, the women's health package is part of a much broader agenda from the Albanese Labor Government. It's about making sure that women get a fair opportunity and get treated equally in this country. And we've made big steps in the last two years, but there's obviously always more to do. And I'll hand over to Ged now to take us through the women's health part.
THE HON GED KEARNEY MP, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE: Thanks very much, everyone, and thanks to the women's caucus for coming along today. And a number of our women's health stakeholders have also joined us. Now, this is a result of a chorus of voices right across the whole country. Women telling us that they needed more from the health system. And the response to our package, to this half-a-billion-dollar package of women's health measures, has been overwhelming. Not only from the peak medical bodies, the RACGP, the AMA, all of the nursing colleges, all of the health professional bodies, have praised this package as an absolute game changer. But we have been hearing from the women of Australia. It's like there's been a collective woo-hoo jump from all the women in Australia saying about time, this is fantastic. I've had dozens of messages, dozens of emails, social media has gone absolutely crazy because the women of Australia finally feel that someone is listening to them. Someone is talking about menopause, someone is talking about pelvic pain, someone is talking about contraception, someone is talking about women's health generally, and it has been really welcome. I want to thank the women of Australia for their response. I want to thank my colleagues, who have stood beside us this whole way. And I want to thank the Albanese Labor Government for having a majority of women in the caucus making sure that these issues are brought to the Cabinet table. Thanks very much, everyone.
JOURNALIST: Obviously, this came off the back of the report that you will formally respond to this week. There has been some comments around how long it took. Why did it take so long to come up with this package of reforms after, I think you've had the report for 500 days or so?
KEARNEY: We have been working incredibly hard for the women of Australia. One of the first things we did was establish the National Women's Health Advisory Council to hear from professionals, from academics and the community. There's the bell. Just to finish up, we have been working hard, consulting and hearing from women right across the country. We wanted to get it right. We wanted to do what was important to them. And that was the important part for me, to make sure that we got this package right.
JOURNALIST: Can I get your response to the tariffs President Trump has announced on steel and aluminium? Are you confident still that Australia will be able to avoid these and what work's being done?
GALLAGHER: Well obviously, we've been advocating very strongly as a trading nation about the benefits of free and fair trade. And so, that will continue. We've been engaging with the Trump administration from day one. In fact, you know, in the leadup to the inauguration. So, that will continue. We've had good engagement between the PM and the President, through Minister Wong and her counterpart, and over the weekend, the Deputy Prime Minister and his counterpart. And we will obviously be advocating very strongly in Australia's national interest around that. I understand - I've only seen some of the reporting this morning - but I understand further information may come out over the next week. But guaranteed, we're working with industry and business in Australia, the connections between the Alliance are strong, and we will continue to advocate very strongly in our national interest. I mean, obviously, there's a mutually beneficial trade relationship between the US and Australia. There are many jobs in the US that are linked to, you know, Bluescope, for example. And so we feel we're in a strong a position and we will continue the work that we've been doing since President Trump came back into office.
JOURNALIST: Minister, even if Australia does get an exemption for these tariffs, it's pretty clear from some of the announcements from Trump that we are getting increasingly toward a global trade war. Are you concerned about the financial impact that would have on Australia, indirectly? Can you speak to some of that?
GALLAGHER: Well, I think it goes back to what I said earlier. We are a trading nation, we benefit from free, open and fair trade across the world. And so you know, obviously we're watching developments as they occur. You know, we will engage appropriately in our national interest. I mean, there's a few hypotheticals in your question. So, if something happens, what would it mean for Australia. You know, I guess the way I approach it is, we benefit from open and free trade. If there are developments on that front that challenge that, then clearly that would have some impact here in Australia. We are not at that point. But of course, the Treasurer, myself and others in the economic team are watching closely.
JOURNALIST: Minister Gallagher, last time that these tariffs came in place, Australia got an exemption. It took several months for that to be secured. Is there any reason to believe it will be any different this time if we managed to secure an exception?
GALLAGHER: Well, in response to that I would say that we are engaging very proactively with the Trump administration. We believe there's some very strong arguments around the mutually beneficial trade relationship between the two countries and we'll continue to do that. Clearly, we'll advocate in our national interest, we want to protect industry, support industry and jobs. And that means here in Australia, but also in the US as well. And we'll continue to do that.
JOURNALIST: Minister, the ACT government has put some of their blame on their billion-dollar budget blowout on the federal government. Is that fair, and do you need to invest more in your home territory?
GALLAGHER: I have some sympathy with the ACT government in that it's a small government with lots of responsibilities, a small revenue base and going through the same demographic changes that most jurisdictions are. So, we're seeing pressure on the hospital system, we provided an additional $50 million just last week through the one-year health agreement and that will no doubt help to support some of those services. I'll leave it to the ACT government to explain their budget position. But as a former Chief Minister, I understand it's a small budget with a lot of demands on it. But I think if you look around the country and indeed you look at the Commonwealth budget, you will find similar demands being placed. We'll always try and do the right thing by state and territory governments. We like to work with them rather than fight with them, because we believe that gets the best outcomes for the Australian people.
JOURNALIST: Minister Gallagher, you've obviously done a lot for women over the weekend, half a billion-dollar investment, your government is also working very hard for disabled Australians on foundational supports. There is concern that there's not as much being done for mental illness in the last couple of years, it's slipped out of focus since COVID. What would you say to that?
GALLAGHER: I wouldn't accept that. Certainly, I think Mark Butler as the Health Minister has inherited a portfolio with a lot of unmet need right across the board. I think there's always more investments that you can make in health. It's one of those areas in the budget that really doesn't have a finite point. Because you know, as you invest and deal in say, bulk-billing and hospitals and training health packages and listing medicines on the PBS and all of those things, there's always more areas to do more. But I would say, mental health has been absolutely funded appropriately. Some of the investments that Mr Dutton always calls wasteful expenditure would cover areas like mental health in the health budget. And Mark, I know, it's a particular area of his and no doubt we'll have more to say on that as we work through the course of this year.
JOURNALIST: Minister, just on the women's health package, there's been some criticism that it doesn't address a recommendation of the inquiry into reproductive access in terms of equipping state hospitals to provide surgical terminations. Can we just get a response to that criticism and are you able to explain the rationale behind that?
GALLAGHER: So, the Commonwealth area of responsibility is in access to medical terminations. And we've seen a threefold increase in access to medical termination procedures or treatments through Medicare, which is really important and has come up from time to time, particularly for those women that live outside major capital cities and other areas where surgical termination is more accessible. On the hospital front, the approach we've taken is to fund the hospitals. So, the Commonwealth, as a big funder of hospitals, we've provided the states with the resources that they need to run their hospitals and then they make decisions about the services they provide. Some will provide public access to termination. Many will provide access to late-term abortions, particularly when the health of the mother or baby is at risk. And you know, between that, I guess the approach we've come to is that we're coming from medical and surgical, and together improving access to women who want to, or need to, have a termination of pregnancy.
JOURNALIST: Your response, Minister Butler's response to this, is that hospitals are a state government responsibility. So, for people listening who do remember 2019 Labor had a policy to tie public hospital funding to the provision of terminations. To be clear, was that bad policy? It's a state government responsibility now, it was something you were willing to do in 2019. What's changed?
GALLAGHER: Well, that was six years ago. And what we've done and in this whole area of women's health, is spent two years talking with women about what they need, the areas that they believe they aren't getting fair opportunities, and we've tried to address them. There's always more that you can do, but in our approach to hospitals, we don't tell them, for example, that they really do any procedure - because we don't operate the hospitals. We don't have an understanding of the staff that they have working at public hospitals. And not all hospitals around the country offer the same types of services. It's dependant on their workforce. So, the fact that we don't operate them, we don't have line of sight on a lot of those operational matters, means that we've taken the approach of funding the hospitals as much as we can in accordance with state and territory wishes. And they've all signed up to that. And then making sure on our side of the ledger, which is access to the medications needed for a medical termination, that we're doing the right thing there.
JOURNALIST: In terms of addressing that recommendation, then, is it about ongoing conversations with the states? Or what's the federal government's plan going forward?
GALLAGHER: Sure. I mean, the Health Minister engages with counterparts around the country, and women's health is always the key area of focus, which Minister Butler started in the job. So, that will continue. Those discussions about accessibility to healthcare generally, that is the focus of health ministers. So, that will continue, as will discussions about hospital funding, as will discussions about how we invest in Medicare to make sure that across the country, we're providing the best range of services. Hopefully many of them bulk-billed, so that people are able to access them.
JOURNALIST: Senator Smith, you were part of the Senate inquiry that was going to issues around menopause and perimenopause. The weekend's announcement for hormone funding is one part of this issue, but the report that you contributed to recommended a range of things, from better data collection, evidence-based awareness campaigns. Where do you see the government has to go next in terms of addressing this issue that obviously affects half of the population?
MARIELLE SMITH, SENATOR FOR SOUTH AUSTRALIA: So, Clare, a lot of the measures you refer to in our inquiry were included in today's announcement, including the public education campaign. And what we heard throughout the course of the inquiry, overwhelmingly, was two things. One, when women go to see their GP, they didn't feel like they were getting the support they needed. And two, when they weren't getting support for their symptoms, this could impact them in the workplace. The package that we announced on the weekend will go a long way to ensuring that women get that good-quality healthcare support and therefore continue to participate in the workplace where their symptoms have been troubling and made that difficult to do.
JOURNALIST: Is there a view, then, on what some have called for in terms of an extra leave entitlement, like reproductive leave?
SMITH: So, our committee didn't call for reproductive leave. What we said was we needed to look at that more closely. And women told us overwhelmingly that when it came to their participation in the workplace, all those women with troubling symptoms - and to be clear, it's not all women - but for those women with troubling symptoms, small changes make a really big impact. So it might be, if you're an office worker, having a desk fan at your desk. It might be, if you're working in a supermarket, having a breathable uniform rather than a polyester one. So, those changes can make a very big impact. It's a small number of women in industries where those changes aren't necessarily available to them, whether there's a broader question about leave, so we didn't find definitively that menopause leave was the answer there. It was about the changes we could make. And that goes to health as well, because if you're not getting good support from your GP, you're not getting the medicines you need, you're not getting good quality advice on how to manage troubling symptoms, then that will affect your participation in the workforce. The Labor government has announced an amazing package which will make that much more accessible to women, much better care from better-trained doctors, to be frank, in providing menopause and perimenopause support, and more places to get that support. Because we know too many women shopping around for a GP, not able to get the advice they need. By providing more training, by expanding clinics endo clinics to include menopause care, we'll get some really great results here for women because this is what they asked for and I'm really proud the Labor government's delivering.
JOURNALIST: Around HRT, I believe the medicines added to the PBS were gels and oral pills. Obviously, a lot of women use patches and patches have been subject to shortages. Do you have any insight on whether patches will also come under the PBS or is that something the government's working on?
GALLAGHER: So, the announcement we made yesterday was responding to priority areas. So, that was based on feedback that we got from women and from health professionals and other stakeholders through the work that Ged Kearney had done. There are some current hormone replacement treatments on the PBS. This is to add extra ones in. And yeah, there is always more that we can do in this space. And we continue to work with Ged and with the Women's Health Advisory Council, on first steps that we can take. This announcement yesterday was about those three treatments, various treatments, and those new oral contraceptive treatments being on the PBS. Thank you.
