Renee Coffey
Griffith · Australian Labor Party · Australia
“He has also been a leader in sepsis advocacy, helping improve awareness, care and recovery for people affected by sepsis. Professor Hans Peter Soyer received his honour for distinguished service in dermatology, skin cancer diagnosis, medical research and governance.”
“His work aims to find skin cancers earlier, improve patient outcomes and address gaps in access to care, especially in regional, rural and remote Australia. Katarina Carroll AO APM received her honour for distinguished service to law enforcement, disaster management and the community.”
“This year's King's Birthday Honours recognised 14 Griffith recipients whose service reflects the best of our community. In my short few minutes here today, I want to acknowledge a few of them. Matthew Ames received his honour for significant service to community health, engineering, business administration and corporate governance.”
“Christine also contributed to the taskforce on domestic and family violence which delivered the landmark Not now, not ever report. She now serves on the board of DVConnect, continuing to work to support people experiencing violence and abuse. I also acknowledge the other Griffith recipients named in this year's honours.”
“Australia's strength has never come from sameness. It has come from the people who have built lives across difference, from our many First Nations communities with millennia of history and culture—the oldest continuous cultures on earth—to people who arrive with little English, little money and deep hope for their children, people who tur…”
“My friend the member for Reid said in this House in her maiden speech: In just over half a century, we have moved from an embrace of a White Australia policy to a country that is now a majority-migrant nation. But what is more remarkable is how this news was received—not with backlash but with a genuine embrace of modern Australia.”
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“On behalf of my community, I congratulate each of them and I thank them sincerely for their service to our wonderful community of Griffith, to Queensland and, of course, to Australia.”
“Christine also contributed to the taskforce on domestic and family violence which delivered the landmark Not now, not ever report. She now serves on the board of DVConnect, continuing to work to support people experiencing violence and abuse. I also acknowledge the other Griffith recipients named in this year's honours. Associate Professor Alan Gale OAM was recognised for service to cardiothoracic surgery and the community. Craig Holden OAM and Craig Williams OAM have given decades of service in surf lifesaving. Mark Neave OAM was recognised for service to youth. Kathleen Noonan OAM was named for service to social welfare. There are so many more of these outstanding leaders across my community.”
“His work aims to find skin cancers earlier, improve patient outcomes and address gaps in access to care, especially in regional, rural and remote Australia. Katarina Carroll AO APM received her honour for distinguished service to law enforcement, disaster management and the community. As a former Queensland Police Commissioner, Commissioner of Queensland Fire and Emergency Services and a leader through floods, cyclones and major public safety operations, Katarina has served Queensland with strength and calm. Christine Castley OAM received the Medal for the Order of Australia for service to the multicultural community and public administration. As CEO of Multicultural Australia, she helped support refugees, migrants and new Australians to find safety, belonging and opportunity.”
“He has also been a leader in sepsis advocacy, helping improve awareness, care and recovery for people affected by sepsis. Professor Hans Peter Soyer received his honour for distinguished service in dermatology, skin cancer diagnosis, medical research and governance. As Director of the Dermatology Research Centre at the University of Queensland's Frazer Institute and through his work at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, Professor Soyer has helped advance the early detection and treatment of melanoma and other skin cancers. Professor Soyer's work has been vital in Queensland, where skin cancer affects too many families as the melanoma capital of the world. Professor Soyer's research brings together clinical care, new technology and collaboration, including 3D total body imaging and the use of artificial intelligence, in dermatology.”
“This year's King's Birthday Honours recognised 14 Griffith recipients whose service reflects the best of our community. In my short few minutes here today, I want to acknowledge a few of them. Matthew Ames received his honour for significant service to community health, engineering, business administration and corporate governance. A Metro South Health board member since 2022, Matthew brings more than 20 years experience in environmental health and safety, risk management and governance. He has also been a strong consumer advocate across Queensland health, helping ensure patients and families have a voice in the systems that affect their lives. Matthew has given years of service to Hear and Say, supporting better outcomes for people who are deaf and hard of hearing.”
“My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for the Environment. What is the Albanese Labor government doing to protect the environment and make approvals more efficient? What stood in the way?”
“My friend the member for Reid said in this House in her maiden speech: In just over half a century, we have moved from an embrace of a White Australia policy to a country that is now a majority-migrant nation. But what is more remarkable is how this news was received—not with backlash but with a genuine embrace of modern Australia. I believe we are a parliament that is getting close to being truly representative of the people and communities we represent. Look around this chamber. We see more of Australia here than ever before. We see people with names, accents, faiths, stories and family histories that once sat outside the old idea of power. We are not and never will be a monoculture. Monoculture is a myth.”
“Australia's strength has never come from sameness. It has come from the people who have built lives across difference, from our many First Nations communities with millennia of history and culture—the oldest continuous cultures on earth—to people who arrive with little English, little money and deep hope for their children, people who turned uncertainty into contribution. That is the Australian story. It is the story of parents who left behind fear to watch their children speak freely in a democracy. It is the story of families who carried old memories into a new home. It is the story of children translating letters at the kitchen table, then growing up to write laws in this chamber. Fear narrows a country. Hope strengthens it. For too much of our history, Australia narrowed the idea of belonging. But this country chose a better path.”
“This is a very proud achievement for this Labor government. Most of all, it is a better start for those thousands of babies, parents and families right across our country and most especially in my community of Griffith, where we have so many young families starting out. I know how much of a change and how much of a help this new policy will be for families in my community. House adjourned at 20:00”
“We have heard Senator Hanson in the other place suggest that paid parental leave should be left to companies, as though a parent's time with their newborn should depend on who signs their payslip. Labor rejects that view. A child's start in life should not depend on where their parents work. A mother's recovery should not depend on whether her employer has a generous policy. A father's chance to be present should not depend on workplace culture. This country can do better, and Labor is doing better. Every new parent deserves time to hold their baby, to learn their cries, to recover, to rest and to build routines that carry a family through those early months. Labor introduced paid parental leave. Labor protected it, Labor expanded it, and, from tomorrow, Labor is expanding it again, to a full 26 weeks for eligible families.”
“They have felt the pressure of wanting to be with their child and needing to pay the bills. That is why this change means so much. It says that time with a new child is to be valued. It says that parents should be backed by their country at one of the most demanding and meaningful times in their lives. These changes did not happen by accident. They happened through the work of parents, unions, advocates, women's organisations and community members who kept making the case. And they happened in the face of people who still want to drag this country backwards. We have heard the same tired attacks on paid parental leave for years. We have heard women being called 'rorters' and 'double dippers'—on Mother's Day, no less.”
“It means a parent can stay home longer without being punished for starting a family. As a proud mum of two, I know how much that time means. Twenty months after I had my first child, I gave birth to my second baby. By then, my savings were depleted from the unpaid time I had taken after my first child. I was deeply grateful for the government paid parental leave I received for baby No. 2. I think it gave me around 13 weeks. But I could not afford to take off more time, and I returned to work earlier than I wanted. I was breastfeeding, caring for two small children and trying to keep everything together. I know many parents have their own version of that story. They have stood in the kitchen late at night doing the maths. They have wondered what they will lose in income, savings, super or career progress.”
“From tomorrow, families who access the full entitlement will receive almost $30,000 across their paid parental leave. That is more than double the support families received before Labor came into government. The individual income limit will also increase, meaning more families will be covered—more time, more money, more families supported. In my community of Griffith, 1,560 parents received paid parental leave last financial year. I think about what this change means for those families. It means a mum in Coorparoo can have more time to recover after her birth. It means a dad in Morningside can spend more time at home in those first months. It means parents in West End, Camp Hill, Cannon Hill and Bulimba and across our community can make decisions with a little less financial pressure.”
“It was a Whitlam government that introduced paid maternity leave for Commonwealth employees in 1973, and, in 2011, it was a Gillard Labor government that introduced our national Paid Parental Leave scheme, providing 18 weeks of government funded parental leave. Before then, Australia was one of the few developed countries without a proper, funded national scheme. For generations, parents were expected to make it work on their own. Mothers returned to work sooner than they wanted. Fathers often had little or no time at home. Families used savings, credit cards, annual leave, unpaid leave or whatever they had. Labor changed that. We created a national scheme, we defended it, and now the Albanese Labor government is building on it.”
“Tomorrow marks a proud day for Australian families. From 1 July 2026, eligible parents welcoming a new baby or adopting a child will have access to 26 weeks of paid parental leave. That is six months backed by the government—six months to recover, to bond and to settle into life with a new baby. Anyone who has brought a newborn home knows that the first months are hard to describe. They are full of love, but they are also tiring. They bring joy, but they can bring worry too. There are feeds through the night, appointments, recovery, nappies, washing, visitors and the fleeting—very fleeting—rare moments of silence. That time is precious, and it should be available to every family. It should not depend on the size of someone's bank account, their workplace's policy or whether a parent can afford to go without pay.”
“More than five million underage accounts have been removed, deactivated or restricted. Early signs point to more sport, better sleep, less online bullying and less exposure to harmful content. That is real progress, but it's not the end of the task. It is not enough if platforms still leave doors open for children under 16, and it is not enough if parents are still fighting these battles alone at home. It's not enough for powerful companies to say they are doing the right thing but then refuse to provide the evidence that proves it. This bill strengthens those laws, those important laws, that we introduced in December last year.”
“The app's own terms of service said that it was not for anyone under 16, yet Google Play listed it as suitable for ages 12 and up. Her daughter was 12. Her daughter is now in regular therapy. Her mother describes what they are managing at home as having the features of an addiction. Parents can do everything right and still find themselves outmatched by products designed to pull children back in. Too often, safety is treated as something to add later. That is just absolutely, utterly backwards. Children should not be the testing ground for unsafe design. Safety must be built in from the start, and that is the work that the government is continuing to undertake. The Albanese Labor government has already shown that Australia can lead the world in online safety.”
“That will put responsibility on digital service providers to build safer systems and protect Australians, especially children, from harm before it occurs. I recently met with a local mother who told me what happened to her family after her eldest daughter, then just 12, was seriously harmed by an AI companion chatbot. Her daughter was first introduced to an AI roleplay website at school on a friend's phone. From there, she built a relationship with this chatbot AI character over months. The character told her she was worthless and made references to self-harm. Looking back, her mother described the exchanges as having the hallmarks of grooming and gaslighting. This was not a platform her daughter should have been able to access.”
“It applies to local shops, cafes, builders, pharmacies and childcare centres, and it must apply to the largest technology companies in the world. It is the principle behind our consumer laws. Australians deserve clear rights, fair treatment and real protection when powerful companies do the wrong thing. For too long, some of these companies have acted as if their size puts them above the rules. They have shaped childhood, friendship, news, entertainment and social life at a speed that the law has struggled to match. That cannot continue. This bill strengthens enforcement of the social media minimum age, but the work of protecting children online cannot end there. The next step in the government's work is to legislate a digital duty of care.”
“More than 20 countries have created or committed to creating their own laws to delay access to social media. They include countries across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, South America and beyond. Australia acted first, and others are now watching. Australian parents are watching too. They do not expect perfection overnight, but they do expect persistence. They expect us to keep going, fix weak points and respond when companies drag their feet. That is exactly what we are doing and what we will continue to do. We will continue to prioritise the health of our kids over the interests of these multinational companies. This government could not be clearer to these platforms: if you want to do business in Australia, you must obey Australian law. The same principle applies to local businesses across our communities.”
“Griffith is full of families who care deeply about their children's wellbeing. They want their kids to learn, explore, volunteer, play sport, join a club, get outside and be part of their community. They know technology is part of life. They are not asking for childhood to be frozen in the past. They are seeking for childhood to be protected in the present and that is a fair ask. We can support children to use technology well, and we can set limits where harm is clear. We can value connection, and we can still say that some platforms are not suitable for under-16s. We can back young people, and we can hold companies to account. This bill does just that. Australia's reform has not stayed within our shores; we are world leading in this area.”
“I have spoken to parents who feel exhausted by this. They want their children to have friends and they do not want them isolated, but they do not want every family dinner to become a fight about an app. They don't want to be the only household saying no. They want a fairer set of rules. The Online Safety Amendment (Strengthening Enforcement for the Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2026 gives parents backing. It says the burden should not sit on families alone and it says social media companies must take responsibility for the products they put into children's lives. In my community of Griffith, I see families trying their best every day. I see it at school gates, at community events, in local sporting clubs and in conversations with parents who are proud of their children and worried about them at the same time.”
“I want to thank the environmental groups, legal experts, scientists, First Nations people, community advocates and local volunteers who helped make this happen. In my community of Griffith, this is something people have been asking for for many years because people deeply care about the environment around us. I joined with my community to campaign for stronger environmental laws and our first national EPA. Too much of what we love is under pressure: our threatened species, rivers, reefs, forests, wetlands and oceans. The National EPA will help people understand Australia's environmental laws and it will make sure those laws are respected. Labor has always understood this responsibility. Tomorrow will be a proud day for our government, but more importantly it will mark the beginning of a new era for Australia's environment.”
“Tomorrow, 1 July, Australia's first independent National Environmental Protection Agency will begin its work. It marks a brand new chapter for the protection of Australia's natural environment. For the first time in our nation's history, Australia will have an independent national regulator with the power, focus and responsibility to uphold our environmental laws. That is a proud achievement of this Albanese Labor government. In just over six months, the National EPA has gone from a long held ambition to a working reality. For decades, Australians have called for stronger environmental protection. They have asked for clearer rules, better decisions and a regulator strong enough to make sure that our rules are followed. They have asked for a system where the environment has a real voice. Tomorrow, that begins.”
“It's about the 13-year-old who lies awake at night thinking about a message that no child should ever have received. It's about the 14-year-old who scrolls for hours and feels worse after every swipe. It's about a child who is bullied in the schoolyard and then followed home through their own phone. It's about the parent who wants to protect their child but feels outnumbered by technology built to break down every boundary.”
“A platform may say it has closed underage accounts; other records may show that many of those children came straight back through the front door. A platform may claim that parents have simple reporting paths; evidence may show those paths are hard to find, hard to use or slow to act. If a platform fails to comply with information-gathering notices from the eSafety Commissioner, we are doubling the penalty for doing so. This bill will help the commissioner get to the truth, and that is exactly how enforcement works: you find the facts, you test the claims and you act where the law has been broken. We should never lose sight of the people at the centre of this debate: children. It's about the year-seven student who has just started high school and feels pressure to be on the same apps as everybody else.”
“These new changes will give the eSafety Commissioner stronger tools to get the information needed to assess compliance. The commissioner will be able to issue notices requiring information and documents from any person where the commissioner reasonably believes that person holds material relevant to the minimum age framework. That can include the platform itself. It can include third parties, age assurance providers, app store providers and others who hold information that can test a platform's claims. This is a practical change, and it goes to the heart of enforcement. Platforms should not be able to mark their own homework. They should not be able to say 'trust us' and then refuse to provide the evidence. For example, a platform may say its age-check system works; a third-party provider may hold information that shows the system fails.”
“The increase brings these penalties into line with recent changes to competition and consumer law, and it reflects the scale of the companies this parliament is regulating. A small penalty can become just the cost of doing business; a strong penalty sends a different message. We are firmly signalling to these multinational tech companies that, if you want to do business in Australia, then you must comply with Australian laws. It says children's safety cannot be treated as a public relations issue. It says platforms cannot make promises in public then do too little in private. A strong and robust regulator like the eSafety Commission cannot enforce the law with public statements alone. It needs evidence, documents, records and the power to test what platforms say against what platforms do.”
“They have the skill to build products that can hold a child's attention for hours. They can use those same resources to comply with Australian law. The Online Safety Amendment (Strengthening Enforcement for the Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2026 strengthens the enforcement framework behind the social media minimum age law. It does two main things: (1) it increases penalties for noncompliance and (2) it gives the eSafety Commissioner strong powers to gather information and documents. The bill doubles the maximum penalty for breaches of the minimum age obligation, bringing the maximum penalty to $99 million. That is a serious penalty, and it needs to be serious for these multinational tech companies to take it seriously.”
“Some platforms appear to allow underage users to try age checks again and again until they pass. Some do too little to stop a child whose account has been closed from opening a new one straightaway, and some make it too hard for parents and others to report underage users. These are gaps that children can slip through, and they are failures by companies with the money, people and technical skills to do better. The eSafety Commissioner is now actively investigating potential noncompliance of five platforms, and we can guess who they are: Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube. These are not small startups or backyard businesses; they are some of the largest and most powerful digital companies in the world. They have the engineers. They have the data. They have the money.”
“These are children who have been given back time to sleep, move, study, talk, play and step away from the pressure of being constantly watched and judged. We started seeing early signs of change. A recent YouGov survey found that 30 per cent of young Australians aged 13 to 15 are spending more time playing sport, 27 per cent report better sleep, online bullying is down nine per cent, and exposure to inappropriate and violent content has fallen by 18 per cent. Our laws have made a strong start, but some platforms are still not doing enough. The eSafety Commissioner's public compliance update in March 2026 raised serious concerns. A substantial share of Australian children under 16 still hold accounts, create new accounts or bypass age checks, as we've heard in this chamber this morning.”
“Yet too often we ask children to resist systems built by some of the richest companies on earth. That is not fair on children, and it's also not fair on parents. Australian parents led this movement. Parents told us they were tired of fighting alone. They were tired of platform rules that looked good on paper but failed in practice. They were tired of children being exposed to bullying, violent content, sexualised content, scams, manipulation and social pressure before they were ready. They told us they needed more than advice. They needed the law to be on their side. The Albanese Labor government listened, and we acted to delay access to social media to the age of 16. Since our minimum age law began on 10 December, more than five million underage accounts have been removed, deactivated or restricted.”
“That screen time did not follow me to school, sit by my bed, buzz in my pocket, count my likes or push endless content to me when I was meant to be asleep—although I will admit occasionally I did have the radio underneath my pillow when I was meant to be going to sleep. It did not learn what made me anxious, angry, excited or insecure then serve me more of it. Children today face something far more powerful. Social media platforms are designed to hold attention, learn behaviour, reward reaction, push comparison and turn popularity into a visible score. For adults that can be hard enough to manage. For children, it can be totally overwhelming. A child of 12 or 13 does not have an adult brain, an adult sense of risk or an adult ability to step back and see that a platform is trying to keep them there.”
“Like so many parents, I want my children to grow up curious, kind, confident and safe. I want them to make friends in real life, learn how to be bored, play sport, ride bikes, read books, tell terrible jokes like their stepfather, argue over board games and spend time in the world around them. Most of all, I want them to have the space to become themselves before a platform starts measuring them, ranking them, tracking them and selling their attention. The world has changed since I was a primary school student. I remember playing Chuck Yeager's Air Combat on my father's PC somewhere in the 1990s. I also remember playing DOOM , and I have to admit I thought the graphics looked pretty good back then. That was a very different type of screen time. It belonged to a very different childhood. The game stayed on the computer.”
“There is the constant pull of the phone, the tablet, the group chat, the notifications and the platforms that want a child's attention and do not give it back easily. Ask any parent what has changed most in childhood and many will point to the phone. It follows children into bedrooms, schoolyards and weekends, carrying pressures that parents can feel but cannot always see. It is the young person who cannot sleep after something cruel was said online. It's the child who feels left out after seeing photos from an event that they were not invited to. It's been a year since I was elected into this government, and, in that time, one of the things I am most proud of is our social media ban for under 16s for those exact reasons. I am the mother of an 11-year-old and a 13-year old boy.”
“It's school holidays in my home state of Queensland, and, across Griffith, families will be out and about enjoying time with their kids. They will be at South Bank, one of our local parks like Raymond Park, at a local pool like Musgrave Park Swim Centre, at the movies like Hawthorne cinemas or the Dendy at Coorparoo, at one of our local libraries or just at home where parents are trying to fill in the days. As a parent of two beautiful young men myself, I know how great these days are. There is noise, mess, sunscreen, snacks. The kids are asking what they can do next and us parents are doing our best to keep everyone busy and happy. There is another part too, and many parents know it too well.”
“My question is to the Minister for Health. How is the Albanese Labor government making it easier for Australians to see a doctor when they need urgent care? How are urgent care clinics helping to strengthen Medicare after a decade of cuts and neglect?”
“This bill legislates wider scrutiny of premiums so consumers can be more confident in the value of their private health insurance. This bill begins to put that right by giving patients better information when making decisions about specialist care, strengthening informed financial consent, closing a loophole that has undermined confidence in private health insurance and providing stronger safeguards against unregulated charging behaviour. It builds on the Albanese Labor government's broader work to strengthen Medicare, lower health costs and make our health system fairer for all Australians to navigate. For families across Griffith, that means better information, stronger protections and even more confidence in the choices before them.”
“Strengthening Medicare is not just about bulk-billing, urgent care and cheaper medicines, as important as all of those are; it's also about what happens when people move into specialist care, private treatment and surgery. It is about whether people can understand the costs in front of them, whether insurance products are fair and whether the system treats people with the respect that they deserve. Health reform should make the system easier to understand at every point, not just at one part of it. We know an increasing number of Australians are not taking up referrals from their GP to see a specialist due to concerns about cost. This legislation will give hardworking Australians the clarity they deserve about costs and more choice in their health care.”
“They help the parent filling a script for their child, the older resident managing a chronic illness, the student or renter weighing up every dollar at the pharmacy counter and the person who might otherwise delay filling a prescription because the cost is too high. Since July 2022, Griffith residents have saved more than $18.2 million on more than 2.1 million scripts. That is more money staying in household budgets, money that can go towards groceries, rent, school costs, transport and all the other everyday expenses that families are facing. Most importantly, it means people are less likely to delay or skip the medicines they need because of the cost.”
“We have also expanded access to Medicare urgent care clinics so people with urgent but non-life-threatening conditions can get the care they need without having to wait in a hospital emergency department. In Griffith, our three Medicare urgent care clinics, South Brisbane, Coorparoo and Carina, have now seen more than 43,000 presentations, taking pressure off hospitals and helping families access timely bulk-billed care closer to home. We've also continued to make medicines cheaper. The maximum PBS co-payment for Medicare cardholders was reduced from $31.60 to just $25 at the start of this year, while the concessional co-payment remains frozen to $7.70 until 2030. These changes are making a real difference in communities like Griffith.”
“This bill forms part of the Albanese government's wider efforts to improve affordability, accessibility and clarity within the health system. We have strengthened Medicare because we believe every Australian should be able to see a doctor when they need one, not just when they can afford one. The government has invested to support more bulk-billing, including expanding bulk-billing incentives to all Australians and supporting fully bulk-billing practices through the Bulk Billing Practice Incentive Program. In Griffith, that work is already making a difference. Bulk-billing rates increased to 63.5 per cent in March 2026, up from 58.7 per cent in October 2025, meaning more people in my community can get the care they need without having to worry about the cost.”
“The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons has also supported reforms that improve transparency and inform financial consent while making the point that transparency should apply across the whole patient cost pathway, including practitioner fees, insurer rebates and benefit design. The patient experience through the health system can be seen as a pathway—a GP appointment, a referral, a specialist consultation, a scan, a procedure, an anaesthetist, a hospital stay, a bill from one provider, a bill from another, until finally a gap they did not expect or a far greater one than that which they had budgeted for. If we want people to navigate that pathway with confidence, we need transparency at every point where cost can affect choice, and that's what this legislation is targeted to address.”
“This bill closes that loophole by requiring insurers to seek ministerial approval not just for premium changes to existing products but also for premiums charged for proposed new products and for certain changes that reduce cover, benefits, terms or conditions. This reform has been welcomed by consumer advocates and health sector voices who understand that the status quo has not served patients well enough. The AMA has supported action to stop product phoenixing while also making it clear that the Medical Costs Finder must be implemented carefully so information is accurate, meaningful and fair.”
“The Commonwealth Ombudsman has examined the impact of product phoenixing, including on top-tier gold products. The issue is that new customers or existing customers trying to upgrade may be pushed onto a more expensive product while very similar, older products remain closed to them. That cuts across the purpose of the standard annual premium review process, which exists to provide scrutiny of premium increases and ensure changes are assessed in the public interest. If insurers can avoid that scrutiny by closing one product and opening another that is substantially the same, then the system is not working as it should.”
“The second major part of this bill goes to fairness in private health insurance by tackling a practice known as product phoenixing, a practice that has been eroding trust in this area. Product phoenixing occurs when a private health insurer closes a product and reopens an identical or very similar product at a higher price or reduces the value of the product without the usual scrutiny or oversight. Consumers who pay for private health insurance expect the system to be fair. They expect a policy to deliver what it promises, and they should not be sold a supposedly new product that is little more than the same old cover repackaged at a higher price, nor should they be left wondering whether the complexity of the system is being used to their disadvantage.”
“Patients should be able to see typical fees, likely out-of-pocket costs, Medicare rebates and relevant insurer contributions. Clearer information gives people the confidence to ask better questions, helps GPs and referrers have better conversations with patients, supports informed financial consent and reduces the risk of bill shock at that very moment when people should be focused on their health. We also know that fees can vary significantly, even for the same procedure in the same city, and that variation is exactly why transparency is needed. If one patient may face a very low out-of-pocket cost and another may face hundreds of dollars for a similar service, people deserve to know that before they commit, not after. This amendment will help make that information easier to find.”
“It means patients were left without the clear, practical information they need to understand likely costs, compare their options and make informed decisions about their care. It offers no help to a parent trying to find out the cost of an ENT appointment for their child or for a young person seeking clarity on what they might pay to see a psychiatrist for an ADHD diagnosis. Rather than relying on voluntary disclosure, this amendment will allow the Medical Costs Finder to use Medicare, hospital and private health insurer billing data already collected by the government, making it more practical, more comprehensive and far more likely to produce a tool ordinary Australians can actually use. The principle is straightforward: transparency should be the norm.”
“The model was built entirely on voluntary disclosure, relying on specialists and insurers choosing to come forward and provide the data needed to make that website useful. That approach by the former Morrison government was destined to fail in delivering meaningful transparency, and the results are proof of this. By the end of 2022, across some 6,300 eligible specialists and the 11 specialties listed on the site, just six individual doctors had listed their fees on that website. Even now, only around 88 have done so, because the website those opposite created was based entirely on voluntary disclosure. This is not simply a case of $24 million being spent on a website that failed to meet expectations.”
“When someone is referred to a specialist, they should not be left trying to piece together what Medicare will cover, what their private health insurer will contribute and how much they may be expected to pay out of their own pocket and nor should they have to wait until after an appointment, test or procedure to find out that the cost is much higher than they had expected. The Medical Costs Finder launched under the Morrison government was intended to give patients a way to compare costs, understand likely out-of-pocket expenses and make more informed choices about their care. In all fairness, the intent behind the Medical Costs Finder was a good one. The problem was not the intention; the problem was in the design.”