Health announcements during the federal election campaign have been meticulously recorded by Charles Maskell-Knight in several editions of his column, The Zap, over the last few months.
The compendium below – including extracts from columns from 3 March to 26 April – highlights a reluctance from the major parties “to undertake the hard slog” of genuine healthcare reform, he writes.
Charles Maskell-Knight writes:
The election campaign has been very disappointing from a health policy perspective.
It has essentially involved the Government spending heavily on increasing bulkbilled GP services, reducing PBS copayments, and expanding access to Urgent Care Clinics and mental health services, while the Opposition copies virtually every move, afraid that a divergence will lead to accusations it does not support Medicare.
The Opposition’s major rural announcement to establish a $20 billion Regional Australia Future Fund, with the earnings to be allocated to regional healthcare, childcare and infrastructure, involves propping up existing patterns of health service delivery.
Neither party showed the least inclination to tackle the big underlying issues impeding the performance of our health system, such as the unaffordability of medical specialist services, dental care and allied healthcare; the ossified system of fee for service for primary care monopolised by GPs; inadequate hospital funding; and ineffectual if not non-existent health workforce planning.
And then there is the continued year to year grant funding of First Nations health services which makes it difficult to plan for more than a year in advance; the steadfast refusal to countenance a sugar tax, despite its widespread adoption in other countries; and the reluctance to acknowledge the impact climate change is having on our health…
As Professor Stephen Duckett AM wrote recently, “genuine healthcare reform does not attract much media attention, which means it doesn’t get the profile necessary to prompt the right political promises”.
“The hard slog of change takes years, and involves much more than a few carrots thrown to voters in an election. It takes careful negotiation with stakeholders and getting the infrastructure right,” he said.
This election has seen billions of dollars’ worth of carrots, but no commitment to undertake the hard slog of change.
Bulkbilling incentives
Published 3 March
The major health news in the week covered by this column was the Government’s announcement on 23 February of a package of health measures including extending eligibility for GP bulkbilling incentives to the whole population – followed shortly by the Opposition adopting the same package.
I have summarised reaction to the announcement from a wide range of health sector groups for Croakey here.
Australian Greens health spokesperson Jordan Steele-John announced that the party would add ADHD and autism assessments to Medicare.
He said the items “could be billed by a paediatrician, psychiatrist, psychologist, nurse practitioner or general practitioner… and the rebate would be set at the average cost of a diagnosis which would allow health practitioners to bulk bill”.
Steele-John cited submissions to Senate inquiries suggesting some professionals were charging as much as $5,000 for diagnoses.
If that is what the market will bear, there is no reason to expect those providers will start bulkbilling Medicare.
Urgent Care Clinics
Published 10 March
The Government’s pre-election health largesse continued last week, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Health Minister Mark Butler announcing a further 50 Urgent Care Clinics, with a cost over the next four years of almost $650 million.
Together with the bulkbilling and workforce measures announced on 23 February and the women’s health package announced on 9 February, the Government has now announced additional health funding of over $9.7 billion in the last month.
Unlike the bulkbilling package, which the Opposition quickly committed to copy, there was a restrained response to the Urgent Care Clinics announcement from Shadow Health Minister Anne Ruston.
She said “a Dutton Coalition Government will deliver Urgent Care Clinics as they were intended – focused on relieving pressure on local hospitals and providing real access to bulk billed urgent healthcare”.
“[We] will continue existing Urgent Care Clinics and we have already announced that we will establish additional Clinics in Sorell, Cairns, Maitland and Reid. We will make further announcements in due course,” the Shadow Minister said.
The Royal Australian College of GPs (RACGP) warned that new Urgent Care Clinics won’t solve Australia’s patient care challenges, and once again raised concerns about how they will be properly staffed.
President Dr Michael Wright said the RACGP did not support ongoing investment in Urgent Care Clinics without an evaluation demonstrating that they are effective.
He argued that “the best solution to increase access to urgent care and ease pressure on our hospitals is funding existing general practices to expand their current services, including more after-hours services”.
He also questioned how the new clinics would be staffed.
As far as I can see, if the workforce is not available to staff urgent care clinics, it will not be available to expand services from existing general practices.
The Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association welcomed the announcement, saying it “recognises the capacity of nurse-led care to reduce pressure on emergency departments and improve access to timely, high-quality care”.
Minister Butler announced that the Government and Baxter Healthcare were both investing $20 million in expanding Baxter’s production facility in Western Sydney to help to secure supply and shore up Australia’s sovereign capability to manufacture IV (intravenous) fluids.
This will increase domestic supply by 20 million units annually to 80 million units a year.
The announcement was welcomed by Advanced Pharmacy Australia and the Australian Private Hospitals Association (APHA).
Palliative Care Australia (PCA) said that “Australian made IV fluids will be a huge step forward in establishing an Australian-made supply of critical health products, but we should be aiming higher and adding pain relief medications to our ‘Made in Australia’ plans”.
A number of groups responded to a request that Minister Butler apparently made to private health insurers to “outline steps to increase their payout rate”.
In an article first published in Pearls and Irritations, Peter Breadon and Elizabeth Baldwin from the Grattan Institute argued that the bulkbilling package announced by the Government and endorsed by the Opposition “won’t fix primary care’s underlying problems”.
“Whoever wins the imminent election… should build on this announcement with broader primary care reform,” they said.
They said that who provides care and how they’re paid both need to change. They point out that most health systems similar to Australia’s use so-called blended funding for primary care.
“The bulk of a clinic’s funding is for managing on-going care of patients, with extra funding to care for sicker patients with more complex needs. That funding sits alongside a payment for each visit or service,” they said.
They argue that the bonus payment for 100 percent bulkbilling practices could potentially be used to employ a broader range of workers.
They also suggest it should be expanded, with practices able to opt for larger risk-adjusted practice payments and reduced fee-for-service, to “support a broader workforce, more prevention, and more effort on improving care”.
Strengthening Medicare
Published 17 March
In a 10 March media release headed ‘Strengthening Medicare: more doctors and larger Medicare payments for dozens of communities’, Health Minister Mark Butler announced changes to the results of the classification systems underlying bulkbilling incentives and doctor distribution.
While it is appropriate to vary the classifications due to updated census data, the changes have been implemented on a ‘no worse off’ basis. This means that as areas are moved from inner regional to metropolitan, for example, they retain their earlier classification and their higher bulkbilling incentives and Distribution Priority Area (DPA) status that makes it easier to recruit doctors.
However, as the Royal Australian College of GPs (RACGP) pointed out, as more and more areas gain access to DPA status, the benefit of that status is diluted. Once Surfers Paradise and Noosa are as special as Roma, who will go to Roma?
As 19th century sociologist WS Gilbert observed, when everybody’s somebody, then no one’s anybody.
Minister Butler also announced a range of further measures to combat the illicit tobacco trade.
Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care Ged Kearney announced grants to three frontline miscarriage support services to deliver care for women and families who have experienced miscarriage.
Most of the funding will flow to the Pink Elephants Support Network, working in partnership with the Stillbirth Centre of Research Excellence (Stillbirth CRE) and Perinatal Anxiety and Depression Australia (PANDA).
Budgetary choices
Published 24 March
Anybody thinking there was an election coming would have had their suspicions confirmed when the Government announced later in the week that if re-elected it would reduce the general PBS copayment to $25 from 1 January next year, at an annual cost to Government of $200 million. (The Opposition immediately said it would match the policy.)
As Greg Jericho points out in this Guardian article, budgets are all about choices. The Government has chosen to spend about $200 million a year making medicines 16 percent cheaper.
For the same amount of money, it could have almost doubled the assistance it provides to the states for public dental services, or provided an extra 4,000 or so home care packages to help address the waiting list, which now includes tens of thousands of people.
The Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA) said “further cuts to the price of PBS medicines would save many patients money, but lack of access to care remains the big issue for those in rural and remote areas”.
Other groups such as the medicines sector (Pharmacy Guild, the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA), Advanced Pharmacy Australia, and Medicines Australia) and various health consumer groups welcomed the announcement.
However, the Government does not appear to have decided to reduce the general PBS safety net threshold from its current $1,647.90, meaning a person will have to pay for 65 scripts before qualifying for access to the concessional PBS.
Minister Butler also announced that a re-elected Labor Government would act to fix “the former Government’s failed price disclosure tool, Medical Costs Finder”.
The website is supposed to assist patients by showing the average fee charged for a particular medical service, as well as the fee charged by particular doctors.
However, it relies on doctors uploading their data, and after six years only 70 out of a potential 11,000 doctors in specialities covered by the website have done so.
Butler said that the Government will analyse Medicare and private health insurance data to calculate average fees for individual doctors and present that information on the website.
He added that the website “will also include data from private health insurers showing their financial arrangements with specialists and how often patients pay out-of-pocket for services that aren’t fully covered by their insurance policy”, noting that so far only three insurers have voluntarily added their data to the website.
In a media conference covering the issue, Butler said “I’ve now given up on the expectation that we can rely upon specialists to upload their own fees”.
“We are now going to do it for them,” he said.
Dr Rachel David, CEO of Private Healthcare Australia (the private health insurance lobby group), said “this a massive win for consumers who have been crying out for more information and competition between specialist doctors, so they don’t get hit by unexpected fees”.
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) said it “welcomed the Government’s commitment to increase transparency on consumer out-of-pocket costs for private healthcare, including placing stronger obligations on insurers to reveal data showing how much they contribute to the cost of care and how often patients pay out-of-pocket costs that are not fully covered by their insurance policy”.
Catholic Health Australia and the Consumers Health Forum also supported the announcement.
I suspect that while everybody can sign up for the notion of transparency, when it comes to implementation, everybody will have a different idea about what should be transparent.
Policy prescriptions
Published 30 March
Soon after the Prime Minister announced on 28 March that the next federal election would be held on 3 May, Croakey inboxes began receiving media releases from health groups setting out their policy prescriptions for whoever wins the election.
First cab off the rank was Catholic Health Australia (CHA), with a media release issued at 8.10 am setting out a number of priorities, including ensuring the long-term viability of private hospitals and reforming private health insurance.
The Royal Australian College of GPs (RACGP) followed less than two minutes later, reiterating its call for a 40 percent increase in patient rebates for longer consults and a 25 percent increase in patient rebates for mental health.
SNAICC – National Voice for our Children called for a bipartisan approach to Closing the Gap for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, and said it was “more important than ever that we see a bipartisan commitment to early education and child and family safety to ensure our children get the best start in life”.
“The 2025 election comes at a critical time when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are removed from their families, communities and cultures and placed into child protection and juvenile justice systems at appallingly disproportionate rates, with little to no early intervention and diversion programs to help,” said CEO Catherine Liddle, in an election statement.
“Addressing this national disgrace should be top of mind for all Australian political parties and decision makers. SNAICC is encouraging all sides of government to invest in evidence-based policies that we know work, rather than feeding into ill-informed, fear-driven narratives that ultimately don’t serve our children, families or the wider community.”
Advanced Pharmacy Australia recommended expansion of the Partnered Pharmacists Medication Prescribing collaborative care model; establishment of bilateral Pharmaceutical Reform Agreements in NSW and ACT; and formation of a dedicated Medicine Shortages and Discontinuations Clinical Advice Service.
The Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes (AAMRI) called for immediate action – particularly funding research on-costs – to ensure the survival of the nation’s health and medical research sector. This follows AAMRI’s Budget night comment that “it was shocked to learn that research funds have not even increased in line with inflation – in reality, funding has actually gone backwards”.
The Australian College of Nursing called on all parties to commit to implementing the “practical, sensible and affordable” recommendations of the Scope of Practice Review.
The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) said “we now need all of our political leaders to outline how they will work with the ANMF to build on the wins we’ve achieved under the Albanese Government – and how they will stand-up for nurses and midwives with measures which improve their pay and everyday working conditions and with more cost-of-living relief”.
The Australian Physiotherapy Association recommended allowing patients to see physiotherapists without a GP referral for MBS-funded services; developing musculoskeletal care pathways to reduce reliance on surgery and opioids; and investment in preventive programs, including falls and chronic pain management.
The National Rural Health Alliance urged all parties to “implement a National Rural Health Strategy to coordinate Commonwealth, State, and Territory policy, investment and service delivery”.
Occupational Therapy Australia released its federal election toolkit, with “27 strategic calls to action” across workforce, disability, mental health, primary care, aged care, and veterans’ services.
Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA) President Dr RT Lewandowski said “for rural doctors so far the indicators are pretty poor that either Labor, Liberal or even the Nationals are going to give any attention to actually improving access to a doctor, or other healthcare providers, for rural and remote Australians… We are hopeful that there are announcements yet to come that will look to this major issue”.
The Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM) also urged all political parties to prioritise the needs of rural, remote, and First Nations communities, particularly by strengthening the Rural Generalist workforce.
The Alliance for Gambling Reform (AGR) issued a statement encouraging Australians to talk to candidates about banning gambling advertisements.
AGR said “almost two years ago, a parliamentary inquiry into online gambling headed by one of the government’s own, the late Peta Murphy MP, presented 31 recommendations that would significantly reduce gambling harm – including a full ban on all gambling advertising and inducements”.
“The Government still has not officially responded to the report, and the Opposition hasn’t done much better… We want all candidates to publicly commit to supporting the Murphy Report recommendations, especially the ban on gambling ads.
“When you speak with candidates in your electorate, ask them directly: ‘Will you commit to banning gambling ads?’
“Tell them that 76 percent of Australians support this change.”
Rash of announcements
Published 7 April
The election campaign got under way with a number of announcements about health.
Health Minister Mark Butler announced that the Government, if re-elected, would spend $200 million on a major expansion to St John of God Midland Public Hospital in Perth’s east.
Butler joined Treasurer Dr Jim Chalmers in announcing that a re-elected Government would establish a medical school at Queensland University of Technology, with “an emphasis on primary healthcare to encourage more medical graduates to become GPs”.
The Australian Medical Students Association (AMSA) criticised the announcement, arguing it was “flashy but futile” and would not close workplace gaps.
Medical student leaders from the three existing Brisbane medical schools said that “Queensland medical students are already struggling to receive high quality medical placements”.
An additional school will stretch over-extended hospital teaching staff beyond capacity, and leave our future junior doctors underprepared to serve our community, they said.
Butler also announced that a re-elected Government would contribute $150 million towards the Flinders HealthCARE Centre – “a new 10-storey facility in the Flinders Health Precinct in Bedford Park that will provide locals with 10,000 health appointments and see 1,300 health professionals graduate each year”.
Shadow Health Minister Anne Ruston made the same commitment.
Butler then announced a $8 million contribution to a “healthcare hub” in Burnie, which would “host a wide range of health services including a general practice, pharmacy, women’s health, imaging, pathology, and legal services [and] provide student training opportunities – boosting the local workforce”.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese joined Butler and NSW Ministers in announcing that the Commonwealth would contribute $120 million to provide a maternity service at the new Rouse Hill Hospital, including “birthing rooms, a maternity inpatient unit and additional staffing areas in addition to the existing plan to have post and pre-natal maternity services at the new hospital”.
Ruston announced that if elected the Coalition would spend $3 million on supporting Maddie Riewoldt’s Vision (MRV), which drives “research, advocacy, and support for Australians with Bone Marrow Failure Syndromes and their families”.
Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton committed $1 million to develop a comprehensive business case for a new hospital in Yanchep to service the City of Wanneroo in Perth’s northern suburbs.
Dutton also visited the headspace office in Melton in Melbourne, where he promised $6.2 million to expand the centre (apparently part of the $400 million for youth mental health services announced in his Budget reply).
It is clear that young LGBTIQ+ people have a greater risk of poor mental health than other young people.
A number of media outlets including the Herald Sun and the Star Observer subsequently reported claims that “Dutton’s team arrived shortly before his visit to headspace Melton, where they proceeded to ‘remove all queer flags and symbols’ [and] that Dutton refused to talk in front of a queer artwork, and was instead photographed standing in front of some underwater-themed decorations”.
Headspace confirmed that “several items were removed from the table by the Opposition Leader’s team ahead of the media announcement, including a tall water jug and some flags”.
Dutton seems to have an ongoing problem with flags – and with diversity more generally.
Mental healthcare focus
Published 15 April
As the election campaign carried on, the Government announced if re-elected it would spend a billion dollars to “roll out even more places Australians can go for free, public mental healthcare backed by Medicare”.
This included funding for 31 new and upgraded Medicare Mental Health Centres; 58 new, upgraded or expanded headspace services; 20 Youth Specialist Care Centres for young people with complex needs; and more than 1,200 training places for mental health professionals and peer workers.
Croakey published an article on the announcement from Associate Professor Sebastian Rosenberg, together with reaction from a number of health groups.
Other groups to comment included Mental Health Australia, which welcomed the announcement, and the Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA), which emphasised the importance of building the rural mental health workforce to allow access to rural mental health services to be boosted.
In other election news, Butler announced that a re-elected Labor Government would contribute $27.5 million to CQUniversity for the construction of a Health and Engineering Wing at the university’s Cairns campus.
Opening in 2028, the new building would double nursing student capacity from 630 to 1,260, expand facilities to accommodate growth in physiotherapy, occupational therapy, and clinical exercise physiology, and accelerate delivery of the Bachelor of Medical Imaging.
Butler also announced funding for a health and aged care plan for the Northern Territory, including $60 million for a new aged care home in Darwin, an area with a chronic undersupply of aged care services.
Catholic Health Australia (CHA) welcomed the announcement, but also called on the next government “to increase the Aged Care Capital Assistance Program by at least $297.63 million per year to $540 million per year to support a sustainable aged care sector in regional, rural and remote areas”.
Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton joined Shadow Minister Anne Ruston to promise that the Coalition would “restore funding for the Suicide Prevention Research Fund”.
This followed a media release from Suicide Prevention Australia bemoaning the absence of a clear commitment from either major party to suicide prevention funding.
The Coalition also promised $10 million to support CareFlight to acquire an additional King Air B250 fixed wing aircraft to better service the Top End, matching a Labor undertaking.
The Coalition’s major health-related announcement was a commitment to establish a $20 billion Regional Australia Future Fund, with the earnings to be allocated to regional healthcare, child care and infrastructure.
The commitment was welcomed by the NHRA, which said “it is about time in this election campaign that regional, rural and remote Australia received some focus”.
Chief Executive Susi Tegen said “rural healthcare doesn’t function in isolation”.
“Funding needs to be provided for infrastructure to accommodate the health workforce and those who are training, to come and stay in rural areas,” she said.
“Medical students need to be supported to study in rural areas and rural clinics need to be expanded. Accessing childcare is an enormous issue for health professionals working in rural Australia.”
Indigenous groups, together with the Black Dog Institute, have developed the Respectful Election Guidelines to ensure election debate is respectful and inclusive. This follows the harmful impact of much public debate during the Voice referendum campaign.
The guidelines were co-developed by the Australian Indigenous Psychologists Association (AIPA), Indigenous Allied Health Australia (IAHA), Gayaa Dhuwi (Proud Spirit) Australia, Thirrili, and the Black Dog Institute.
They are based upon five principles:
- Set the standard for respectful debate
- Promote truth and honesty
- Prioritise wellbeing
- Foster unity
- Lead by example.
“By embracing these principles, candidates, political parties and public commentators can contribute to a more respectful and constructive election campaign, promoting the social and emotional wellbeing of First Nations peoples and social cohesion of the nation,” say the guidelines.
Alison Barrett summarised comments on election priorities from a wide range of First Nations health groups in this Croakey article.
Coalition backs regional medical training
Published 22 April
The election campaign continued with health announcements from both major parties.
Health Minister Mark Butler announced funding of $10 million to “support primary healthcare providers to improve their skills and knowledge to deliver inclusive LGBTIQA+ healthcare [with] a training provider to be selected through a competitive grants process”.
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) welcomed the commitment.
Butler also announced that, following an independent review, private health insurers would be free to provide benefits for yoga, Pilates, tai chi, shiatsu, naturopathy, western herbal medicine, and Alexander technique.
(The previous Government in 2019 banned insurers from offering benefits for these treatments as well as aromatherapy, Bowen Therapy, Buteyko, Feldenkrais, homeopathy, iridology, kinesiology, reflexology, and Rolfing, following an earlier independent review.)
Butler announced a contribution to establish new medical imaging positron emission tomography (PET) services in Adelaide at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and the Flinders Medical Centre; and a contribution to the building of a new Health and Housing Clinic to provide free healthcare to people most in need in Brisbane’s West End.
He also announced a commitment to open another eight Perinatal Mental Health Centres around the country to provide mental health support to new and expectant Australian parents, expanding the current network of 12 centres.
Australians for Mental Health welcomed this commitment. Executive Director Chris Gambian said “postnatal depression affects many new mothers and fathers, and too often it goes untreated or even undetected”.
“By investing in the mental health of new parents we are tackling the crisis head on, and setting up the conditions for better mental health for the whole family,” Gambian said.
Shadow Health Minister Anne Ruston attacked the Government for failing to meet a 2022 election promise to expand the newborn health screening test to cover 80 conditions – but did not commit a new Coalition Government to expanding the test.
Ruston did announce that a Coalition Government would provide further funding to the end of 2025-26 for the Colorectal and Pelvic Reconstruction Service at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne.
The big Coalition health announcement was that it would provide $100 million “towards upgrading regional medical training facilities across Australia and delivering 200 additional regional medical Commonwealth Supported Places, to fast track more health professionals living and working in regional, rural and remote Australia”.
A range of groups including the Australian Medical Association (AMA), the Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA), the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine, and the National Rural Health Alliance (NHRA) supported the announcement.
The NHRA said it “is particularly encouraged by the Coalition’s plan to develop a comprehensive Rural, Regional and Remote Health Strategy, led by the National Rural Health Commissioner”.
The Department of Health and Aged Care’s website is replete with strategies and plans covering a wide range of elements of the health sector.
See, for example, the National Preventive Health Strategy 2021–2030, Healthy mouths, healthy lives – Australia’s National Oral Health Plan 2015–2024, the National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan, or the National Mental Health Workforce Strategy 2022–2032).
Yet, in the absence of funding commitments, these are empty words.
The Coalition also effectively matched the Government’s commitment to provide additional support for health and aged care services in the NT.
Examining minor parties
Published 26 April
A working week bookended by public holidays made for a quiet period for health and aged care policy announcements and commentary.
Even the wave of election announcements abated somewhat once pre-poll voting began on 22 April, as the Australian Electoral Commission expects about half of the electorate to vote before election day. Election promises won’t attract votes if they are made after people have voted.
The day before polls opened, the Government promised funding to expand medical student training at Launceston (a move welcomed by the Royal Australian College of GPs), and funding of $2.6 million over four years to Street Side Medics, a free mobile GP service that provides health services to people experiencing homelessness across New South Wales and Victoria.
Later in the week the Government also promised $80 million to expand the emergency department at Fairfield Hospital; an additional $32 million to support men’s health, including funding for Movember and men’s sheds; and additional funding to expand capacity at a dozen of the busiest Urgent Care Clinics.
The Coalition echoed the commitment to men’s health.
Health Minister Mark Butler and Shadow Minister Anne Ruston appeared in a debate at the National Press Club, which produced more heat than illumination.
As Croakey colleague Jason Staines reported, the debate ignored many important health issues, including “First Nations peoples’ health, climate-linked health impacts, violence against women, cultural safety in healthcare, and prevention and public health matters, including the future of pandemic preparedness infrastructure”.
Even when it did touch on the important issue of access to affordable dental services, Butler and Ruston were on a unity ticket arguing that nothing could be done.
So far this election this column has focused on health policy commitments from the major parties, on the basis that they may be in a position to implement their commitments.
And over the last year I have reported on health policy positions put forward by The Greens.
This week I thought it would be interesting to look at those parties which will never form government, and are unlikely to hold the balance of power.
The Trumpet of Patriots policy platform promises a Royal Commission into COVID-19 and no vaccine mandates, but does not mention the word “health” once.
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation (PHON) says that “to encourage better regional medical services, One Nation will introduce three-year contracts for newly qualified medical professionals and in return pay their HECS-HELP loans in full”.
PHON also promises a Royal Commission into COVID-19 and no vaccine mandates. It proposes to bring down the cost of access to medicinal cannabis; and to “roll back brutal and extreme abortion law so that both unborn babies and pregnant women will have a level of legal and medical protection once again”.
Family First doesn’t appear to have a policy platform as such, but is campaigning for the human rights of unborn babies. The Australian Christian Party has a similar anti-abortion position.
The Australia First Alliance (AFA) is made up of the HEART Party, the Libertarian Party, and Gerard Rennick’s People First Party.
The HEART Party is committed to increasing consumption of organic food; increasing educational programs that promote the benefits of healthy living, life skills, eating nutrient-dense food and participating in small-scale food production; guiding allied health practitioners towards holistic and natural treatment alternatives; inspiring mental health practitioners to include complementary and natural medicines in their treatment regimens at all stages of mental healthcare; and providing a healthy water supply without the addition of fluoride or any toxic substances.
At the other end of the political spectrum, the Socialist Alliance is committed to “free healthcare for all”, including increasing the capacity of the health system; ending “back door co-payments”, boosting funding for preventative care and chronic disease management; free dental care; and expanding community based healthcare networks, reproductive and sexual health clinics.
The Fusion Party wants to add basic mental and dental health to Medicare, increase budgets for bulk-billing and telehealth, and treat alcoholism and other drug dependencies as health issues.
The Legalise Cannabis party argues that “cannabis and hemp are known for their health benefits and since they have been removed from our diet, we have seen an explosion of diseases such as cancer, dementia and autoimmune conditions that were once relatively rare. Reintroducing cannabis into our daily diet as a measure to prevent ill-health could reduce the long-term burden on the health budget”.
PostScript: On 27 April, Labor announced plans for 1800Medicare, “a free, nationwide 24/7 health advice line and afterhours GP telehealth service, backed by Medicare”.
The RACGP welcomed the plan to “extend a 24/7 helpline and strengthen and improve after-hour links to the GP network”, saying in a statement that: “The new nation-wide service, rebadged 1800 Medicare, will be in place from 1 January 2026. Registered nurses will be available 24 hours, a day seven days a week, to provide health advice, refer patients to health services, and in urgent cases, connect them to the patient’s regular GP via phone or video.”
Charles Maskell-Knight PSM was a senior public servant in the Commonwealth Department of Health for over 25 years before retiring in 2021. He worked as a senior adviser to the Aged Care Royal Commission in 2019-20. He is a member of Croakey Health Media; we thank and acknowledge him for providing this column as a probono service to our readers. Follow on X/Twitter at @CharlesAndrewMK, and on Bluesky at: @charlesmk.bsky.social.
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