Changes to the Federal Ministry, proposed reforms to the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme, and recommendations for addressing “the exorbitant cost of prostheses in Australia” are among the topics addressed in this week’s column.
The nursing workforce, developments in palliative care, and the four-volume report of the Special Commission of Inquiry into Healthcare Funding in NSW are also covered.
Don’t miss the details of consultations now open, including for a Pricing Framework for Australian Public Hospital Services 2026–27.
The quotable?
Australia is amongst the high-income countries supplementing its nursing workforce by sourcing nurses from low-income countries. This report highlights the moral imperative for us to increase our efforts to reduce our reliance on international recruitment.”
Charles Maskell-Knight writes:
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the new Cabinet and Ministry on 12 May.
Mark Butler added the role of Minister for Disability and the National Disability Insurance Scheme, and his existing title of Minister for Health and Aged Care was changed to Minister for Health and Ageing.
(The Department of Health and Aged Care was renamed the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing.)
Annika Wells left the health portfolio to become Minister for Communications but retained her role as Minister for Sport, meaning the unfortunate staff in that area will be ‘mogged’ yet again to a new Department.
(‘Mogged’ in this context is Canberra slang for being moved from one agency to another under section 72 of the Public Service Act as the result of a machinery of government change.)
Sam Rae took over Wells’ role as Minister for Aged Care and Seniors, while Senator Jenny McAllister became Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
At the Assistant Minister level, Ged Kearney moved out of the portfolio to become Assistant Minister for Social Services and Assistant Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence, and was effectively replaced by Rebecca White as Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, Assistant Minister for Indigenous Health, and Assistant Minister for Women.
Emma McBride kept her roles as Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention and Assistant Minister for Rural and Regional Health.
Kate Thwaites, who had been Assistant Minister for Ageing, became Special Envoy for Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience, and the Assistant Minister for Ageing position was dropped.
Numerous health sector organisations reacted to the changes as reported by Croakey here.
12 May was also International Nurses Day. The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a statement marking the day, saying that while “nurses account for more than half of all the world’s health workers, yet there is an urgent shortage of nurses worldwide with 5.9 million more nurses still needed, especially in low- and middle-income countries”.
WHO urged countries to:
- ensure the occupational safety and health of nurses and all health workers
- provide access to mental health support, timely pay, sick leave and insurance, together with access to the most up-to-date knowledge required to respond to all health needs
- deliver the financial support and other resources required to help respond to and control COVID-19 and future outbreaks.
The Australian College of Nursing (ACN) also marked the day, saying nurses “work across diverse settings, from hospital wards and emergency departments to schools, aged care facilities, remote clinics, and health policy forums”.
“Their contributions extend far beyond what the public often sees, and this day serves as an important reminder of the skill, leadership, and dedication nurses bring to every corner of healthcare,” the ACN said.
The ACN also responded to the WHO’s State of the World’s Nursing 2025 report.
ACN said the report estimates a global nursing workforce shortage of 5.8 million, and shows that high-income countries, like Australia, host 46 percent of the world’s nurses, despite only representing 17 percent of the world’s population.
ACN chief executive Adjunct Professor Kathryn Zeitz said the WHO report was “a call to action for governments to invest in nursing, to not only meet Australia’s future healthcare needs but to address disparities in access to nurses worldwide”.
“Australia is amongst the high-income countries supplementing its nursing workforce by sourcing nurses from low-income countries,” Zeitz said.
“This report highlights the moral imperative for us to increase our efforts to reduce our reliance on international recruitment.”
(See also this related Croakey article by Professor Michele Rumsey AM and others on the challenges facing the nursing workforce in the Pacific region.)
Annie Butler, Federal Secretary of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, wished ANMF members “Happy International Nurses Day”.
Butler said it “gives us the opportunity to think about why we must place greater emphasis on caring for nurses, looking after their mental health and their workplace environment and safety to allow them to work to their full potential and in turn, lead to better health outcomes”.
Butler added that the ANMF was pleased that the Government had committed “to key priorities”, such as:
- paid prac placements for nursing students
- the removal of outdated barriers preventing nurse practitioners working to their full scope of practice
- a 20 percent reduction in university loan debt.
These initiatives “all focus on supporting nurses now and into the future”, Butler said.
The Royal Australian College of GPs (RACGP) issued a statement on International Nurses Day “highlighting the vital role nurses play in ensuring patients can access multidisciplinary team care in general practice”.
The RACGP said it was working with the Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association (APNA) “to grow the capacity of nurses to contribute to patient care, including as part of the Building Nurse Capacity program”.
RACGP President Dr Michael Wright said “with more Australians living with chronic disease and our ageing population, nurses’ role in chronic disease management, care coordination, health promotion, and preventive health will be vital to ensuring all patients can access quality care from their general practice”.
APNA launched Florence, a free app designed by nurses, for nurses, on International Nurses Day.
It described Florence as “a groundbreaking career growth and professional development platform that gives every nurse the tools they need to grow their skills, plan their future, and take control of their career, no matter their clinical setting or career stage”.
APNA CEO Ken Griffin said “rather than leaving professional growth to chance, Florence provides structure, support and visibility”.
“It’s a practical tool to help nurses track learning, set goals, identify opportunities and see their value,” Griffin said. “When nurses are empowered like this, we all benefit, and we’re all healthier for it.”
Ministers and government
The independent review of the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme released its second consultation paper, which “presents a granular exploration of the purpose, nature, and features of a suite of potential reforms, with tangible actions that could be taken to progress those proposed”.
The options are set out under four themes:
- applying a regulatory stewardship model to set direction, context and accountability for the National Scheme
- establishing an Integrated Health Professions Regulation Framework, to inform decisions about regulating occupations across the entire Australian Health Workforce
- realigning functions and structures within the National Scheme to strengthen performance, accountability, and transparency
- progressing implementation of a unified national approach to health complaints and requiring immediate focus on improved management of high-risk matters with the National Scheme, to ensure best practice complaint management.
The review states that “while there is not an open submissions process being conducted, comments on Consultation Paper 2 may be provided through organisational representatives involved in the targeted stakeholder deliberations (who will be free to consult with their members and colleagues) or directly to the Review team”.
The Department told me that the targeted consultations would include “all governments, Ahpra executives and Boards, the Health Complaints Entities of each state and territory, professional membership and peak bodies, accreditation entities and organisations, consumer representatives, and academics”. The due date for comments provided directly to the review team was 6 June 2025.
Ahpra said it “supports in principle the review’s recommendations, many of which are in lock step with Ahpra’s current reform agenda”.
The Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority released its Consultation Paper on the Pricing Framework for Australian Public Hospital Services 2026–27, seeking comments by 13 June.
The paper is seeking comments in particular on:
- pricing admitted acute care using Australian Refined Diagnosis Related Groups
Version 12.0 - reviewing the block funding criteria that underpin the National Efficient Cost
- reviewing pricing adjustments, including for intensive care unit patients, First Nations peoples and individuals residing in rural and remote areas of Australia
- reviewing risk factors for inclusion in the hospital acquired complications and avoidable hospital readmissions risk adjustment models.
The Australian Institute for Health and Welfare (AIHW) released reports on Australia’s mothers and babies; Injury among women; and Palliative care services in Australia.
The report on mothers and babies found that the birth rate in 2022 (55 births per 1,000 women) had returned to 2020 levels, after a blip in 2021 (61 births per 1,000 women).
The long-term trend towards older mothers continued, with 37 percent of mothers aged 30 to 34.
The proportion of women giving birth via a caesarean section increased to 39 percent, from 32 percent in 2010. (While the caesarean section rate is increasing across the world, Australia continues to have one of the highest rates among OECD countries.)
The report also found an increase in the proportion of First Nations mothers attending an antenatal visit in the first trimester from 51 percent in 2013 to 71 percent in 2022.
The report on injury among women found that falls have been the leading cause of injury hospitalisation and injury death for women over the past decade, leading to almost 60 percent of both injury hospitalisation and injury death in 2022-23.
In relation to self-harm, the AIHW found the age-standardised rate for intentional self-harm injury hospitalisations among women decreased between 2017–18 and 2022–23, with 2022–23 having the lowest rate for the last ten years (120.8 per 100,000 population).
However, the age-standardised rate for suicide among women in 2022–23 was broadly unchanged from the rate a decade earlier.
The report on palliative care services is exactly that: it reports on the services that were delivered, not the services that were required but not available – a subject covered in this report from the AIHW last year.
The AIHW also released an update to information on suicide and self-harm.
The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care said it had developed an online education module for primary health professionals in partnership with The George Institute for Global Health, Sepsis Australia and Medcast.
The free one hour, CPD approved course features three interactive case studies and three downloadable clinical resources.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics released revised causes of death data for deaths registered in the years 2021-2023, and said a new data download is also available containing updated time series tables for underlying causes of death, multiple causes of death, deaths due to intentional self-harm (suicide), and drug-induced deaths.
First Nations
The Australian Indigenous Governance Institute (AIGI) marked Global Accessibility Awareness Day.
AIGI said it was “committed to making our governance resources and Toolkit more available and accessible to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across the many countries and nations of Australia – whether people are connecting from remote communities, using screen readers, or accessing information in different ways”.
“We’re listening, learning, and working to improve how we design and deliver our tools so that all mob can engage with them on their own terms.”
Consumer and public health groups
Palliative Care Australia (PCA) said National Palliative Care Week (May 11 – 17) provided an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of the sector and look to the work of the future.
It said that the two years after its launch by then Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care Ged Kearney, the Paediatric Palliative Care National Action Plan is having an impact and improving the delivery of palliative care for infants, children, and young adults.
PCA CEO Camilla Rowland said achievements included:
- the establishment of a Paediatric Palliative Care Centre of Research Excellence led by the Queensland University of Technology
- end of life communication eLearning for health professionals
- rural and remote outreach led by QuOCCA
- Australia’s first paediatric palliative care clinical guidelines.
National Seniors Australia (NSA) made much of the change in Minister Butler’s title to include “Ageing” rather than “Aged Care”, calling it “a subtle, but important difference”.
I doubt it will make any practical difference to outcomes for older Australians.
NSA also said “a key focus for Minister Butler should be a full review of the private health insurance system to reduce health insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs. And improve the interface between hospitals and aged care to reduce ramping and access to care”.
Trade unions
The Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) said it had launched the ASPIRE Palliative Care Foundation Training Program for Pharmacists, a “new national training program to equip pharmacists with the knowledge, skills, and compassion needed to support people receiving palliative and end-of-life care wherever they are”.
It said the course is not designed to prepare pharmacists to specialise in palliative care but to strengthen the everyday capacity of pharmacists across the country.
The NSW Government released the four-volume report of the Special Commission of Inquiry into Healthcare Funding, which made 41 recommendations.
The Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) urged the New South Wales Government “to swiftly implement key recommendations”.
RACP President Professor Jennifer Martin said “the report’s findings underscore the need to address spiralling levels of physician burnout and invest more in preventive healthcare”.
The RACGP said a recent independent survey had found more than 90 percent of registrars under the Australian General Practice Training program were satisfied with the training and education experience provided by the RACGP, a five percent increase on the previous year.
RACGP President Dr Michael Wright said “the results confirm that the transition back to GP training has been a tremendous success”.
The survey also found that more than 91 percent of respondents had participated in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural safety or awareness training and education.
Over the last few months the media team at the Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA) has issued a series of statements with quirky titles, including references to unicorns and bananas.
The latest offering is headlined “Think Measles vaccine is a joke, or did you just not get it?”.
RDAA President Dr RT Lewandowski set out the potential serious consequences of measles, and urged people to check their vaccination status and that of their children, and receive catch-up doses if required.
The RDAA also welcomed the reappointment of Ministers Butler and McBride.
RDAA President Dr RT Lewandowski said “RDAA has an excellent working relationship” with both Ministers.
“They both spent the past three years in these roles and have demonstrated their knowledge and understanding of the health sector, and their desire to work toward the reform of the health system we so desperately need”.
Lewandowski said the next term of government would be critical in implementing the recommendations of the reviews of multiple aspects of health system.
The RDAA would continue “to work hard to make sure that these changes do not inadvertently have a negative impact on rural and remote patients, and actually improve access to healthcare in rural and remote communities”.
The RDAA also tweeted to mark Dance like a Chicken Day… don’t ask me to explain the news, I just report it.
Industry groups
The Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes (AAMRI) said it was “pleased to see Minister Mark Butler reappointed as the Minister for Health and Ageing… and welcomed Senator Tim Ayres as the new Minister for Science and Minister for Industry and Innovation”.
AAMRI CEO Dr Saraid Billiards said the National Health and Medical Research Strategy announced by the Government last year “presents a great opportunity for our sector to minimise duplication, drive strategic investment, and strengthen the future of health and medical research in Australia”.
“We look forward to working with Minister Butler and his Department on this and other important projects,” Billiards said.
Catholic Health Australia (CHA) released “opinion” pieces on private maternity services and hospital in the home.
In relation to private maternity services, CHA Director of Health Policy Dr Katharine Bassett argued that private health insurers should be allowed to fund the full “maternity journey” including prenatal check-ups and postnatal care as well as the delivery.
(Assuming these non-hospital costs average $5,000 per delivery – not unreasonable given “booking fees” and pregnancy management fees – the total cost to insurers could easily exceed $300 million, adding over one percent to premiums.)
Bassett also called for an expanded role for midwives, and a national health workforce planning authority to address the underlying causes of workforce shortage.
Finally, she reiterated CHA’s proposal for a “a national private price that ensures private hospitals are paid fairly and consistently for the care they provide”.
CHA Director of Public Health and In Home Support Policy Alex Lynch wrote about hospital in the home, arguing that requiring private health insurers to pay a default benefit for out of hospital services, including hospital in the home, “is essential for improving healthcare delivery and productivity in Australia”.
“Failure to do so in the near term will represent a missed opportunity,” Lynch said. “It’s time for federal reform to support these innovative care models, ensuring better health outcomes and greater efficiency in our healthcare system.”
CHA also issued a media release inveighing against private health insurers owning medical centres or hospitals, following reports that “a private health insurer wants to build a network of 130 medical centres in Australia and is considering a bid for Healthscope hospitals”.
Bassett warned that “insurers gaining more control of our health system is unlikely to be in the best interests of patients”.
“The more control insurers gain, the greater the risk that patients will be limited to the doctors and treatments their insurer approves – rather than the care they truly need.
“This would be a dangerous shift toward a US-style managed care model that puts profits ahead of patients.”
The Healthscope hospitals are only (potentially) on the market because current owner North American investment firm Brookfield is reportedly transferring control of Healthscope to the owners of the debt Brookfield raised to complete the acquisition. That debt is apparently now trading at a discount of up to 60 percent on the face value.
The Pharmacy Guild and the PSA welcomed the decision by the Tasmanian Government to expand the scope of practice for pharmacists, and subsidise the cost of training for pharmacists to treat conditions such as ear infections, reflux, skin conditions such as shingles and eczema, rhinitis and wound care.
Private Healthcare Australia (the private health insurance lobby group) posted on LinkedIn that “a growing number of Australians are signing up for health insurance with extras to help them budget for health services in the community, including visits to a psychologist and group psychology sessions”.
“In 2024, health funds paid a record high of $46.5 million towards 570,000 psychology services – 11 percent more than the year before.”
Comments on the post rapidly pointed out that this worked out at $81 per visit, which wouldn’t go far given an average charge for a psychologist of around $250.
The Members Health Fund Alliance (Members Health, the lobby group for not-for-profit private health insurers) called on the Government “to address the exorbitant cost of prostheses in Australia, with new data revealing that Australians are paying up to 155 per cent more for vital medical devices compared to overseas”.
Members Health proposed three measures to address the issue:
- an ongoing process of comparing domestic and international prostheses prices, and Australian private and public hospital prices
- mandatory price transparency for prostheses, mirroring the successful model used for PBS-listed pharmaceuticals, to ensure public confidence in fair pricing
- explicitly prohibit and impose severe penalties for any under-the-table rebates, financial incentives, and kickbacks between device manufacturers and third parties, including hospitals and clinicians.
International organisations
WHO released its Results Report 2024, “showing progress on global health goals, even in times of growing financial uncertainties”.
WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the report shows WHO had assisted many countries in making progress on a huge range of health indicators, helping their populations to live healthier lives, giving them greater access to essential health services, and keeping them safer against health emergencies.
He said “in a world of multiple overlapping challenges and constrained resources for global health, these results demonstrate why the world needs a strong and sustainably-financed WHO, delivering the high-quality, trusted support on which countries and their people rely”.
Finally
On 12 May US President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order on prescription drug pricing, which he had talked up as reducing prices by 80 percent almost immediately.
The Order has three operative provisions.
The first requires the Secretary of Commerce to “to ensure foreign countries are not engaged in any act, policy, or practice that may be unreasonable or discriminatory or that may impair United States national security and that has the effect of forcing American patients to pay for a disproportionate amount of global pharmaceutical research and development, including by suppressing the price of pharmaceutical products below fair market value”.
The second requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to “facilitate direct-to-consumer purchasing programs for pharmaceutical manufacturers that sell their products to American patients at the most-favored-nation price”.
The third requires the Secretary within a month to “communicate most-favoured-nation price targets to pharmaceutical manufacturers to bring prices for American patients in line with comparably developed nations”.
If “significant progress towards most-favoured-nation pricing for American patients is not delivered”, then “the Secretary shall propose a rulemaking plan to impose most-favoured-nation pricing”.
The Huffington Post summed up the move under the headline “Trump announces sweeping plan to rein in drug prices by – figuring it out later”; while The New York Times reported “with no real policy, Trump asks drugmakers to lower US prices”.
In a sign of how effective the policy is likely to be, the share prices of US pharmaceutical companies increased following the Order’s release.
Consultations and inquiries
Here is our weekly list of requests by government bodies and parliamentary committees for responses to consultations or submissions to inquiries, arranged in order of submission deadlines. Please let us know if there are any to add for next week’s column.
Therapeutic Goods Administration
Proposed amendments to the Poisons Standard
21 May
Medical Radiation Practice Board of Australia
Professional capabilities for medical radiation practice
28 May
Ahpra
Revised National Prescribing Competencies Framework
30 May
Independent review of the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme
Second consultation paper
6 June
Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority
Consultation Paper on the Pricing Framework for Australian Public Hospital Services 2026–27
13 June
Therapeutic Goods Administration
Proposed amendments to the Poisons Standard
13 June
Paramedicine Board of Australia
Proposal to regulate advanced practice paramedics
20 June
Office of the Gene Technology Regulator
Risk Assessment and Risk Management Plan for a commercial release of a genetically modified (GM) mosquito strain to help prevent dengue outbreaks.
7 July
Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care
Australian Safety and Quality Medical Imaging Accreditation Scheme
18 July
Department of Health and Aged Care
Updating clinical guidelines for dementia care
31 December
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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