Wednesday, 8 March 2023

Ministers statements: women’s health

Daniel ANDREWS (Mulgrave – Premier) (14:27): I am very pleased to be able to rise to confirm for all members and all Victorians that on this International Women’s Day and every day our Labor government hears Victorian women, believes Victorian women and supports Victorian women. That is why we were so very pleased to be re-elected for a third term in such comprehensive terms only a few months ago, so that we can get on and deliver $5 million to support the creation of a women’s health research institute to know and understand and gather up wisdom and knowledge and build the case for real improvements – dramatic improvements potentially – as well as valuing our female clinicians and female researchers who have dedicated without proper acknowledgement so much of their expertise and time over such a long period of time. They deserve this focus, and this work will change and indeed potentially save lives.

We are also pleased to be able to provide a $3 million investment for an inquiry into women’s pain management – not something that has ever happened before. So often women are not believed. So often women are essentially dismissed by different parts of our health system, whether it be in primary care or in hospital care. We want to put an end to that, to better understand it and then do something about it. We are also going to open up 20 new women’s health clinics at public hospitals, because that is what women deserve – access to the best care in their local community. That is a profound investment in expanding access to those critical services.

There is $64.8 million to see the number of surgeries for endometriosis and associated conditions doubled. That and so many other initiatives, as part of the most comprehensive women’s health policy offering at any election in the history of this state – and I would say perhaps the country – was well supported by Victorian women. And do you know why? Because we invited women in to write that policy, women with lived experience, and they were presenting to a cabinet dominated by women in a government represented more than half by women on this International Women’s Day.