Thursday, 2 April 2026

 Roma BRITNELL (South-West Coast) (09:49): The Allan Labor government claims it is improving access to women’s health, but for women in south-west Victoria, the reality tells a very different story. We hear the announcements and see the glossy brochures, yet the lived experience exposes a widening gap between propaganda and reality. Take Marie from Portland. After noticing changes in her health, she travelled hundreds of kilometres to Melbourne to attend the Jean Hailes foundation menopause clinic, a nationally respected leader in women’s health. Like many rural patients, she relied upon the Victorian patient transport assistance scheme, which is meant to help and support those forced to travel to specialist care. But Marie was deemed ineligible because – get this – menopause specialists are not recognised under the scheme. Why? Because eligibility is still tied to an outdated definition from the Health Insurance Act 1973, legislation more than 50 years old. Our understanding of women’s health has evolved, but the system has not. This is the Premier’s contradiction – a government claiming to modernise women’s health while relying on policies that fail to recognise it. Recent reports confirm what regional communities already know: services are harder to access, costs are higher and support systems do not reflect the reality outside Melbourne. If this government is serious, it must move beyond announcements and update the rules that determine access, because rural women’s healthcare should not depend on where they live.