Tuesday, 28 October 2025

 David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (13:34): I want to draw attention today to the issues around palliative care. I have had this matter raised with me by a number of people in my electorate in recent days. In part that is due to the bill that is forthcoming, but in part it is due to the tightness of government spending on palliative care. What I seek from the Minister for Health is additional and clear funding for palliative care, because we have an ageing population – we have a population that is facing very significant challenges – and the state government appears to have not allowed palliative care to keep pace. This took on some new concern for me with the budget estimates report just coming through right now.

There is very clearly an expected outcome where there will be less palliative care funding in 2025–26 than there was in 2024–25. There is no proper breakdown of this figure, and I think that is a concern. It is a concern for those in my electorate who raise these issues with me, and there are a number of those in this recent context. The PAEC report blows the whistle on the state government’s lack of transparent reporting on palliative care – something very close to my heart.