Private Health Insurance (National Joint Replacement Register Levy) Amendment Bill 2025

Mr FRENCH (Moore) (18:28): When Australians talk about health care, they talk about trust—trust that, when something goes wrong, the system is there and trust that, if your hip goes or your knee gives out, you won't be left behind because of your bank balance. It might sound technical, but it goes to the heart of trust in our healthcare system. When someone in my electorate of Moore gets a hip or knee replaced, they are putting their faith in a device and in the system that keeps that device safe.

That system rests on one of Australia's quiet achievements: the National Joint Replacement Registry, or the NJRR. The NJRR collects data from every hospital performing joint replacement surgery—hips, knees, shoulders, elbows, wrists, ankles and even spinal discs. It tells us what works, what fails and what lasts.

It helps surgeons choose the best implants, and regulators remove poor performers. It is practical Australian ingenuity—data saving lives. And the funding mechanism that keeps it alive matters enormously.

The Private Health Insurance (National Joint Replacement Register Levy) Amendment Bill 2025 keeps that funding certain, lawful and fair. It's a clean, precise amendment to fix a legal gap in the 2009 levy act, ensuring the right people pay—the companies responsible for the medical devices on the prescribed list, not hospitals or patients. I'll now run through the detail.

Schedule 1, part 1, 'Amendments', is the engine room. It replaces the outdated references to the 'sponsor' of a device with a clearer rule—the person specified in the rules made under section 8 pays the levy. That lets the minister, through the Private Health Insurance (Medical Devices and Human Tissue Products) Rules, define who precisely is liable: the company responsible at the time the levy is imposed.

Items 1 to 3 tidy up definitions to match the renamed prescribed list rules and scrap redundant language. Together, these items modernise the law to match modern corporate reality, because companies merge, rebrand and sell their product lines, and the law needs to keep up. That's how you ensure cost recovery lands where it should—on those who profit, not those who heal.

Item 4 locks that fairness in place. Schedule 1, part 2, 'Application of amendments and validation of payment of certain levies', is equally vital. It confirms that the new definition applies going forward, and it validates past collections to remove any shadow of a doubt.

Item 5 ensures that the new framework applies from commencement. Item 6 ensures that every levy already collected is deemed lawful. That protects the registry from legal challenge and keeps its funding stable.

That's not paperwork. That's peace of mind, because the registry isn't a line item; it's a lifeline. Joondalup Health Campus in my electorate of Moore is one of WA's major orthopaedic surgery hubs.

Hundreds of joint replacement operations take place there each year. Behind every operation is data—data that tells surgeons which prosthetics last 20 years and which ones fail after two. That evidence saves lives and limbs.

Clause by clause, this bill keeps that quiet success story running. Legislation always reveals values. Labor governments build systems that serve people.

The Liberals let them rust while they argue and delay. This bill reflects the Labor instinct—fix the detail before it fails, and get the framework right so the system stays steady. That is how you govern for the long term.

The opposition may just call it just technical. Tell that to a patient whose revision surgery was avoided because the registry flagged a fault in time. Tell that to the surgeon who didn't implant a defective device because the data was there.

In healthy policy, the technicalities save lives. The NJRR was built by Labor, the levy framework was legislated by Labor, and this bill once again fixes the system Labor put in place to protect patients. We organise it, we fund it and we keep it lawful.

This bill also reflects consultation and fairness. The Department of Health and Aged Care consulted the Australian Orthopaedic Association and the Medical Technology Association of Australia. Surgeons supported the bill.

Some manufacturers may grumble. No-one loves paying a levy, but fairness means everyone carries their share. If your company earns from devices implanted in Australians, you should help fund the system that helps keep them safe.

That's the deal. Clause by clause, this bill re-anchors that principle. The person responsible for the device pays—not the patient, not the taxpayer and not the public hospital but the manufacturer, the supplier, the beneficiary of profit.

That's cost recovery done right. It's a small bill with a big moral centre. It says to Australians, 'Your government minds the details so you can trust the system.' It says, 'Your surgery will be safer because the data stays flowing.' It's the legislative equivalent of routine maintenance, invisible until the day you need it.

Item 4 defines who pays, item 5 applies the rule and item 6 validates the path. Together they keep the registry funded, lawful and futureproof. That's what competent government looks like.

In my electorate, you see the impact. In Kingsley and Padbury, tradespeople rely on new knees to get back to work. In Duncraig and Carine, older Australians depend on strong hips to stay independent.

In Mullaloo and Ocean Reef, grandparents want to walk grandkids to the beach. Those are the lives quietly improved by this bill, because when Canberra gets the detail wrong people pay for it in the suburbs. When the previous government ignored details, we got robodebt—a masterclass in arrogance that shattered lives.

When they ignored accountability, we got a Prime Minister secretly swearing himself into multiple ministries. When they ignored maintenance, we got systems that broke and so people suffered. Labor governs differently.

We fix the detail before it becomes a disaster. Clause 5, the application provision, means the new rule applies from the day the amendment takes effect. From the next levy cycle onward, every company responsible for a listed device will pay properly—no confusion, no wiggle room, no legal gymnastics.

It's certainty for business and stability for the registry. Clause 6, the validation clause, does something quietly powerful. It safeguards the public interest by ensuring every previous levy payment stands lawful.

No-one can exploit a technical loophole to demand refunds or derail the registry. It tells industry that the rules are clear. It tells taxpayers that the system you've relied on remains solid.

That's what good law looks like. It doesn't make headlines, but it makes hospitals work, it makes data flow, it makes surgery safer. Some on the opposition benches may dismiss this as technical, but there is nothing boring about safer surgeries or laws that work as intended.

Competence may not make headlines, but it saves lives. And we've seen what chaos looks like. For nine years, the Liberals were too busy fighting each other to fix the machinery of government.

They left good programs half-written, reviews half-implemented, accountability half-existent. They had the registry, they had the levy and they had the chance to modernise it. And what did they do?

Nothing. They left the gap sitting there, unfixed. They left the definition of 'sponsor' frozen in time while companies merged and the market moved on.

They left regulators exposed to legal uncertainty. And now, as always, Labor is cleaning up the mess. This bill isn't glamorous, but it's vital.

It says to patients, 'We've got your back.' It says to industry, 'Play fair and you'll have stability.' It says to regulators, 'The law now reflects reality.' That's modern government. It's not slogans and it's not scare campaigns, just steady delivery. The explanatory memorandum notes that the passage is needed by 1 March 2026 to allow levy recovery in the 2025-26 financial year, so this parliament must act and act promptly.

Delay would risk interrupting the funding base of one of the world's most successful health registries. Australia's population is ageing rapidly. By 2030, one in five Australians will be over 65, and demand for joint replacements will surge.

These procedures are not elective luxuries. They restore independence, reduce falls and keep older Australians active in their communities. Every dollar spent keeping the registry strong is a dollar that prevents expensive revision surgeries later.

This bill is forward planning, ensuring the cost-recovery model can sustain the registry as the need for data, transparency and safety grows. It's an investment in dignity as well as efficiency. The NJRR isn't just an Australian success; it's a global model.

Nations like Sweden, the UK and Canada have built their own systems on its example. Our registry's data helps surgeons everywhere improve their practice. That's something Australians can be proud of, a quiet export of expertise.

The Australian Orthopaedic Association supports the bill. They know its value. The Medical Technology Association of Australia is less enthusiastic, because clarity brings accountability.

But accountability is the price of trust. If you profit from devices inside Australians, you contribute to the system that keeps them safe. That's the social contract in practice.

The bill fit squarely in Labor's philosophy of partnership. It complements the health minister's broader agenda—transparency, collaboration with clinicians and results over ideology. That's not radical, that's responsible.

This bill speaks to a personal truth for me. I stand here because of a kidney transplant. I know what it's like to rely on a health system that works, to trust that the data, the devices and the coordination all function when you need them most.

When I read a bill like this, I don't see bureaucracy. I see reassurance—reassurance that the system that saved me is being kept strong for others. That's why I take so-called technical bills seriously, because they are anything but.

Australians expect their governments to mind the store. They expect competence, clarity and care. That's exactly what this bill delivers.

It might never make the nightly news, but it will make for safer surgeries, stronger hospitals and steadier trust. In Moore, that means people recovering faster. It means fewer revision surgeries at Joondalup Health Campus.

It means more grandparents back on their feet, more workers back on the job and more confidence in Medicare's wider system of care. That's good government. It's the difference between noise and results, slogans and systems, politics and progress.

The opposition had nine years to fix this and didn't. Labor saw a gap and fixed it in one. That's the story of Australian politics in miniature.

We build; they bluster. Let me finish where I began, with trust. Trust in our health system is not automatic.

It is earned through decades of quiet, careful work. It's preserved by governments that take the responsibility seriously. It is embodied in bills like this one—precise, purposeful and practical.

So when Australians in Moore or anywhere else go in for surgery they can do so knowing their government has done its job, that the registry monitoring their implants is funded, lawful and future proofed, that the companies profiting from medical devices are paying their fair share and that the system behind the scenes is working as it should. It reminds us why Labor governs the way it does, with attention to detail, respect for expertise and faith in collective care.

It's because that's the foundation of a modern, fair nation. It's a government that notices the small things so citizens can dream about the big ones. That's good policy, that's good government, and that's the Labor difference.

I commend the bill to the House. Question agreed to. Bill read a second time.