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

Senator STEELE-JOHN (Western Australia) (18:58): As I was saying earlier in relation to the Private Health Insurance (National Joint Replacement Register Levy) Amendment Bill 2025, many of us will know friends and family who have experienced a joint replacement and know what relief having a successful joint replacement can bring. Senator Whish-Wilson puts his thumb up there.

Anyone who wants to should ask him about his dicky hip and his experience with getting— Senator Whish-Wilson: I'm part cyborg now! Senator STEELE-JOHN: He's part cyborg, he says. I know personally as well that members of my family have had multiple hip replacements.

That has seen them take on a new lease of life. But very relevant to this bill, actually—and I don't think they'll mind me saying—my mum had an experience whereby she had hip dysplasia and needed a replacement for both hips. At least one of them, and probably both, was found to be deficient.

They were found to be defective replacement joints that required additional operations to resolve. It was an incredibly frustrating process, and, when I was reading through this legislation, it was interesting to discover a key part of the legislative framework that's actually designed to prevent and monitor those types of instances. I know, also, that many people who are living with daily pain, day in and day out, experience a level of challenge that many of us here can't imagine, and, in addition to that, face barriers in accessing and being able to afford joint replacement in a way that is timely.

Many in our community are facing long wait times, and our public hospital system simply cannot cope. This year, in my home state of WA, we are seeing category 2 and category 3 surgeries rescheduled because our hospital system is at breaking point. It is at breaking point, and, on many nights across our state, it actually breaks down.

You go into the EDs, and it is chaos. You see nurses and you see doctors doing their best in really difficult circumstances. You see patients in profound distress.

It is really quite traumatic to behold. I have been there in a professional capacity; I have been there sitting alongside friends and family members. It is awful.

It is not a situation that we should accept on behalf of the community in modern day Australia. Now, because the system is under so much pressure and because overworked emergency departments have become the norm, we are seeing people's vital surgeries be delayed and postponed. In a recent report, we learnt the story of Debby, a woman based in Albany, in regional WA, who had a double hip replacement cancelled twice.

I don't know if anyone that is left here in this chamber tonight has experienced anything like this. When you are going in for such a big operation it's one thing to stare down the barrel of the pain and the recovery from that, but it is a whole other thing to coordinate your life and your care and your support so that you can actually recover. So to have to put all that in place and then have it cancelled twice—the stress that would cause is unbelievable.

Debby was about to board a flight to Perth for the long-awaited surgery when she received a call from the hospital to say the operation had been indefinitely postponed. I love the community of Albany. I take every opportunity to reconnect with those members of my electorate, and I can tell you now that if you are taking the time to organise that flight it is very expensive.

It's not easy to pull off—not if you're struggling. To be, literally, about to get on board and then find out that it's not going ahead would cause you major stress and frustration. This was the second time the surgery had been delayed.

People are planning their lives around these surgery dates. Yet, because of an insufficient investment from federal and state governments, our hospitals are struggling, and it is people who are living in pain that are losing out. For those who have private health insurance, we see another story—report after report of people going down the journey of deciding with their medical doctors that a joint replacement surgery is the way to go.

Then, when they go to their private health insurer and say, 'Hello. I am covered for this procedure,' they turn around and say: 'No way. That request is denied.' People are paying through the nose for private health insurance.

Our government continues to hand out so much money to these private health insurers, yet when the private health insurance cards come out people seemingly have nothing to show for it. The Greens will be supporting this legislation. There is much work that remains to be done to ensure that people who need joint replacement surgery in this country can do so without fear of cost and without languishing in pain for months and for years.

Indeed there is much left to be done to make sure that if and when they finally get those replacement procedures they are able to be treated quickly and that they are able to recover safely in a hospital environment in which they are able to receive the care that they need—an environment in which the healthcare workers, the doctors and the allied health professionals that are central to that recovery are supported, are paid for their time and are enabled to practise and to develop their skill appropriately.

There is so much more to do to ensure that the recovery process for people who have joint replacement surgeries is one that succeeds for them, taking into account the differences they may experience given the environments they live in, their life goals and aspirations, and the stresses and strains on the rest of their bodies. It is so important to be able to work for the appropriate amount of time with a physio or an OT to regain your balance and to regain your strength.

It is so important to be able to take the time to recover properly, to be cared for properly and not to feel, as a patient, as though you're being forced out of the door because there is an urgent need for the bed. For the medical professional working with you, it is so important to feel supported, to give your time to your patient—each patient in turn as an individual—assessing their specific needs.

So, yes, there is much more to do. This bill, though small, is meaningful, and we will be supporting it. But I note that it occurs in a context in which there is much more work to do.