Health Legislation Amendment (Improving Choice and Transparency for Private Health Consumers) Bill 2026
Mr GOSLING (Solomon) (18:50): I rise to speak to this health legislation amendment, but right from the outset I want to acknowledge your decades of service to improving the health of Australians, Deputy Speaker Freelander. In my humble opinion, you are a great Australian. The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Dr Freelander ): Well, thank you, Member for Solomon.
Mr GOSLING: I welcome the opportunity to speak about the achievements of our Albanese federal Labor government in relation to this legislation, improving choice and transparency for private health consumers and the many achievements of our government around health in my electorate of Solomon. The Health Legislation Amendment (Improving Choice and Transparency for Private Health Consumers) Bill 2026 represents the first significant step in taking action to address the impact of specialist fee charging and the consequential out-of-pocket costs for consumers.
It delivers on two election commitments: to expand ministerial scrutiny of premiums to provide assurance around the cost and value of private health insurance by driving more transparency on patient medical fees and a commitment to outlaw product phoenixing. The legislation further strengthens Medicare by helping Australians find the best value when they need specialist medical advice and treatment and provides more confidence in their private health insurance by outlawing, as I said, product phoenixing.
It will enable Australians to make more informed decisions about their health care and private health insurance. The proposed amendments will allow for the Medical Costs Finder website to publish individual medical practitioner fees and insurer out-of-pocket data for common medical services. Medical practitioners will no longer need to upload their billing information, as it will be drawn from Medicare, hospitals and insurer billing data already collected by our government.
The bill will also deliver on an election commitment to outlaw product phoenixing. This is where an insurer closes an existing product and opens an identical or similar new product at a higher premium or even reduces the value of the product without ministerial scrutiny. Product phoenixing behaviour was contributing to declining consumer confidence in private health insurance.
Currently, private health insurers are required to apply to the Minister for Health if they wish to change the premium for an existing product. The main requirement of the bill will be to amend the Private Health Insurance Act 2007 to require an insurer to seek ministerial approval for the premium charge for a proposed new product and where changes are made that reduce cover, a benefit or a term of conditions of an existing product.
According to the ABS, the cost of medical and hospital services is a key driver of health inflation for consumers, which feeds into higher out-of-pocket costs and higher private health insurance premiums. Fees can vary widely across specialists even for the same procedure in the same part of Australia. This bill will ensure that Australian patients will have the power to compare costs and make informed choices about their medical care while not imposing any administrative burden on our doctors.
The Albanese government's focus on strengthening Medicare has delivered on a range of commitments to benefit Territorians. The Darwin Medicare Urgent Care Clinic has opened near the airport, on Osgood Drive, just adjacent to the ice-skating rink. All Territorians know where that is.
It's a cool place! The clinic complements the existing Palmerston Medicare Urgent Care Clinic, which is one of the most successful in the nation. There have been close to 40,000 visits to the Palmerston Medicare Urgent Care Clinic since its opening in October 2023.
Last month's budget made our Medicare urgent care clinics permanent, providing funding certainty for the urgent care clinics in Darwin and Palmerston. These clinics provide walk-in care for urgent, non-emergency medical needs. They are open seven days a week.
Medicare-eligible patients are bulk-billed. No appointments are required in order to get the care you need when you need it. I've had so much positive feedback already about the urgent care clinic in Darwin, as I have for some time now around the one in Palmerston.
When it comes to aged care, which takes pressure off our Royal Darwin Hospital and Palmerston Regional Hospital, we've announced the successful tenderer for the 120- to 150-bed aged-care facility to serve Darwin and Palmerston—the rural area in the Top End. The not-for-profit Ozcare has been selected to build and operate this residential aged-care home. As I mentioned, it's going to, importantly, free up beds in our hospital system that are currently taken up by aged-care demands, when those senior Territorians should be in a more comfortable place in residential aged care.
Ozcare is a very experienced provider that has done a lot of work, particularly in Queensland, and it will make an enormous difference to the provision of health services and the provision of quality residential aged-care services in my electorate and in the NT generally. Our government has also delivered a once-in-a-generation change to bulk-billing, which means that more Territorians can see a doctor for free with no out-of-pocket expenses.
There are now 25 Medicare bulk-billing GP practices across Darwin and Palmerson, which is an increase of 17 clinics offering bulk-billing services since our changes came into place. More than 70 per cent of all local GP practices are now registered as Medicare bulk-billing practices. We've also launched services like 1800MEDICARE, helping keep people out of emergency departments.
Investments in the PBS will mean that Australians continue to benefit from life-changing medications at lower prices. We have capped PBS medicines at $25, saving Territorians real dollars. The Albanese Labor government's cheaper medicines reforms have already saved Australians more than $2.5 billion since 2022, and there have been more than 1.4 million cheaper scripts in my electorate, Darwin and Palmerston, under Labor's cheaper medicines policies, with two million across the Northern Territory.
We continue to add and amend medicine listings on the PBS, including for cystic fibrosis, chronic kidney disease, various cancers and much more. We've also put in place measures to increase childhood vaccination rates through an enhanced immunisation campaign—sending SMS reminders and growing the National Immunisation Program in our pharmacies. The Albanese Labor government has delivered record hospital funding for the Territory: $3.5 billion over five years from 2026-27, which is an additional—'additional' being the key word—$741 million over those five years.
This latest budget also announced $95.5 million over two years from 2026-27 for primary healthcare services in remote Northern Territory and a one-time fixed funding amount of $66 million in 2026-27 for the NT to address the challenges smaller jurisdictions face in delivering health services. As someone who, before politics, worked in the provision of health care in remote areas of the NT, I know this is all very good news for Territorians living in those regional areas.
We're also growing the health workforce to deliver more doctors and nurses than ever before, including the largest GP training program in Australian history and hundreds of scholarships for nurses and midwives to extend their skills and qualifications. We're also building the local Northern Territory long-term health workforce, with our own medical school opening at Charles Darwin University—housed in a brand-new building called Garrwa; its other name is the Better Health Futures Building—which is being funded by our government.
The first cohort of students commenced at Charles Darwin University Medical School in February, delivering a major boost to medical training and the doctor pipeline in the Northern Territory. This delivers on a plan to double permanent medical students in the NT to 200 by the year 2030, enhancing long-term staffing for hospitals like Royal Darwin Hospital. I also want to take this opportunity to acknowledge the long-time provision of a medical program by Flinders University, which partnered with the Menzies School of Health Research and CDU.
Labor is providing Australian women with more choice and better treatment at low cost, making contraceptives cheaper and funding more treatments for menopause. We're helping Australian women suffering from endometriosis and complex gynaecological conditions so that they have access to longer specialist consultations covered under Medicare. This includes funding an endo and pelvic pain clinic in Coconut Grove in Darwin, meaning that more Territory women can access the care they need closer to home.
The clinic provides expert multidisciplinary services and care for women with endometriosis and pelvic pain. Soon, Territory women will have better access to safe, affordable, long-acting, reversible contraception, or LARC, with the Northern Territory selected to host one of eight new LARC centres of excellence being established across Australia. Our government is investing $25.6 million to establish a national network of centres that will provide free advice, support and access to services such as IUDs and contraceptive implants delivered by skilled healthcare professionals at no cost to patients.
The centre will also provide outreach services and hands-on training for healthcare professionals, helping to increase access to long-acting contraception in regional and remote parts of the Northern Territory. The announcement builds on reforms introduced by our government on 1 November 2025 that made long-acting, reversible contraception more affordable through Medicare.
The Albanese Labor government recognises the complexity of issues that young people face and the demands within Darwin, the greater Darwin region and the Territory. Darwin headspace has been uplifted to the new headspace Plus, along with a youth specialist care centre in Darwin for young people with complex needs. The existing Darwin headspace centre will be upgraded over the coming period, and there will be a new centre in the NT for people with those very complex needs, whether it be psychotic disorders, personality disorders or complex eating disorders.
We need to do much better and provide more support in the Territory for young people and anyone dealing with those serious health challenges. The service in Darwin complements headspace in Palmerston, which provides young people with access to vital mental health support close to home. These services are open to young Territorians aged 12 to 25, and the centre offers mental health and related physical health, substance misuse and social and vocational support.
The Medicare mental health centre in Casuarina has also expanded its hours and provides a welcoming place for people to access mental health information services and supports from qualified professionals. Anyone can reach out for support for themselves, a loved one or a patient that they know about. It's free and no appointment or referral is needed.
It's truly a great service that's available to anyone in the Northern Territory. The Australian government provided $30 million to build acute mental health service capacity in the Top End. Royal Darwin Hospital's brand new mental health inpatient unit with a stabilisation, assessment and referral area will bolster capacity at the hospital and provide a more therapeutic environment for mental health patients.
The new three-level building houses the mental health inpatient unit, with 18 inpatient beds, support services and a six-bed stabilisation, assessment and referral area also known as SARA. The Albanese Labor government also delivered a $27 million operational cyclotron for local cancer care, producing locally made radioisotopes for PET scans. This was something I campaigned for, for many years because for a long period of time we were getting our radioisotopes made interstate.
There was a long air journey, which reduces the half-life, and locally made is the way to go. We're very proud of our centre there. The Albanese Labor government has also delivered on a permanent home for the Darwin veterans' and families' hub, providing $5 million to build the centre to help support the 10,000 veterans and families in the Northern Territory.
In the not-too-distant future we will be establishing some veteran accommodation as well in my electorate—all aimed, as all of our veterans improvements are, in improving the health and wellbeing of our veterans who have served our nation. I commend this legislation to the House.