Ms WELLS (Lilley—Minister for Sport and Minister for Communications) (12:02): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Introduction

Triple 0 is the most critical service in our telecommunications system.

It is the number Australians call in their most desperate moment of need, when lives and safety are on the line.

Australians should trust that when they call triple 0 someone will answer and help will come.

But repeated failures by Optus in recent years, through which thousands of emergency calls failed to connect and lives were lost, has compromised that trust.

The Albanese government will always work to protect Australians, and we will hold those who fail to deliver their obligations to full account.

Optus—and all telecommunications carriers—have no excuses for triple 0 outages.

While the Australian Communications and Media Authority's independent investigation into the most recent incident continues, today I introduce the Telecommunications Legislative Amendment (Triple Zero Custodian and Emergency Calling Powers) Bill 2025.

What's happened so far

From the moment a person dials triple 0 into their phone, a chain of actions is set in motion.

The call passes through carriers, infrastructure owners and the emergency call person before finally landing with the relevant state and territory emergency service, who dispatch potentially life-saving resources.

And while telco outages may occur, the law is clear: carriers must always make sure that triple 0 calls still connect by being redirected to alternate mobile towers or infrastructure.

Despite this requirement, the Bean review found that a lack of overarching accountability over many years left the system vulnerable when coordination broke down.

That is why, in March this year, the Albanese government established the Triple Zero Custodian in the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts.

So far, the custodian has worked closely with industry to understand the gaps in the triple 0 system.

Alongside the custodian, the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman has led a steering committee of industry, government and consumer representatives to establish a longer-term triple 0 custodian model.

I thank the participants in that steering committee for their contribution to this incredibly important work.

This bill cements into law the powers and functions of the existing triple 0 custodian, to strengthen the resilience and oversight of the triple 0 system.

And it builds on critical industry standards starting on 1 November.

From 1 November, telecommunications carriers will have to provide real-time reporting of outages to ACMA and to emergency services.

They will also have to test triple 0 during upgrades and maintenance, and ensure calls fall back to other networks if needed.

And within six months of the commencement of this bill, the custodian, through ACMA, will issue additional performance requirements to telcos to ensure best practice.

Telco providers know under the law they must provide reliable access to triple 0—that is their legal obligation.

That's why this morning I met with the CEOs of Optus, Telstra and TPG/Vodafone ahead of the approaching natural disaster season.

There are no excuses and I made that crystal clear earlier today.

Schedule 1—main amendments

Turning to the specifics of this bill, schedule 1 amends the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999 to put the custodian on a statutory footing and equip ACMA with targeted powers.

Under these amendments, ACMA may issue directions to carriers, carriage service providers and emergency call persons.

These directions may require critical information to be provided, such as technical details of an outage, policies and processes affecting triple 0, or restoration plans.

They may also require specific actions to be taken, such as consulting with other stakeholders, sharing information with an emergency service organisation, or improving procedures to prevent a repeat failure.

During an outage event, where the custodian or ACMA reasonably believes access to triple 0 may be affected, ACMA can compel timely information on the outage's nature, scale, impacts and restoration.

Information gathered by ACMA will be provided to the custodian in a timely manner.

The custodian will use this material to support its ongoing, systemwide oversight of triple 0.

ACMA will also provide advice and analysis to the custodian to assist in identifying risks and improving preparedness across the ecosystem.

This arrangement strengthens ACMA as an active participant in triple 0, while maintaining the custodian as the central coordination and oversight function within the department.

The bill also establishes rules for the use and disclosure of custodian information.

This framework allows information to be shared with emergency service organisations, regulators and other relevant bodies to remediate problems before they cause crisis, and to respond during an outage of the triple 0 system.

Schedule 1 requires ACMA to report every six months to the minister on use of the new powers, with a copy provided to the custodian.

The minister may also cause a review of the custodian's effectiveness within two years of commencement. These provisions reinforce accountability and provide the flexibility to refine the framework over time.

For constitutional reasons, the powers of direction contained in the bill do not extend to state and territory emergency services organisations.

However, it is my expectation that the custodian will work constructively with the states and territories, to ensure the appropriate transfer of information.

Schedule 2—consequential amendments

Schedule 2 makes consequential amendments to the Telecommunications Act 1997.

It confirms ACMA's investigation pathway where matters are referred by the custodian and establishes civil penalties for contraventions of custodian directions.

This aligns with the penalty settings of other enforcement tools across the telecommunications regulatory framework and reinforces the seriousness of compliance.

Schedule 3—technical updates to emergency services references

Schedule 3 of the bill updates references to 'emergency services' so that the term is consistently defined across telecommunications legislation.

C onclusion

This bill acts on the lessons of past service disruptions by establishing into law the powers and functions of the Triple Zero Custodian.

It provides the Commonwealth with a permanent mechanism to oversee emergency call services, both during outages and in business-as-usual operations.

It will also give the ACMA the tools it needs to be proactive and forward leaning in pursuing a resilient, reliable emergency call service for the benefit of all Australians.

Going forward, I will repeat for the record what I said to the CEOs of Optus, Telstra and TPG before walking into this chamber.

The Albanese government is committed to making the triple 0 system better and more reliable for Australians.

Legislating a triple 0 custodian will help—but there is no silver bullet solution for corporate failure.

If a telco fails Australians—like Optus did—they will face significant consequences.

There is no excuse.

I commend the bill to the House.

Debate adjourned.

The SPEAKER (12:12): In accordance with the resolution agreed to earlier, the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2025-2026 and related appropriation bills stand referred to the Federation Chamber, and further consideration of this bill is made an order of the day for a later hour.

Mr WALLACE (Fisher) (12:12): On behalf of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, I present the following reports: Review of the listing of Terrorgram as a terrorist organisation under the Criminal Code and Advisory report on the Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025.

Reports made parliamentary papers in accordance with standing order 39(e).

Mr WALLACE: by leave—I rise today to present a report on behalf of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security for a review of the listing of Terrorgram as a terrorist organisation under the Criminal Code. Organisations can be listed under the Criminal Code, provided the minister is satisfied on reasonable grounds that the organisations are directly or indirectly engaged in terrorism or advocates the doing of a terrorist act. On 27 June 2025, the Minister for Home Affairs announced that the Australian government had listed Terrorgram, also known as Terrorgram Collective, as a terrorist organisation under the Criminal Code.

The committee's review examines the minister's decision to list this organisation. Section 102.1A of the Criminal Code provides that the committee may review a regulation which lists an organisation as a terrorist organisation and report its comments and recommendations to each House of the parliament at any time. In determining whether the regulations listing this organisation should be supported, the committee reviewed the merits of the listing with regard to the Minister for Home Affairs's explanatory statement and statement of reasons for the listing and other publicly available information. The committee also received a private briefing on the organisation from the Department of Home Affairs.

The statement of reasons makes clear that Terrorgram is a nationalist and racist violent extremist organisation comprising a group of persons who use a network of various online channels based primarily on the online messaging application Telegram. Terrorgram's leaders and members create and distribute propaganda with the intent to inspire terrorist attacks on minority groups, critical infrastructure and specific individuals they deem to be against their values. The organisation advocates for and provides instructions on how to conduct terrorist attacks and has successfully inspired a number of terrorist attacks in the United States, Europe and Asia. The decentralised and encrypted online environment of Terrorgram allows the organisation to operate internationally with few barriers and with membership relatively easily attainable for Australians. A key concern is Terrorgram's frequent promotion and praise of the 2019 Christchurch terrorist attack and perpetrator, which it uses as a propaganda tool to radicalise potential members, advocate terrorist actions and spread its violent extremist ideology.

The nature of this organisation is unconventional for a terrorist organisation as it is a decentralised, non-hierarchical network that primarily operates in online spaces. However, the committee is satisfied with the Australian government's assessment that Terrorgram is a distinct organisation with identifiable members and leadership figures. On the basis of the information available to it, the committee agrees with the Australian government's assessment that the organisation known as Terrorgram advocates the doing of a terrorist act. The committee is satisfied that the appropriate process has been followed and that the listing has been properly made. The committee therefore supports the listing of Terrorgram under division 102 of the Criminal Code in order to protect Australians and Australia's interests and finds no reason to disallow the regulations.

I also rise to present a report on behalf of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security for its review of the Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025. The bill amends the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979, the Surveillance Devices Act 2004 and the Crimes Act 1914 with the objective of ensuring key provisions operate as intended and supporting the proper administration of government, law enforcement, national security and criminal justice processes.

The bill consists of five schedules. Schedule 1 would permit network activity warrant information to be used, communicated and recorded to meet disclosure obligations or to be admitted in evidence where necessary to ensure a defendant is afforded a fair trial or to respond to any such information admitted by the defence. Schedule 2 would transfer the statutory function of the communications access coordinator from the Secretary of the Attorney-General's Department to the Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs. Schedule 3 would permit limited access to stored communications to allow agencies to undertake development and testing activities. Schedule 4 would address a technical issue with the operation of interception international production orders that has prevented orders from being given to US based prescribed communication providers in certain circumstances. Schedule 5 would clarify the threshold for authorising and varying controlled operations and, subsequently, the circumstances in which a participant is protected from criminal responsibility and indemnified against civil liability. The committee received five submissions to its review of the bill, most of which expressed support for it, in whole or in part.

These are technical but important amendments intended not to create entirely new laws or powers but to clarify existing obligations and ensure the workability of particular provisions within the telecommunications laws that enable the crucial work of our national security agencies. The committee has recommended that the bill be passed without amendment. I commend both reports to the House.

The SPEAKER (12:19): I have received advice from the Chief Government Whip, nominating members to be members and participating members of certain committees, as well as from Dr M Ryan.

Mr RAE (Hawke—Minister for Aged Care and Seniors) (12:19): by leave—I move:

That:

(1) Ms Payne be discharged from the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade and the Joint Standing Committee on the National Capital and External Territories;

(2) Dr M Ryan be discharged from the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights;

(3) Mr Burnell be appointed a member of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters;

(4) Ms Scrymgour be appointed a member of the Joint Standing Committee on the National Capital and External Territories; and

(5) Ms Scrymgour and Ms Urquhart be appointed participating members of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters for the purpose of the committee's inquiry into the 2025 federal election.

Question agreed to.

Mr TAYLOR (Hume) (12:20): I rise to speak on the Health Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures No. 1) Bill 2025. The coalition acknowledges the intent of this bill, which contains a number of technical amendments to improve the efficiency of several important elements of our health system, including the allocation of Medicare provider numbers, the assignment of Medicare benefits processes and improvements to the private health insurance premiums reduction scheme. It also makes amendments to the Bonded Medical Program, with the aim of ensuring that penalties for noncompliance are fair and proportionate, particularly in light of the serious workforce shortages facing our healthcare system. The measures in this bill are intended to tidy up existing legislation, streamline administration and make sure the rules governing Medicare payments and bonded medical placements are clear and consistent. These are sensible objectives, and on that basis the coalition will not stand in the way of this bill in the House.

However, we will be seeking further information and scrutiny on this bill through a Senate inquiry, particularly in relation to the implications of the proposed changes to the Bonded Medical Program and the assignment of Medicare benefits for bulk-billing and simplified billing arrangements. We have significant unanswered questions that we believe it is important to seek answers to. It's vital these measures do not create unintended consequences or additional administrative burden for our hardworking health professionals, because right now it is undeniable that primary health care is in crisis under this government.

At the last election, we saw the Prime Minister wave around his Medicare card at every photo opportunity, declaring that under his government all you need is your Medicare card, not your credit card. He said that Australians can see a GP for free under Labor. He made that promise at least 71 times during the campaign. But the truth, confirmed by his own department, is very different. A Department of Health, Disability and Ageing briefing obtained under freedom of information revealed that a quarter of GP clinics across Australia will not bulk-bill. This means millions of Australians still need their credit card as well as their Medicare card when they visit a doctor. Now the Minister for Health and Ageing is desperately trying to walk it all back, saying that Labor never said there would be 100 per cent bulk-billing. Well, the Prime Minister certainly did say that. He looked Australians in the eye and said, 'One card covers it all—not your credit card but your Medicare card.'

But today Australians are paying the price for the Albanese Labor government's disingenuous approach to Medicare. Whilst the Prime Minister was out there waving his Medicare card, Australian families were paying a combined $166 million in out-of-pocket costs at the GP during a month of the campaign, May 2025, alone. In the past year, Australians have paid over $2 billion out of pocket to see a GP—$2 billion charged to their credit cards, not covered by their Medicare cards. That is the Prime Minister's $2 billion lie. Since Labor was elected, Australians are now paying 75 per cent more out of their own pocket to see a doctor—so much for 'free to see a GP'!

Labor promised to strengthen Medicare, but it has only been weakened. Since the Albanese government came to power, the bulk-billing has fallen from 88 per cent to 77 per cent. That's 40 million fewer bulk-billed GP visits in the past year alone. Medicare mental health funding has been slashed in half, and, despite all of Labor's false promises and misleading rhetoric, Australians are now paying the highest average out-of-pocket costs on record to see a GP. That is the stark reality of Labor's primary care crisis. More than 1.5 million Australians said last year they avoided seeing a GP because of cost concerns. That's 1½ million people forced to make a difficult decision about their health, a decision no Australian should have to make, because of Labor's primary healthcare crisis.

While Australian families are struggling to afford to go to their doctor, the Prime Minister seems completely out of touch, more interested in political stunts than in ensuring all Australians actually have timely and affordable access to essential health care. Nowhere is Labor's neglect clearer than in mental health. When Labor tore away Medicare subsidised mental health sessions from 372,000 vulnerable Australians, it ignored the advice of its own review and the pleas of mental health experts right across the country. Since that cruel cut, access to Medicare mental health support has fallen to its lowest level in at least a decade, right at the time when demand has never been higher. Labor has cut Medicare mental health sessions in half, abolished the Mental Health Commission and even ripped away the Suicide Prevention Research Fund. Their neglect of mental health is so significant that the former chair of Mental Health Australia was forced to resign in frustration at the government's inaction. This is not the record of a government strengthening Medicare or supporting Australians' health and wellbeing. It is the record of a government that says one thing and does another.

Under the coalition, Medicare funding increased every single year, from $18.6 billion back in 2012-13 under Labor to more than $30 billion in 2021-22. Bulk-billing rose consistently through our term in office to a record of more than 88 per cent when we left government. In our final year, Australians received 167 million free GP visits, which is 61 million more than under the previous Labor government. That's the coalition's record—delivering affordable, quality health care.

So, while the coalition acknowledge the technical objectives of this bill to ensure efficiency in several elements of our health system, we will not let the government use it as a smokescreen for its broader failures. We condemn the Albanese government's broken promises and appalling record on Medicare. Australians deserve a government that tells them the truth, not one that waves around a Medicare card while forcing families to reach for their credit cards. The coalition remains firmly focused on ensuring that all Australians can access timely, affordable and quality health care, no matter where they live.

Ms BRISKEY (Maribyrnong) (12:27): I am thrilled to again be contributing in this place on our Labor government's commitment to Medicare. Medicare and universal access to health care are core to who we are as a Labor government. This legislation, the Health Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures No. 1) Bill 2025, is another important step in ensuring Medicare remains strong, accessible and ready for the future. It will help us deliver more bulk-billing, faster access to doctors, simpler billing systems and fairer treatment for medical graduates and overseas trained practitioners so that Australians can get the care that they need when they need it and while only needing their Medicare card.

Medicare is who we are as a country. It's one of our nation's greatest achievements, built on our Australian values of fairness, equity and compassion. It's why our government is determined to strengthen Medicare, to make it easier and affordable to see your doctor, to support our healthcare workforce and to keep bulk-billing strong across every part of our community. This legislation makes important, practical changes across the health system to help deliver a stronger Medicare, including more bulk-billing, faster access to provider numbers and better systems that will help doctors spend less time on paperwork and more time with their patients. This bill is a key part of the Albanese Labor government's ongoing commitment to not just strengthen Medicare but safeguard it now and into the future.

After a decade of coalition neglect and frozen rebates that resulted in a rapid decline in bulk-billing and a healthcare workforce stretched to breaking point, Labor is doing the work to fix it, building a stronger, fairer and more modern Medicare. One of the most important parts of this bill tackles one of the biggest barriers that affect our healthcare workforce: the slow processing of Medicare provider numbers. When a new doctor, including an overseas trained practitioner, seeks to practise under Medicare, they have to apply for a Medicare provider number. It's a process that's still partly manual, often slow and frustratingly bureaucratic. The Kruk review found that overseas trained doctors can wait up to three months for a provider number to start work. These delays result in months of lost care for patients, and in some areas clinics struggle to keep up with demand.

This bill fixes that. It implements recommendation 2 of the independent Kruk review into Australia's regulatory settings for overseas health practitioners: to automate and streamline the issuing of provider numbers. Under these changes, the Chief Executive Medicare will be able to approve computer programs to automatically issue Medicare provider numbers for straightforward non-discretionary cases. That means that, when a practitioner meets all the eligibility criteria, their provider number can be issued quickly, efficiently and without unnecessary human delay. Importantly, any refusals or complex cases will still be reviewed by a human officer, ensuring accountability and fairness. We'll also validate all provider numbers previously issued by automated systems so there's legal certainty and no risk to practitioners who've already been approved.

In my local community, these changes mean doctors joining busy practices in Essendon, Moonee Ponds and Keilor East can start seeing patients sooner, reducing wait times and keeping care close to home. Just under a quarter of my electorate are aged over 65, a group that naturally requires more frequent access to health care as they age. These reforms will make a real difference for them, as well as for busy young families and students balancing study and part-time work, by giving everyone faster, easier access to the care that they need. By streamlining approvals and boosting bulk-billing, this bill helps local clinics operate more efficiently and focus on what matters: their patients. It means more appointments, more services and better care for every family across my community and right across Australia. This reform brings Medicare into the digital age and makes the system more efficient.

Simpler, faster and more reliable—that is what this legislation seeks to achieve by modernising the way private health insurance rebates are processed. Private health insurance plays an important role in supporting Australia's universal healthcare system. It gives Australians more choice and flexibility, helping people access the elective surgeries, specialist care and hospital services they need while reducing pressure on our public hospitals. At the same time, it works hand in hand with Medicare, ensuring that everyone continues to have access to essential care regardless of income. Every year, the Australian government reimburses insurers over $7 billion to ensure the private health insurance rebate is applied fairly and accurately to consumers' premiums. This rebate helps to keep private health insurance affordable for millions of Australians. When we came to government, we inherited a system that was inconsistent, error prone and woefully outdated. That is why we are seeking to modernise it.

This bill aligns registration with Services Australia systems, introduces self-assessment for insurers, ensures overpayments can be recovered even if errors occur and allows computer assisted decision-making and the approval of forms by the Chief Executive Medicare. This legislation provides reassurance for local families in Maribyrnong, from young couples taking out their first policy to older residents managing chronic conditions. It's about ensuring that private health insurance remains affordable, reliable and accessible, giving people peace of mind that they can access the services they need. By streamlining the rebate process and improving efficiency of claims, the bill ensures that all insurers can pass on these benefits directly to their policyholders, reducing out-of-pocket costs and making coverage more predictable.

These reforms go beyond the technical fixes. They're about delivering real benefits for working people, reducing stress and ensuring Australians can get what they are entitled to under the law. That is what good government does. It identifies problems, consults experts and implements smart legislative fixes, rather than ignoring problems for years and leaving billions of dollars in rebate payments vulnerable to error or inconsistency.

Another key part of this bill is how Medicare benefits are assigned under bulk-billing and simplified billing. Right now, patients assign their Medicare benefit to their doctor, who then receives the rebate from the government. It's a system that has worked for decades, but it still relies on old paper-based processes that can slow things down. Earlier this year, the Health Insurance Legislation Amendment (Assignment of Medicare Benefits) Act 2024 laid the groundwork for digital assignment, making it faster and easier for doctors and patients alike. But, before we flip the switch, we need to make sure Medicare practices, software providers and Services Australia are ready. That's why this bill delays the start of the new rules until 1 July 2026. This is a responsible move, giving everyone time to prepare, avoiding disruption, protecting patients' ability to bulk-bill and making sure bulk-billing software works smoothly.

While we get ready for the digital future, Labor is investing today. Our $7.9 billion bulk-billing initiative, kicking off in November, will mean local GPs can see more patients, help more families and keep costs down. Just last week, I welcomed the Minister for Health and Ageing, Mark Butler, to Maribyrnong to visit the Moonee Ponds Super Clinic, on Hall Street. We spoke with the practice manager and local doctors about what these new changes will mean on the ground. They told us how the government's new bulk-billing incentives will help them see more patients, keep their doors open for longer and make sure that cost is never a barrier to care. They confirmed they will be moving to become a fully bulk-billing service because of our initiative.

You can feel the difference this investment will make, not just for the clinics but for families right across my electorate. In Maribyrnong, around 27 per cent of people live with a long-term health condition that requires regular care and support. That's more than one in four people who rely on strong, accessible primary health care—people managing diabetes, heart conditions, asthma and other chronic illnesses and who can't avoid delays or pay high out-of-pocket costs. That is why we're strengthening Medicare and that's why it matters so deeply to communities like mine. Your health is personal, and looking after it can be stressful. The last thing anyone needs is a system that makes it harder to get the help that they need. Whether it's at the Moonee Ponds Super Clinic or your local GP practices, across Kensington through to Gladstone Park, this is about making Medicare work for everyone—faster claims, fairer systems and less time on paperwork.

Schedule 4 reforms the Bonded Medical Program, ensuring fairness while keeping communities covered. The coalition imposed a six-year Medicare ban for doctors who failed to meet their obligations. Not only was this harsh and unfair, but it was also counterproductive. That policy risked depriving regional, rural and outer suburban communities of critical health services. Once again, Labor is fixing their mess.

This bill delivers three key changes that make the Bonded Medical Program fairer, more flexible and more effective. Under the old system, if a doctor could not finish their service obligation, they were punished twice: forced to repay their scholarship and then banned from billing Medicare for six years. It was harsh, it was unfair and it made no sense. That ban didn't just hurt the doctor; it hurt Australians as it meant fewer bulk-billing services were available. By removing that blunt penalty, we're keeping fairness and accountability in place without cutting our communities off from the care they need.

Many bonded doctors have already spent years working in our rural, regional and outer metropolitan communities, yet, under the old rules, that effort often did not count toward their obligations. This bill changes that. It ensures that the work done in the spirit of the program is properly recognised.

We know medical training is demanding and that personal circumstances can change. Extending the grace period gives students more time to decide whether the program is right for them, supporting a smoother transition into the workforce and reducing unnecessary stress during study. This flexibility helps us attract more students into medicine, especially those who want to give back to their communities, without trapping them in unfair or unrealistic conditions.

These reforms also send a clear message to doctors and healthcare workers: your contribution is valued, and we recognise the hard work you do. By removing punitive barriers and providing fairer conditions, the program encourages more young doctors to enter the workforce and consider service in areas that need it the most. It helps retain skilled practitioners, reduces burnout and ensures our health system is staffed with dedicated professionals who can provide the high-quality care every Australian deserves.

Labor understands that the strength of our healthcare system depends on the people who keep it running—our doctors, nurses, allied health professionals and the support staff who show up every day for the communities they serve. Strengthening the workforce today means stronger, more reliable health care for communities tomorrow. The Bonded Medical Program is about building a pipeline of skilled and passionate doctors across the country, from our biggest cities to our smallest towns. It incentivises service in areas of need, supports workforce planning and ensures that every Australian, no matter where they live, can see a doctor when they need to.

What this bill shows is Labor in action, delivering reforms that build on our promise to strengthen Medicare: faster onboarding of doctors; stronger support for private health insurance and rebates; modern, digital, simplified bulk-billing processes; and fairer rules for bonded medical graduates. For a decade, those opposite were focused more on the culture wars than on keeping our healthcare system running. When it comes to Medicare, they don't see green and gold; they see stars and stripes. They see Medicare American style: no bulk-billing, harsh penalties for healthcare workers and Australians paying more for the treatment they need. We are determined to fix their mistakes and keep our promise to strengthen Medicare for all Australians.

This bill makes our system fairer, more efficient and more reliable, ensuring Australians can access care when they need it. Australians voted for a Labor government that invests in them, invests in people, solves problems and delivers results. This bill does just that by strengthening the backbone of our health system and ensuring it keeps pace with the world around it. Automation of provider numbers will get doctors working faster. Reform of private health rebate systems will protect taxpayers and patients alike. Modernising bulk-billing processes will make it easier for clinics and ensure digital integrity. Improving the Bonded Medical Program will keep more doctors where they're needed most. These are practical, forward-looking reforms, part of Labor's broader agenda to rebuild Medicare after years of neglect. For the people of Maribyrnong, this means seeing a doctor sooner, fast approvals for new providers and strong bulk-billing at the local clinics across Keilor East, Tullamarine and Avondale Heights. It means fewer delays, more certainty and a fairer health system that puts patients first.

Medicare isn't just a policy; it's a promise—a promise that, no matter who you are or where you live, you will be able to get health care that you need without going broke doing it. I commend the bill to the House.

Mr BIRRELL (Nicholls) (12:41): I too rise to speak on the Health Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures No. 1) Bill 2025. This bill, like so many other pieces of legislation introduced by the Albanese government, is like a scorpion. You start at the top, and everything is fine. Then you get to the sting in the tail, not unlike the sting that many Australians are feeling when they need to pull out their credit card as well as their Medicare card. With that in mind, I'll start at the tail of this piece of legislation, and that refers to schedule 4, the Bonded Medical Program.

There simply is not enough detail in the bill, the explanatory memorandum or the Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care's second reading speech. The explanatory memorandum correctly explains that the Bonded Medical Program, first introduced in 2001, aims to address the shortage of medical professionals in regional, rural and remote areas, and, as shadow assistant minister for regional health, I am acutely aware of how important that scheme is. We will be seeking further information and scrutiny on this bill through a Senate inquiry, particularly in relation to the implications of proposed changes to the Bonded Medical Program and the assignment of Medicare benefits for bulk-billing and signified billing arrangements. It is vital that these measures do not create unintended consequences or additional administrative burden for our hardworking health professionals.

Right now, it is undeniable that primary health care is in crisis under this government. While there have been several schemes over the decades, the fundamentals are the same: medical practitioners receive support from government in return for a commitment to work in regional settings. Under the current scheme, those who sign up receive a Commonwealth supported place, a CSP, in an Australian university medical course. In return, they make a commitment to work in eligible regional, rural or remote areas for a period of three years, or 156 weeks. This is referred to in the scheme as the return-of-service obligation, and participants have 18 years in which to complete this service obligation. The statutory Bonded Medical Program commenced in 2020 and replaced two legacy schemes. The Medical Rural Bonded Scholarship Scheme was from 2001 to 2015, and the Bonded Medical Places Scheme operated from 2004 to 2019. The legacy scheme participants are able to voluntarily opt in to the Bonded Medical Program and receive a significant reduction in the return-of-service obligation and more flexible program conditions. In some cases, the length of time doctors are obligated to practise in areas of need in regional Australia is cut from six years to three years by them opting in to the current scheme. I can understand the reasons for wanting to streamline participation and administration to a single scheme, but we should also recognise the outcome is a significant cut to the amount of time those practitioners are required to practise in rural and regional areas to satisfy their return-of-service obligation.

I will remind everyone in this place that, still, doctors do not grow on trees. The bonded medical programs have played an important part for many years in delivering Australian educated doctors to regional communities. The schemes have operated alongside similar schemes binding foreign trained doctors to work in regional areas for a set period as part of their visa decisions. Schemes designed to address GP workforce challenges in regional and remote communities are already being undermined by changes that the Albanese government has made to distribution priority areas. They've expanded the GP priority areas; 17 areas became 'more remote' under the new Modified Monash Model classifications. But priority areas continue to extend into the fringes of capital cities, and 15 metropolitan areas gained DPA status, which allows for those areas to compete for overseas trained doctors with the most remote and underserviced regions in Australia.

What we can't afford is further dilution of programs designed to get doctors into communities that most need them. Schedule 4 seeks to make changes to the Bonded Medical Program so that consequences for participants who withdraw from the program or fail to complete their return of service obligation—I emphasise that word 'obligation'—balance the 'personal circumstances' of the bonded participant with the broader interests of the community. It is not clear from this bill, the explanatory memorandum or the second reading speech what that actually means in practice and what the implications are going to be for regional and remote Australia, who need these GPs. While a waiver is referenced, there's no detail to it. I can understand that, in some cases, there may be compassionate and compelling circumstances for a waiver to be applied, but the broader interests of the community are also very important, and these schemes can mean the difference between having and not having a local GP.

There is a third element here that's not addressed: the integrity of the scheme itself. Currently, breaches may mean participants are liable for financial penalties, such as repayment of the scholarship or CSP fees, and, in addition, former medical rural bonded scheme participants can receive a six-year Medicare ban. Without additional information gleaned through an inquiry—that's why we want to send it to a Senate inquiry—it's difficult to determine the impact of these changes. I'm a bit wary of any change that undermines the scheme and makes it easier for participants to on one hand receive the benefits but then not deliver the obligation under which they were given the benefits in the first place. We need doctors in the regions. You can wave your Medicare card as much as you want, even if you're the Prime Minister, but you won't be able to use it if there's not a doctor available.

There are alternatives are out there that I've seen work very successfully in getting medical professionals into regional areas. Initiatives of the previous coalition government are a great example of this. In my electorate of Nicholls the Murray-Darling Medical Schools Network—which moves Commonwealth supported places out to regional universities and regional campuses—school of rural health at the Shepparton campus of the University of Melbourne is a great example of this. The way the program works is that students will do a Bachelor of Biomedical Science—there are 15 places set aside at La Trobe University in this particular scheme and are 15 places from any other appropriate prerequisite undergraduate course—and then the participants will go into the four-year Doctor of Medicine, which will be exclusively at the school of rural health in Shepparton, which is over the road from the hospital.

The students spend four years in a regional setting. The first graduates will come out at the end of this year, in 2025, and I'm really looking forward to the moment when they graduate. I know those students personally. They've already set themselves up in regional areas. Most of them were country kids in the first place. The reason the scheme was so attractive to them is that they were kids who, if they had to go to a university in Melbourne or Sydney to study medicine, just wouldn't have studied medicine. They studied medicine because there was an opportunity to do it in a regional setting, close to their families, in an affordable way. So we have all of these kids who are going to be doctors who wouldn't have otherwise been. They are going to study in a regional location. They are going to be there for four years. They are going to put down roots. They've met people. In some cases, they have started families. In some cases, they are close to their existing families. I think, in some cases, people have already put down a deposit on a house. They are going to stay and practise in regional areas.

The Murray-Darling Medical Schools Network is an example of really creative thinking by the then coalition government, saying, 'The evidence shows us that, if you train people in regions, they're likely to practise in regions.' We're about to yield in all regional areas, not just in Shepparton but across the areas where the Murray-Darling medical schools run, the benefits of having those young people graduate and work in these regions. I think that we should look at expanding the Murray-Darling medical schools beyond the Murray-Darling to other parts of regional Australia and make sure that we contribute to that population balance by not just focusing a lot of our university courses in major metropolitan cities but moving them out to regional cities so that they grow and so that we grow Australia in an even way.

The Murray-Darling Medical Schools Network, along with the bonded medical scheme and the programs that have required overseas doctors to practise in regional areas as part of their visa requirements, is an example of the government being creative and filling that need for medical professionals in regional areas. But, if you start watering down these schemes, as this bill may do—again, it's not clear—in relation to the bonded medical scheme, you are going to not only water down the scheme but water down the ability of regional communities to have access to GPs.

The other schedules in this bill seek to address regulatory and administrative issues. The coalition acknowledges the intent of this bill. It contains a number of technical amendments to improve the efficiency of several important elements of our health system. Schedule 1, for example, is on the automation of Medicare provider numbers. In my own electorate, my office has had to assist general practitioners facing extended delays in the issuing of a Medicare provider number. Schedule 2 refers to the private health insurance rebate premiums reduction scheme, and schedule 3 is for modernising the assignment of Medicare benefits for bulk-billing and simplified billing.

Every government comes in and has a look at how things have worked. I think things worked well under the previous coalition government, but there's always room for improvement. If a new government comes in and finds ways to streamline because of new technology or new ideas then that's a good thing. I'm very supportive of that. But, once again, we are presented with a bill that has many reasonable elements but has one aspect we are concerned about. We need further explanation, further information and a Senate inquiry to interrogate those changes and make sure we don't end up with unintended consequences that leave regional and remote Australians even worse off than they are currently in relation to a trained, efficient and available medical workforce.

Dr FREELANDER (Macarthur) (12:53): The number '478444X' probably means nothing to any of you here in this room, but it is very important to me. That was the Medicare provider number that I got when I started my private practice, in the same week that Medicare started, in 1984. It's the same provider number I use now, to this very day. Before the coalition gets too excited, I don't use it to bill Medicare. I use it because it's required for some procedures, such as referrals to specialists et cetera, and to make sure patients get access to some of the government schemes, such as the supporting kids with autism scheme, so they can get allied health approvals. I rise to speak on the public importance of the Health Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures No.1) Bill not just as a member of parliament but as someone with a deep understanding of the importance of providing efficient health care to everyone in an equitable manner and the firsthand experience of administrative bottleneck.

It took me weeks and weeks to get my Medicare provider number. Even though the scheme had been explained and well resourced at the beginning, it was a huge bureaucratic nightmare. The relief I got when I got my provider number was unbelievable. It's been the mainstay of my professional life since that time, over 40 years. I personally experienced the difficulties involved in obtaining a Medicare provider number, as have many of my colleagues, in particular my young medical students, once they finish their training and work as residents and registrars are looking to further their professional lives, either as general practitioners or as specialists.

Over many years there have been refinements to the scheme, but this bill is long overdue and is an important way of increasing people's access to medical care, increasing bulk-billing and ensuring the availability of doctors. In my electorate, which is outer south-western metropolitan Sydney, there are still huge difficulties in attracting doctors to work in our communities, at both a general practice and a specialist level. Improving access to Medicare provider numbers will help with that a lot.

The application processes can be quite challenging and processing timeframes very lengthy, particularly for overseas health professionals, delaying them from commencing work in the Australian healthcare system and, I suspect, also preventing many from coming here. Acting on recommendation 2 of the Kruk review, this bill will amend the Health Insurance Act to streamline the application process for health practitioners, enabling them to receive a Medicare provider number more quickly and provide healthcare services sooner.

Amendments made by schedule 2 to the bill will enable the Chief Executive Medicare to approve the use of computer programs to make more-appropriate non-discretionary decisions to allocate Medicare provider numbers, whilst all decisions to refuse a provider number will continue to be checked and authorised by the Chief Executive Medicare or their delegate. This bill will validate previously issued Medicare provider numbers that were issued by a computer program.

The department has been in consultation with the relevant agencies who support the legislative component to support the automation of Medicare provider numbers and are supportive of this decision. We're working with state and territory governments, education providers and regulators to implement the recommendations of the independent review of health practitioner regulatory settings, led by the highly respected health administrator Ms Robyn Kruk AO.

This is a significant improvement to the administration of our healthcare services to ensure that overseas doctors—who make up around 50 per cent of the doctors practising in Australia, do tremendous work providing quality care and play a vital role in easing our workforce shortage and have done for many decades—will spend less time navigating bureaucratic hurdles and instead be able to care for our most vulnerable in all areas of Australia, particularly in outer metropolitan and rural and regional areas, and care for people who really need it. Having the right skills is critical to the success of the government's agenda. We know that. This bill will make it easier for medical practitioners who are well qualified to get access to Medicare billing.

Schedule 2 of this bill will see the amendment of chapters 2, 3 and 6 of the Private Health Insurance Act 2007 to support the processes for claiming private health insurance rebates under the premiums reduction scheme. The Australian government reimburses private health insurers for the proportion of health insurance premiums that are reduced on behalf of consumers under the premiums reduction scheme. Each year, rebate repayments in excess of $7 billion are paid in this manner. The private health insurance rebate is an essential element of our healthcare system, one that makes private health insurance more affordable for Australians by funding part of their premium. The premiums reduction scheme allows eligible people to choose to get the rebate at the time they pay their private health insurance premium—and I'm certainly a beneficiary of that—rather than pay the full cost of the premium and then claim a deduction back through their tax return at the end of the financial year.

Under the scheme, the insurer reduces the premium payable by the policyholder by the amount of the rebate and then claims reimbursement of the amount through a system administered by Services Australia. Over time it's become clear that parts of the registration and claims process for the scheme haven't always lined up with the rules set out in the Private Health Insurance Act, resulting in some inconsistencies with its administration. To fix that, this bill is introducing some changes to help the system run more smoothly and support the operation of the registration and claims system—which is yet again another way this government understands health care and understands the importance of getting people access to health care, making the process more streamlined.

The Chief Executive Medicare is now able, with this bill, to use automated systems to handle registrations and claims. These changes will make it possible to recover any overpayments caused by system errors. Changes were made to our healthcare system last year with the introduction of the Health Insurance Legislation Amendment (Assignment of Medicare Benefits) Act 2024, which modernised and simplified how patients assigned their Medicare benefits. In a modernised era, the changes were made to align with the times and move away from paper based processes and to support a digital assignment option.

This bill supports the modernising of the assignment of Medicare benefits by addressing the limitations of the assignment of Medicare benefits and the Health Insurance Act, and it supports regulations, allowing for a patient to assign their Medicare benefits—which will underpin further increases in bulk-billing, particularly with our new supports for bulk-billing processes in the general practitioner field. We understand that these processes and changes can be tedious and time consuming, but we have listened to IT vendors, state and territory governments, medical peak body groups and other stakeholders who have expressed concerns with the timeline of delivering rebate changes and also with the extension of provider numbers.

To provide sufficient time for medical and health industries—particularly the private sector, to allow for software updates to reflect new assignment benefit processes—this legislation is being introduced. The extensions of time will allow the health sector, medical industry providers and patients to prepare for any changes. Our government is committed to easing the cost-of-living pressures and ensuring people receive the care and treatment they need, and our government has committed funding to implement these reforms, which will further streamline the process for patients and also for medical practitioners. We are ensuring that the passage of this bill will be a further string in the Albanese government's election commitment of $7.9 billion to improve bulk-billing incentive payments, to encourage increased bulk-billing rates and to further ensure that more Australians can see a GP and their specialists for free.

The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing has been in consultation with all relevant parties for these amendments—from patient representatives, stakeholders, private health insurers and hospitals to state and territory governments—and has taken feedback and recommendations to provide a seamless transition. This is what Australians deserve, and it's one thing that Labor governments have done: ensured that the Australian population can receive the health care it needs, making our healthcare system the envy of the rest of the world. Australians deserve to have fairer and affordable access to see a doctor when they need to.

This bill, furthermore, will amend the Bonded Medical Program—a program which provides eligible students with a subsidised Commonwealth supported place in a medical degree at university in exchange for a commitment to work in a regional, rural or remote area after graduation. There have been concerns about the bonded program for some time. Students sign up when they're very young, and their circumstances often change. Sometimes it can be quite difficult for students when they get a partner or get married, or when families change, to continue to work in a region they thought they were originally going to be bonded to. It can also affect specialist training positions that require people to work in tertiary- or quaternary-level hospitals to complete their specialist training, and that can be quite difficult if you're on a rural bonded scheme. We want to make sure that people can access extra training when they need to, so there are changes to the rural bonded scholarship scheme which will allow more flexibility. We want to make sure that we see sufficient health services across regional and rural areas, of course, and we have done many things to ensure that those living in the farthest areas of our country can access the same quality health care that they need and deserve. This bill will amend the Health Insurance Act to enhance the Bonded Medical Program by ensuring the consequences of breaching conditions of, or withdrawing from, the program fairly balance both the personal circumstances of the bonded participant and the broader interests of the community. It will allow all work completed by a bonded participant in good faith, consistent with program objectives, to be counted towards their return-of-service obligation.

I recently met with one of my paediatric registrars who was on a rural bonded scholarship and needed some extra time to complete some subspecialty training at a specialist children's hospital. The scheme previously was very rigid and wouldn't allow that to happen. This scheme will now allow that to happen, which will mean she will still deliver her service in the regional area she was committed to, while being allowed time to complete her training at the highly specialised unit. This is a very, very good thing, and I fully support it. I've been contacted by a number of medical students who face this predicament, and it's honestly a shame to see the stress that some of them have been put under. I'm glad that this bill allows more flexibility. We have seen significant workforce shortages because of lack of uptake of the rural bonded scholarships, and this will allow more of those scholarships to be taken up, improving access to really high-level health care in rural and regional areas.

Currently, students have the option to withdraw from the program without any consequences, and I think that there still should be some consequences. If they decide to withdraw after a specific date, they will face a significant financial penalty, and I think that the Commonwealth will be able to encourage more people to take up the schemes if they know that there are rules in place. This bill proposes an important change. It seeks to extend the existing grace period from the HECS census date in the second year all the way through to the completion of the medical degree. This bill will also give the Minister for Health and Ageing new powers to create additional rules to recognise work already completed by bonded participants. This means we're in alliance with the goals of the program. Work done even before transitioning to the statutory Bonded Medical Program can count towards fulfilling return-of-service obligations, and that's a very important change.

The Albanese government is committed to strengthening our healthcare system, as always. I'm very proud to be part of a government with the Labor tradition of supporting equitable access to health care. I commend this bill to the House, and I thank the minister and the assistant minister for bringing it to the House.

Dr GARLAND (Chisholm) (13:08): As we've heard from the previous speaker, securing and supporting Medicare's future is absolutely so important to the Albanese Labor government. We've delivered urgent care clinics right across the country, including one in Mount Waverley, in my own electorate. I know that in the City of Stonnington area, which is in my electorate too, there is currently a tender out for another urgent care clinic, which is very welcomed by the community.

The Health Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures No. 1) Bill 2025 makes amendments to legislation in the health portfolio to make sure we strengthen Medicare. Of course, this is one of my favourite topics of conversation in this place, as indeed it is for everyone sitting on this side of the House. Schedule 1 of the bill will streamline the allocation of Medicare provider numbers under the Health Insurance Act, allowing practitioners to treat patients sooner. We know that the sooner people are able to access medical services, generally the better the health outcomes can be.

Amendments under schedule 1 will allow the Chief Executive Medicare to approve the use of a computer program to make appropriate non-discretionary decisions to allocate Medicare provider numbers in line with the review of Australia's regulatory settings for overseas health professionals. Decisions to refuse a provider number will continue to be checked and authorised by the Chief Executive Medicare or their delegate. Some Medicare provider numbers have already been allocated through the use of a computer program without any clear legislative support, and this bill will tidy up that process and validate previous computer issued Medicare provider numbers.

Currently an overseas health professional faces a wait time of up to three months for a Medicare practitioner number, delaying them from commencing work in the Australian health system and treating patients under Medicare. We all know how important it is that everyone has access to health professionals when they need them. Reducing the time it takes for Medicare numbers to be issued will absolutely support the growth of our medical workforce, which is a clear priority for the Albanese Labor government. Internationally qualified health practitioners currently supplement the domestic workforce and aid in addressing workforce shortages, making for a more sustainable health workforce overall.

Schedule 2 of this bill will amend the Private Health Insurance Act to support the process for claiming the private health insurance rebate under the premiums reduction scheme. This will ensure that registrations for the private health insurance rebate scheme and claims under the scheme are administered consistently under the act. This will also ensure that persons are validly registered as participants and that payments of rebates to insurers are lawful. The private health insurance rebate scheme is an initiative to help Australians cover the cost of premiums, supporting access to private healthcare services for participants. We know that individuals who are eligible for the private health insurance rebate can claim the rebate as a premium reduction through their private health insurer or as a tax offset. Under the scheme, the private health insurer claims a reimbursement through a system administered by Services Australia and reduces the premium payable by the policyholder by the amount of the rebate.

Some elements of the registration and claims processing system for the premiums reduction scheme have been administered inconsistently with the requirements of the Private Health Insurance Act. Schedule 2 of the bill will amend the Private Health Insurance Act to align the registration process in division 23 with the requirements of the system operated by Services Australia; provide for self-assessment by participating insurers of the amount of rebate required to be reimbursed in division 279; require an insurer to provide information or documents to support their claim; ensure overpayments can be recovered, despite any unintended system or process defects, through division 282; and allow for computer assisted decision-making and the approval of forms and systems by the Chief Executive Medicare under division 333. Participating insurers will continue to be subject to regular post-payment compliance activities to ensure integrity of the payment process, and the amendments will support the existing registration and claims processes in such a way that there will be minimal impact on consumers and private health insurers.

Of course, strengthening bulk-billing is a priority of the Albanese Labor government, and schedule 3 of the bill will amend the Health Insurance Act 1973 to modernise assignments of the Medicare benefits process. Assignment of benefit is a longstanding requirement of the Health Insurance Act, and it underpins payments of Medicare benefits where the patient assigns their right to benefit to a medical provider, private health insurer or approved billing agent. Last year, as one of many measures our government has taken to strengthen Medicare, the parliament passed the Health Insurance Legislation Amendment (Assignment of Medicare Benefits) Act 2024 with its changes to assignment benefits commencing 18 months from the day the act received royal assent. It streamlined the assignment process for patients, for medical providers, for private health insurers and for approved billing agents and also enabled digital assignment options. The bill before us now will build on those changes and address limitations of the assignment-of-benefits act. This bill will delay the commencement of the assignment-of-benefits act to 1 July 2026, which will support industry and consumers to comply with the new assignment-of-benefits requirements, and it will allow time for new processes to be developed and for IT systems to be updated. In the meantime, bulk-billing can continue under the current processes, including additional incentives for bulk-billed services which will start from 1 November this year in line with the government's election commitment.

Bulk-billing is vital for equitable access to health care. It helps with cost-of-living pressures and ensures every Australian receives the best health care they deserve. Our government is passionate about bulk-billing. The government has committed $15.2 million in 2025-26 to fund the implementation of reforms outlined in the assignment-of-benefits act and subordinate regulations. This includes updates to Services Australia's software systems and education and communications activities to ensure stakeholders are aware of and prepared for new digital arrangements. The passage of this bill will ensure that the Albanese Labor government's 2025 election commitment of $7.9 billion in bulk-billing incentive payments to encourage increased bulk-billing rates will not be adversely impacted by non-compliant business software.

Schedule 4 of this bill will amend the Health Insurance Act 1973 to ensure the consequences for Bonded Medical Program participants who withdraw from the program or fail to complete their return-of-service obligation are fair. It will balance the personal circumstances of the bonded participant and the broader interest of the community and allow all work completed by a bonded participant in good faith, consistent with program objectives, to be counted towards their return-of-service obligation.

This bill allows the Minister for Health and Ageing to make additional rules to ensure that past work completed by bonded participants delivering health services in regional, rural and remote locations in Australia, for instance, can count it to their return-of-service obligation where this is consistent with program objectives. Currently, former Medical Rural Bonded Scholarship Scheme bonded participants who fail to complete their return-of-service obligation within the allowed 18-year period or who have withdrawn earlier face repayment of their scholarship and a six-year Medicare ban. While the financial penalty is appropriate, subjecting these doctors to a Medicare ban will jeopardise continued service provision and access to care for Australians living in regional, rural and remote communities and in other areas of workforce shortage. Given those broader workforce shortages, a six-year Medicare ban is not in the interests of either the doctor or the Australian community. Students can currently withdraw from the program without consequence up to the HECS census date in their second year of study. If the student withdraws after that date, they incur a debt to the Commonwealth equal to the full cost of their Commonwealth supported place up to the date of the withdrawal. This will be in addition to their HECS-HELP liability.

Our government is squarely focused on strengthening Medicare and on ensuring that we have a strong health workforce. That means that Australians, no matter where they live, are able to access high-quality medical care when they need it. This is part of our ongoing commitment to strengthen Medicare, to fight for Medicare and to ensure that bulk-billing is accessible and equitable. I'm really pleased to support this bill in the House today.

Ms CAMPBELL (Moreton) (13:19): I rise to speak on the Health Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures No. 1) Bill 2025. When we talk about Medicare, what we know about Medicare is that it is the embodiment of Labor values. It is who we are, and it represents what we care about when it comes to health, which is ensuring that it doesn't matter what's in your pay packet. No matter what you earn, you and your family should have access to world-class medical care with just your Medicare card. And this is not something that we just say. This is not something that we just talk about. This is something that we do every single day. We do it when we talk about the institution of urgent care clinics. We do it when we see urgent care clinics—more and more of them—pop up around our suburbs to make sure that people have the care they need close to home. We do it when we open up more Medicare mental health clinics, and we have one coming to the south side in Brisbane very shortly. We do it when we invest in bulk-billing so more people can access critical GP services, again closer to home. We created Medicare, and Labor works every day to make it even better.

Medicare is a vast system. I don't think that any of us, when we hand over our little green card to the medical receptionist, think about how far the services stretch and how the system is administered. That is understandable, because after all, when you visit an urgent care clinic with your injured child, you have other things on your mind, and, when you go to your bulk-billed GP because you're feeling under the weather, you're not thinking about the back-end systems behind your visit. You're just grateful, as you dig into your pocket for your Medicare card, that you have one fewer bill to pay. This is the foundation of Medicare—that, when you and your family are affected by illness or injury, you shouldn't have to break the bank to receive high-quality health care. But it is worth looking at the system as a whole. It helps to put into context just how valuable Medicare is to Australians. In 2004-05, the value of Medicare services delivered was $475.2 million. The total amount of benefits paid in the same period was $32.4 billion, and this is for services ranging from GP visits to obstetrics, diagnostic imaging, optometry, allied health and radiotherapy—and the list goes on and on.

I'm incredibly proud to be part of a Labor government that believes in universal health care and continues to strengthen Medicare to ensure the scheme is both robust and sustainable. At times, that means fine-tuning Medicare's administrative systems, and that is what the Health Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures No. 1) Bill 2025 does. It will ensure better administration and delivery of the system that we all rely on.

As its name suggests, the bill covers a range of reforms. The first is implementing the automation of Medicare provider numbers. This is the second recommendation in the final report of the Independent Review of Australia's Regulatory Settings Relating to Overseas Health Practitioners, otherwise known as the Kruk review. The review was commissioned by National Cabinet in September 2022, with the aim of recommending measures to streamline and simplify health practitioner regulation. The overarching goal was to decrease the skills shortages in vital health professions while maintaining required quality and safety standards. In short, we need our health professionals to have stronger skills and to have the support to do it. The resulting report in August 2023, from Robyn Kruk AO, acknowledged persistent shortages in the registered health practitioner workforce, and these shortages led to some communities not having access to a GP, a nurse led clinic or a dental or mental health service within a 60-minute drive. Other negative effects of the shortages included critical health services such as maternity or dental being closed down in some places and wait times for specialists blowing out, in some cases to as long as four years.

The issuance of Medicare provider numbers is currently part of the lengthy and time-consuming process of registering to provide Medicare services. An MPN enables the health practitioner to claim, refer or request Medicare services, and health practitioners require an MPN for each practice location. MPNs are currently allocated by the Chief Executive Medicare via the Human Services (Medicare) Act 1973. The report recommended automating the issuance of MPNs to speed up the approval processes and result in more practitioners being available to provide services more quickly, and that's what this is all about—making sure that we have more practitioners and that they can provide services to the communities that need them most in an efficient and effective way. This bill will amend the Health Insurance Act 1973 to establish the function of allocating MPNs within the act, enabling the Chief Executive Medicare to approve automation, and will also validate MPNs previously issued automatically. What this means in practice is that the Chief Executive Medicare can approve the use of computer programs to allocate MPNs. However, it's important to note that a decision to refuse a health practitioner an MPN must be reviewed by a qualified employee of Services Australia.

The second focus of this bill is streamlining private health insurance rebate payments. Each year, over $7 billion is reimbursed to private health insurers under the premiums reduction scheme. This rebate helps reduce the cost of health insurance premiums for Australians, making private health care more accessible and more affordable. However, Services Australia and the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing identified that some parts of the registration and claims processing system have not been operating consistently with the requirements of the Private Health Insurance Act 2007 since the scheme began. The bill will amend the Private Health Insurance Act to correct the operation of registration and claims systems. It introduces a self-assessment model for insurers claiming reimbursements. It will also align the registration requirements for individual participants with the current system requirements. The Chief Executive Medicare will be empowered to introduce automated decision-making capabilities to manage registration and claims more efficiently and more effectively. The bill also implements a safeguard, with assurance that any overpayments resulting from system errors or process issues can be recovered. These reforms are designed to uphold the objectives of the premiums reduction scheme and will ensure that participants are properly registered and that rebate payments are made lawfully.

The third part of this bill will amend the Health Insurance Act 1973 to resolve key legal and operational issues and delay the commencement of changes introduced by the Health Insurance Legislation Amendment (Assignment of Medicare Benefits) Act. The concept of assignment of benefit has long been a cornerstone of Medicare. It allows patients to assign their right to a Medicare benefit to a medical provider, private health insurer or approved billing agent, enabling the government to make payments directly on their behalf. The assignment-of-benefits act was introduced to strengthen the integrity of this process. It streamlined how benefits are assigned and introduced digital options to replace outdated, paper based systems, because this is a system that we all care about and it's a system that needs to be kept up to date as technology moves forward and as that technology allows people who need Medicare to access it more effectively and more efficiently. These reforms were essential to modernise Medicare and ensure it remains responsive to the needs of patients and providers alike. Importantly, the bill will delay the commencement of schedule 1 of the assignment-of-benefits act, which was originally set to begin in January 2026. The new start date of 1 July 2026 will give both industry and consumers the time they need to prepare and adapt to the changes, particularly where private sector software must be updated to reflect the new assignment processes. Bulk-billing will continue under current arrangements, with additional incentives commencing from the 1st of next month for bulk-billing services. These reforms are supported by $15.2 million worth of funding in 2025-26, and this is being directed towards updating Services Australia's systems and delivering education and communication to ensure stakeholders are ready for the transition to digital assignment.

This bill safeguards the Albanese Labor government's $7.2 billion commitment to bulk-billing incentive payments. It ensures that these incentives will not be undermined by non-compliant business software or administrative delays. It ensures that these amendments are here to stay. The bill's final amendment to the Health Insurance Act 1973 enhances the Bonded Medical Program. This program provides a Commonwealth supported place in—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Chesters ): Order! I do apologise to the member for Moreton. The debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 43. The debate may be resumed at a later hour. The member will be given leave to continue speaking when the debate is resumed.

The SPEAKER (15:12): I present the annual reports for 2024-25 of the Australian National Audit Office and the Parliamentary Budget Office.

Documents made parliamentary papers.

Ms MASCARENHAS (Swan) (16:14): On behalf of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, I present the committee's report entitled Human rights scrutiny report: report 5 of 2025.

Report made a parliamentary paper in accordance with standing order 39(e).

Ms MASCARENHAS: by leave—I am pleased to present the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights' fifth scrutiny report of 2025. In this report, the committee has considered 29 new bills and 66 new legislative instruments. It has commented on eight bills and two legislative instruments and concluded its examination of four bills.

In this report, the committee commented on the Home Affairs Legislation Amendment (2025 Measures No. 1) Bill 2025. This bill, now an act, removes the rules of natural justice in relation to the exercise of certain powers that facilitate the removal of noncitizens from Australia. These powers relate to the collection, use or disclosure of information; entering third-country reception arrangements; and issuing removal pathway directions to noncitizens. This committee previously commented on these powers when they were first introduced. The committee considered that these powers limited numerous human rights.

In relation to this bill, the committee considers that the human rights concerns associated with the powers are likely exacerbated by disapplying the rules of natural justice to these powers. In particular, the committee considers that this measure engages and limits the right not to be expelled from a country without due process. The committee also considers that the measure engages Australia's non-refoulement obligations; the prohibition against torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment; and the right to an effective remedy.

The committee further notes that the bill affects the outcome of a case currently pending before the High Court of Australia. There is a risk that this could constitute an impermissible interference with the independence and impartiality of the judiciary, an element of the right to a fair hearing.

The committee notes that this bill has passed both houses of parliament in a short timeframe. This meant that the committee did not have adequate time to scrutinise the bill and seek further information from the minister in order to provide appropriate advice to the parliament as to the human rights compatibility of the bill. This is of particular concern to the committee given the significant human rights implications of this bill.

As the bill has now passed, the committee draws these concerns to the attention of the minister and the parliament, and makes no further comment.

The committee also concluded its consideration of the appropriation bills 2025-26. The committee's consistent position since 2013 is that appropriation bills facilitate the taking of actions which may affect the progressive realisation of, or failure to fulfil, Australia's obligations under international human rights law. The committee therefore considers that allocation of funds via appropriation bills may engage human rights and considers that appropriation bills are susceptible to a human rights assessment. The committee has recommended that statements of compatibility prepared for future appropriation bills should contain an assessment of human rights compatibility. Such statements should address the overall trends in the progressive realisation of economic, social and cultural rights; the impact of budget measures on vulnerable groups; and key measures which engage human rights.

In this report the committee also sought additional information from the relevant minister in relation to the human rights compatibility of four new bills and is awaiting further response from the Minister for Home Affairs in relation to the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2025.

I encourage all members to consider the committee's report closely, and with these comments I commend the committee's scrutiny report No. 5 of 2025 to the House.

Ms CAMPBELL (Moreton) (16:20): The Bonded Medical Program provides Commonwealth supported places in a medical program in exchange for working in regional, rural and remote areas of Australia after graduation. That is because this is a Labor government that prioritises ensuring that there are incentives for medical practitioners and medical professionals to work in the bush. Currently, former Medical Rural Bonded Scholarship Scheme medical professionals who did not complete their service within the designated period are required to repay their scholarship and face a six-year Medicare ban. The amendments will ensure that the consequences of breaching the conditions or withdrawing from the program balance the personal circumstances of the participant with the broader interests of the community. Furthermore, all work completed by a participant in good faith and in relation to the program guidelines will count towards their return of service obligation.

The six-year Medicare ban has a direct negative impact on the provision of services in regional, rural and remote communities—areas that are already the most impacted by workforce shortages. Such bans are not in the interest of either the community or individual medical professionals. The proposed amendments will extend the student's withdrawal period without penalty from the HECS census date in their second year of study until the award of their medical degree.

The measures included in this bill will ensure enhanced administration and delivery of the Medicare services that we all rely on each and every day. They are the behind-the-scenes fixes that form the foundation of Labor's commitment to strengthening Medicare. And the Albanese Labor government has made this a priority. The 2025-26 budget made the most significant investment in Medicare since its inception more than 40 years ago. Labor is continuing to back bulk-billing. From 1 November we are implementing an additional new 12.5 per cent payment—the Bulk Billing Practice Incentive Program—for practices that bulk-bill every patient. And we are working towards nine out of 10 GP visits being bulk-billed by 2030, with the number of fully bulk-billed practices nationally increasing to around 4,800. This $7.9 billion investment will result in 18 million more bulk-billed GP visits annually, saving Australian families $859 million every year.

Right at the start of this speech I mentioned urgent care clinics, and I'm constantly receiving feedback from my local community on how convenient these clinics are, saving people from long waits in hospital and from emergency departments—and of course they are fully bulk-billed. There are now 90 in operation across the country, with more on the way. When the rollout is complete, 80 per cent of Australians will live within a 20-minute drive of a clinic, and two million people are expected to use this service annually.

It would be easy to continue talking about Labor's commitment to strengthening Medicare and ensuring universal health care. And I could talk about how we are increasing support for public hospitals with an additional $1.8 billion of funding. Or I could mention wage increases in the care economy, such as $2.6 billion to increase pay for vital aged-care nurses. But I do see that I'm running out of time, and what you really need to know is that only Labor guarantees a future where your Medicare card and not your credit card gives you access to quality care every day and that Labor will always continue to increase and drive better access to Medicare.

Ms JORDAN-BAIRD (Gorton) (16:24): I rise to speak in support of the Health Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures No. 1) Bill 2025, brought forward by the Minister for Health and Ageing, and I commend him for doing so. Health care is fundamental to the wellbeing of Australians, and Medicare is at the heart of our healthcare system. In 1984 the Hawke Labor government introduced Medicare, and in 2025 strengthening Medicare was the beating heart of our election campaign, because that's what good governments do: they invest in and protect our public healthcare system. I couldn't be prouder to stand in this chamber as part of the Albanese Labor government, legislating to protect and improve our healthcare system.

The amendments in this bill clean up technical issues, making things fairer and easier for our healthcare workers and supporting the growth of the health industry in Australia. The independently led Kruk review of health practitioner regulatory settings highlighted shortages in Australia's healthcare workforce, and these workforce shortages are significant. In the June quarter of 2023, 44 per cent of health professional vacancies were unfilled. An extra 13,000 medical practitioners, 40,000 nurses and 27,000 allied health professionals are likely to be needed by 2026. These workforce shortages exist in all Australian states and territories, and they are widespread across medicine, nursing, midwifery, and allied health professions, including dentistry, OT, physiotherapy, psychology and radiation therapy. Workforce shortages mean increased workloads for health practitioners, and, importantly, they mean Aussies having reduced access to care and poorer patient outcomes. Around 40 per cent of Australians wait at least 24 hours to see a GP for urgent care. Some six per cent of people wait longer than 365 days for elective surgery, with some waiting more than 500 days. When we don't have a strong and supported healthcare workforce, Aussies pay the price.

I've seen this firsthand in my electorate of Gorton, in Melbourne's west, one of the fastest-growing electorates in the country. There are over 47,000 families across the electorate, and new ones are created every day, with 10 babies a day born in the city of Melton alone. In so many ways, my electorate represents Australia as a whole, with its vitality, its rich cultural and linguistic make-up and its aspirations for the future. An electorate like mine—young, diverse and aspirational—has many needs that have yet to be met. One area that struggles to keep up is access to health services. Gorton residents experience significant disadvantage in accessing health services.

In the city of Brimbank, a staggering 28 per cent of residents aged 18 and older have been diagnosed with two or more chronic diseases, conditions that need to be managed throughout their lives. I recently met with some residents at Wintringham in Delahey, in my electorate. This service provides quality care and accommodation to elderly men and women who are financially disadvantaged, homeless or at risk of homelessness. Wintringham residents are a fantastic group of people who have an op shop open every fortnight on a Tuesday. But many are burdened with a number of chronic diseases, which means they are constantly in and out of hospital, trying to navigate appointments, scans, specialists and outpatient care. I want to see better health outcomes for people in my community in Gorton like those Wintringham residents.

This bill, along with the suite of healthcare reforms introduced by the Albanese Labor government, is so important for my community in Melbourne's west and for all Australians. The proposed amendments in this bill will take significant steps towards modernising Medicare and simplifying bulk-billing and insurance rebates. Most importantly, they will break down barriers to accessing health care and to training and qualifying doctors. We built Medicare, and today we're here to strengthen Medicare.

The automation of Medicare provider numbers is just one of the measures we're taking to update and protect Medicare. This is about reducing unnecessary barriers to healthcare professionals practising and to bringing on more skilled health practitioners in Australia. Currently, Medicare provider numbers are allocated by the Chief Executive Medicare as one of their functions under the Human Services (Medicare) Act 1973. At the moment, the Chief Executive Medicare is unable to approve the use of computer programs to make appropriate non-discretionary decisions to allocate Medicare provider numbers. This bill will change that. This bill will streamline the application process for health practitioners, enabling them to receive a Medicare provider number quicker and provide healthcare services sooner.

This is a technical change, but it's an important one. It takes between 10 and 15 years for a local GP to be fully trained. Internationally qualified health practitioners take 35 to 130 weeks to be ready to practise in Australia, nurses and midwives take up to 91 weeks and OTs take up to 135 weeks. When we need GPs in our hospitals and our clinics, we don't need qualified and trained GPs to be prevented from practising because of unnecessary wait times on Medicare provider numbers. The same goes for all healthcare professionals. We're doing everything we can to have more healthcare providers in our workforce and more health services in our health system, and that's what this bill is all about.

Schedule 2 to the bill, the amendments to chapters 2, 5 and 6 of the Private Health Insurance Act 2007, is about supporting the affordability of private health insurance and access to private healthcare services. The private health insurance rebate is an initiative designed to make private health insurance more affordable for Australians by funding part of their premiums. As a result of systems limitations, some elements of the registration and claims-processing system were being administered inconsistently with the requirements of the act, and these amendments will break down these unnecessary barriers. Again, we're talking about reducing barriers to more Australians accessing better care.

Schedule 3 to the bill allows regulations to be made to modernise assignments of the Medicare benefits process, the process that underpins Medicare bulk-billing. Last year, the Albanese Labor government passed legislation to modernise and simplify how patients assign their Medicare benefits. These changes recognise that patients and healthcare providers are no longer using paper based processes that existed when Medicare was first set up over 40 years ago. The amendments in this bill will build on these important changes, remedying legal and technical issues. This means that Labor's 2025 election commitment of providing $7.9 billion in bulk-billing incentives will not be adversely impacted by non-compliant business software. Modernising Medicare is just another step in our plan to protect and strengthen the vital healthcare system that Australians rely so heavily upon.

The final part of this bill, the amendment to the Health Insurance Act 1973, is about ensuring consistency for healthcare workers and protecting good faith in program activities. At the moment, former Medical Rural Bonded Scholarship Scheme participants who voluntarily opt in to the statutory program and who fail to complete their return-of-service obligation within the allowed 18-year period or withdraw from the program earlier face a six-year Medicare ban. Subjecting these doctors to a Medicare ban jeopardises continued service provision and access to care for Australians living in regional, rural and remote communities and in other areas of workforce shortages.

We have a workforce shortage in Australia. My best friend, Dr Melanie Johnston, is a medical doctor working across multiple Melbourne hospitals. She has worked very hard to get where she is, and she is saving lives every single day. She often tells me about the extraordinary hours, hospital staff shortages and lack of specialists across the system, which lead to burn-out for so many. A six-year Medicare ban for bond doctors does not properly address the workforce shortage issue. In fact, it's reductive. A six-year Medicare ban is not in the interests of the individual bonded doctor, nor is it in the interests of the Australian community. Removing this ban will also ensure consistency for all bonded doctors when it comes to the consequences of breaching return-of-service obligations.

The proposed amendment will also extend the existing grace period from the HECS census date, meaning a student can withdraw from the bonded medical program without consequence at any time until they are awarded their medical degree. Removing the requirement for students who withdraw to repay the cost of their Commonwealth supported place under the program is a better fit, and it's recognising that the decision to withdraw is a difficult one, often reached because of challenging personal circumstances. The amendments aim to ensure the consequences of breaching a condition and/or withdrawal from the program fairly balance both the personal circumstances of the bonded participant and the broader interests of the community. It also allows for work completed by the bonded participant in good faith consistent with program objectives to be counted towards their return-of-service obligation.

These legislative amendments build on a suite of other reforms Labor has introduced to strengthen Medicare and our healthcare workforce. We took health care to the election, and, across the board, we're legislating change. We're 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. This includes incentives like the Commonwealth prac payment, which means students on their mandatory nursing and midwifery placements will be paid for their work.

We are making the single largest investment in Medicare ever. That's delivering an additional 18 million bulk-billed GP visits every year so more Australians can see a bulk-billed GP. We're tripling the bulk-billing incentive for people who need to see their GP most often, helping pensioners, concession card holders and families with children. We have made it cheaper and easier to see a doctor, having restored bulk-billing for 11 million Australians and having created an additional six million bulk-billed GP visits. We've delivered the biggest-ever reduction in the cost of PBS prescriptions and frozen the cost of PBS medicines at just $25, the lowest it's been since 2004. We've made hundreds of medicines cheaper for Australians. We have been putting in the work to improve access to health care by expanding the availability of free Medicare urgent care across the country. I was lucky enough to open the 90th urgent care clinic in Melbourne's west with the Prime Minister and my friend the member for Fraser last month. But we are not stopping there. We've already opened 90 urgent care clinics right across the country and we've committed to another 50.

We're investing landmark commitments in women's health. For too long, women's health issues have not been adequately addressed. We are working to reverse decades of neglect to women's health, with $570.3 million to deliver more choice, lower costs and better health care for women. We have opened 22 endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics and are opening another 11. Initiatives like these will see Australian women and their families saving thousands of dollars on health related costs across their lifetime.

We're also backing men's health because for too long men's health and mental health in Australia have been overlooked. We have established and are expanding a network of Medicare mental health centres, helping Australians to have better access to mental health services. We're delivering $11.3 million for Movember to provide men's healthcare training to primary healthcare workers and to develop a campaign to encourage more men to visit the doctor. That's in addition to $20.7 million invested into grassroots initiatives that support men's mental health and wellbeing in community settings.

This bill is cleaning up largely technical issues, because clearing up details like this is really important. We're supporting simplified and streamlined billing for privately insured hospital systems so they do not have to deal with bills from multiple providers. We're clarifying wording to ensure that any eligible person covered under a private health insurance policy can assign their own Medicare benefits on behalf of the person in whose name the policy is held. The details are the difference between hospital staff spending unnecessary time on paperwork billing multiple providers and hospital staff spending time dedicated to their patients thanks to a streamlined billing system. It's the difference between bureaucratic delays and a patient having access to a doctor and receiving that treatment sooner. It's the difference between an outdated and inadequate healthcare system and one that better serves our diverse and wonderful Australian community—to support people like the Wintringham residents in Delahey, in my electorate, to support the doctors and healthcare workers like my best friend, Melanie, and to support families in my electorate and those right across the country. These amendments matter, and I commend the bill to the House.

Mr FRENCH (Moore) (16:38): When Australians talk about Medicare, they talk about fairness. They talk about the simple, powerful idea that your bank balance should not determine whether or not you can see a doctor. They talk about the dignity of knowing that, when you need care, the system is there for you. Australians are proud of Medicare, a system that Labor built and that Labor continues to defend and strengthen. That's exactly what the Health Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures No. 1) Bill 2025 does. It strengthens Medicare, modernises the systems around it and makes sure Australians get care more quickly and fairly.

This legislation may sound technical, but it is about something very real. It is about whether a doctor can start work sooner. It's about whether billions of dollars in rebates are paid out lawfully and transparently. It's about whether bulk-billing continues to be the foundation of Medicare and whether doctors serving rural and outer suburban communities are treated fairly and whether their patients are treated fairly as well. This bill touches all of that. It has four big reforms: first, streamlining Medicare provider numbers; second, fixing cracks in the private health insurance rebate system; third, modernising the way patients assign Medicare benefits for bulk-billing; and, fourth, making the Bonded Medical Program fairer and stronger. I will deal with them in turn.

Right now, if a doctor finishes their training or a nurse practitioner moves to a new role, they have to apply for a Medicare provider number. That number is what lets them bill Medicare. Without it, they cannot provide subsidised care. The problem is that the system is slow, clunky and paper heavy. It means wait times for approval, it means health professionals sitting on the sidelines when they should be in clinics and it means patients waiting longer for appointments. This bill fixes that. It allows the Chief Executive Medicare to approve the use of computer programs to automatically issue provider numbers for straightforward cases. If you meet the criteria, the system issues the number—no delays, no unnecessary bottlenecks and no holding back the workforce when communities need them most. Where discretion is needed, humans stay in the loop. If a provider number is refused, that decision will still be made by a Services Australia officer. That is the right balance: automation where it makes sense and human oversight where it matters.

What does that mean for the electorate of Moore? It means doctors at the Joondalup Health Campus can start sooner. It means GPs in Currambine and Ocean Reef can open their doors to more patients without waiting weeks for the red tape to catch up. It means allied health workers can deliver to families in Padbury and Heathridge without needless delays. In a community like mine—growing fast and already feeling the pressure on health services—that makes a real difference.

The second reform is about the private health insurance rebate. Every year, the Commonwealth pays more than $7 billion to insurers on behalf of Australians. That is real money, month in and month out. But, for years, parts of the system have been run inconsistently with the law. That is a risk to the integrity of the scheme, and it is a risk to public trust. This bill closes those gaps. It brings the law into line with practice and makes payments lawful and accountable. It introduces a self-assessment model so insurers calculate their claims correctly. It requires them to provide evidence when asked. It gives the Chief Executive Medicare the power to modernise systems and approve forms, and it allows government to recover overpayments when mistakes happen. In other words, the billions that flow through this scheme will flow lawfully, fairly and transparently.

Australians deserve to know that health rebates are handled properly, and taxpayers deserve to know that their dollars are being respected. We know what happens when integrity is ignored. We saw it in robodebt, where lives were shattered by a system designed to cut corners. We saw it when Scott Morrison secretly appointed himself to multiple ministries, keeping the truth from not only his colleagues but the public. That is what happens when governments treat accountability as optional. Labor takes the opposite view. Integrity is not optional. Transparency is not optional. And this bill proves it.

The third reform goes to the very heart of Medicare: bulk-billing. Bulk-billing works because patients assign their Medicare benefit to the doctor or the hospital that treated them. It is simple in principle, but the law underpinning it is outdated. It was written for a paper based system, and, in 2025, paper is the exception not the rule.

The Albanese government is delivering $7.9 billion in new bulk-billing incentives—the biggest boost in decades. But those incentives only work if the system is ready. Right now, many of the practices and software providers are not ready to implement assignment arrangements. If we stick to the old timeline, bulk-billing could be disrupted. This bill avoids that risk. It pushes the start date back from January 2026 to July 2026. That gives everyone time to prepare. In the meantime, bulk-billing continues. Extra incentives flow from November this year, and patients get the care they need without disruption.

In my electorate of Moore, bulk-billing is the difference between families in Beldon being able to take their kids to the doctor and families putting it off because of the cost. It is the difference between pensioners in Woodvale being able to see their GP and pensioners presenting at Joondalup hospital because they cannot afford it. Strengthening bulk-billing is not just good policy; it is a moral obligation, and that is what this bill helps deliver.

The fourth reform strengthens the Bonded Medical Program. This program exists to get more doctors into the areas that need them most—rural, regional and outer metropolitan communities. But, for too long, the penalties for doctors who left the program or failed to complete their obligations were blunt, unfair and counterproductive. Some doctors faced not just repaying their scholarship but also a six-year ban from Medicare. That does not punish just the doctor; it punishes the communities that are already struggling to recruit enough doctors. This bill removes the blunt ban. It makes sure that consequences are fair to the doctor and are also fair to the community. It allows all the work done in good faith to count towards the obligations, even if the work previously fell through the cracks. And doctors get a fair go when serving those communities.

This change matters. For the outer suburbs, where population growth is outpacing services, this change matters. And for the families in Carine and Mullaloo, who face longer waits for basic care, this change matters. For every community where recruiting doctors is a challenge, this change matters. Taken together, these reforms make our health system faster, fairer and stronger. They get doctors to patients sooner. They make sure that billions in rebates are paid lawfully and transparently. They strengthen bulk-billing—the backbone of Medicare—and make the Bonded Medical Program work better for both doctors and communities. We do not sit back and hope that the system fixes itself. We roll up our sleeves and we do the work. We modernise, we adapt and we prepare for the future.

The opposition had nine years in office. They had nine years to strengthen bulk-billing, nine years to fix rebates, nine years to support regional doctors and nine years to cut red tape, and they did none of it. They let bulk-billing rates fall. They let trust collapse. Why? Because secrecy suited them, because pretending was easier than governing, because spin was easier than substance.

Labor is different. We are delivering stronger Medicare, stronger bulk-billing and a health system that is fit for the future. We are building a system that is accountable, efficient and fair, a system that respects taxpayers, a system that respects patients and a system that respects the professionals who deliver care—a system built for the 21st century.

This is not abstract for me. I know what it means to rely on the health system. I am here today because of a kidney transplant. I know the difference it makes when medicines are affordable and accessible. I know the difference it makes when hospitals have the staff they need. And I know the difference it makes when governments take health care seriously. That is why I am proud to support this bill. It's not about lines in legislation; it's about lives in our communities. It's about whether families in Moore can see a doctor. It's about whether young doctors are treated fairly. It's about whether the system works for people, not against them.

Health is about trust. It's about trust that, when you need care, you will get it. It's about trust that the system is fair, efficient and accountable. It's about trust that governments will do the hard work, not just talk about it. This bill delivers on that trust. It strengthens Medicare, it makes bulk-billing stronger, it makes programs fairer, it makes the system faster and it makes it work for the people. That is what Labor governments do. We build, we strengthen, we deliver. The opposition can keep complaining and they can keep pretending, but Labor is doing the work. Labor is delivering for Moore; Labor is delivering for Australia. That is why I commend this bill to the House.

Ms STANLEY (Werriwa—Government Whip) (16:51): I rise to make my contribution to the Health Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures No. 1) Bill 2025. The bill seeks to accomplish a wide range of outcomes. It supports the automation of Medicare provider numbers. It realigns the registration and claim-processing system for private health insurance rebates. It modernises the assignment of Medicare benefits for bulked-billed and simplified billing. It ensures the consequences of breaching a condition and/or withdrawal from the Bonded Medical Program are fairly balanced. And it allows all work completed by a Bonded Medical Program participant in good faith, consistent with the program's objectives, to be counted towards their return-of-service obligation. The bill addresses several matters that will ensure better administration and delivery of key government systems and programs.

Firstly, the bill supports recommendation 2 of the independent review of Australia's regulatory settings relating to overseas health practitioners, which is to automate and streamline the issuance of Medicare provider numbers. It will amend the Health Insurance Act 1973 to establish the function of allocating Medicare numbers in the Health Insurance Act. It also establishes a power for the Chief Executive Medicare to approve computer programs to issue Medicare provider numbers. The bill will validate Medicare provider numbers previously issued by automation and any that were declined. Medicare provider numbers are currently allocated by the Chief Executive Medicare as one of their functions under the Human Services (Medicare) Act 1973. Amendments made by the bill will enable the Chief Executive Medicare to approve the use of a computer program to make appropriate non-discretionary decisions to allocate provider numbers. Any decision to refuse a provider number would not be made by the computer program but be reviewed by a human service officer working at Services Australia. The bill will validate Medicare provider numbers that were previously issued by computer programs operated by Services Australia or by its predecessor, the Department of Human Services. The bill will also streamline the application processes for health practitioners, enabling them to receive a Medicare provider number more quickly and start providing health services sooner. The delegated legislation will map out the criteria that must be met in order for a Medicare provider number to be allocated by the use of a computer program to different classes of health professionals and any required transitional rules.

Secondly, the Australian government reimburses private health insurers for the portion of health insurance premiums that are reduced on behalf of the consumer for the private health insurance rebate under the premiums reduction scheme. Rebate payments in excess of $7 billion per year are paid in this manner. Services Australia and the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing became aware that some elements of the registration and claims processing system for the scheme had been administered inconsistently with the requirements of the Private Health Insurance Act 2007 since its introduction. That's why this bill will amend the Private Health Insurance Act 2007 to support the operation of the registration and claims system. This will be done through the introduction of a self-assessment model for claims by insurers for reimbursement of the rebate. The amendments will have a few effects. They streamline the registration requirement for individual participants to align with the current system requirements. They will introduce automated decision-making powers for the Chief Executive Medicare to administer scheme registrations and claims. They will ensure any overpayments can be recovered where there are unintended system or process defects.

There are other amendments to support these changes, including requiring the insurer to correctly calculate their claim and provide supporting information or documents on request and allowing the Chief Executive Medicare to approve forms for use under the program. These amendments will support the objective of the premiums reduction scheme and ensure persons are validly registered as participants and that the payment of the rebate to insurers is lawful. The rebate supports the affordability of private health insurance and access to private healthcare services for participants. The delegated legislation will allow the minister to specify criteria that must be met in order for the Chief Executive Medicare to register a participant in the scheme and pay the claim. This is because the current system can conduct only a limited number of checks. The criteria can be updated if the system is updated in the future to conduct a wider range of checks. The minister will also be able to change the period which the Chief Executive Medicare takes to refuse a registration if the proposed timeframe does not work as intended. Currently, administratively it allows for 90 days, but this will be reduced to 30 days to provide the applicant with certainty sooner. Additionally, the minister will be allowed to include additional decisions in the Private Health Insurance Act that are considered appropriate to be undertaken using automated administrative action. This provides allowance for future system upgrades when it may be possible to automate other actions.

Thirdly, the bill amends the Health Insurance Act to remedy identified legal issues and to delay commencement of changes introduced by the Health Insurance Legislation Amendment (Assignment of Medicare Benefits) Act 2024. Assignment of benefits is a longstanding requirement of the Health Insurance Act. It provides the basis for government paying Medicare benefits when the patient assigns their right to a Medicare benefit to a medical provider, private health insurer or approved billing agent. The government's Health Insurance Legislation Amendment (Assignment of Medicare Benefits) Act responds to the payment authority integrity risks by streamlining the assignment process for patients, medical providers, private health insurers and approved billing agents and enabling digital assignment options. This is rather than the paper based processes currently envisioned in the Health Insurance Act. This bill supports modernising the assignment of Medicare benefits by addressing limitations of the assignment of Medicare benefits act, the Health Insurance Act and supporting regulations. The ability for a patient to assign their Medicare benefits underpins bulk-billing. The bill will delay commencement of schedule 1 of the assignment of Medicare benefits act, which is due to commence on 9 January 2026. Deferring it to 1 July 2026 will support the industry and consumers to comply with new assignment-of-benefits requirements, particularly where this will occur through private sector software which must be updated to reflect the new assignment-of-benefits processes.

In the meantime bulk-billing can continue under current processes and arrangements. This will include additional incentives for bulk-billed services which start from 1 November this year in line with the government's election commitment. The government has committed $14.2 billion in 2025-26 to fund the implementation of reforms outlined in the assignment of Medicare benefits act and subordinate regulations. This includes updates to Services Australia software systems and education and communication activities to ensure stakeholders are aware of and prepared for the new digital assignment arrangements. Passage of this bill will ensure that the government's 2025 election commitment of $7.9 billion in bulk-billing incentive payments to encourage increased bulk-billing rates will not be adversely impacted by non-compliant business software. The minister will have the power to create an instrument which categorises existing Medicare Benefits Schedule services. The intended use is in bulk-billing assignment agreements. This information will be shown as a basic service description to assigners when seeking their agreement to assign benefits before services are provided and before the exact Medicare benefit amount to assign is known.

Fourthly, the bill will amend the Health Insurance Act 1973 to enhance the Bonded Medical Program. This will ensure the consequences of breaching a condition or withdrawal from the program fairly balance both the personal circumstances of the bonded participant and the broader interests of the community. It will also allow all work completed by the bonded participant in good faith and consistent with the program objectives to be counted towards their return-of-service obligation. Currently, former Medical Rural Bonded Scholarship Scheme participants who voluntarily opted in to the statutory program who failed to complete their return-of-service obligation within the allowed 18-year period or withdrew from the program earlier face repayment of their scholarship and a six-year Medicare ban. While this financial penalty is appropriate, subjecting these doctors to a Medicare ban, which will occur for some starting December 2025, will jeopardise continued service provision and access to care for Australians living in rural, regional and remote communities and perhaps in other areas of workforce shortages. Given broader workforce shortages, a six-year Medicare ban is not in the interests of either the individual bonded doctor or the Australian community.

Removing the ban will also ensure that the consequences of breaching the return-of-service obligation are more consistent for all bonded doctors. Students can currently withdraw from the program without consequences up to the HECS census date in their second year of study. If the student withdraws after that date, they incur a debt to the Commonwealth equal to the full cost of the Commonwealth supported place up to the date of withdrawal. This is in addition to their HECS or HELP liability. The proposed amendment will extend the existing grace period from the HECS census date in the second year of study to the award of a medical degree.

The bill will provide the Minister for Health and Ageing with the capacity to make additional rules to recognise work completed by bonded participants as part of their return-of-service obligation where this is consistent with the program objectives, including work completed prior to transitioning to the statutory Bonded Medical Program. Examples of work that cannot presently be recognised include work undertaken under legacy schemes that is or may become eligible under the program as well as work undertaken in locations erroneously advised by the government as eligible.

The Albanese Labor government continues to build and strengthen our healthcare sector. This legislation is an important step to protect health care and Medicare into the future. I commend the bill to the House.

Mr MATT SMITH (Leichhardt) (17:03): I rise to speak on the Health Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures No. 1) Bill 2025. Once again we are here discussing how good Labor is for the Australian health system. This bill will help deliver a list of technical changes that will overall ensure better administration and delivery of key government systems and programs. This will include supporting the automation of Medicare provider numbers; modernising the assignment of Medicare benefits, bulk-billing and simplified billing; and ensuring the consequences of breaching a condition and/or withdrawal from the Bonded Medical Program are fairly balanced. All of these changes will build towards a better administrated and more efficient public health system. It's a win for the Australian public and a win for medical professionals. It is a good change, with our government committed to delivering better health care to Australians.

The Albanese Labor government is strengthening Medicare right across the board, with more doctors, more urgent care clinics and cheaper medicines. We are making the largest investment in Medicare since its creation over 40 years ago. And I'll just remind everyone—just in case you haven't heard—Labor built Medicare, and we will always protect it. I'd like to take out my Medicare card and wave it, but I don't feel like testing that boundary today!

Our government is investing $8.5 billion to deliver an additional 18 million bulk-billed GP visits each year, hundreds of nursing scholarships and thousands more doctors in the largest GP training program ever. Australian patients and families will save hundreds of dollars in out-of-pocket costs, with patient savings of up to $859 million a year by 2030. We are expanding bulk-billing incentives to all Australians for the first time and boosting Medicare payments to general practices that bulk-bill every patient. This means nine out of 10 GP visits will be bulk-billed by 2030. We expect it to boost the number of fully bulk-billed practices to around 4,800 nationally—triple the current number of practices. That's why the Anthony Albanese government is tripling the bulk-billing incentive from 1 November—to get more people involved. Nine out of 10 is 90 per cent. It is a worthy aspiration and something we are going to deliver.

We also know that primary health care is important, and that's why we funded more bulk-billing and are delivering local Medicare urgent care clinics. The Medicare urgent care clinic model is simple: provide bulk-billing care for urgent, non-threatening conditions—kid rolls an ankle, falls off a skateboard or gets bitten by a dog, or you cut yourself shaving. They're open seven days a week with extended hours, with no appointment needed. The Albanese government has now opened over 90 Medicare urgent care clinics across the country, with more than 1.8 million Australians receiving treatment. Medicare urgent care clinics are taking the pressure off hospitals. It means hospitals can spend more time on the life-threatening emergencies they were built for, and it means patients can get in, get out and get back home, where they want to be. During the election, we committed to deliver 15 new Medicare urgent care clinics right across the country. Once all of Labor's Medicare urgent care clinics are open, four in five Australians will live within a 20-minute drive of an urgent care clinic. And all you will need is your Medicare card, never your credit card.

In Queensland, there have been more than 367,000 presentations. One of the busiest is the Cairns South Medicare urgent care clinic, located in the suburb of Edmonton. That's why, during the election, we committed to increase the resources of the Cairns South Medicare urgent care clinic and deliver a Medicare urgent care clinic for the northern parts of Cairns. The north of Cairns gets cut off during the wet season. During Cyclone Jasper, the Northern Beaches would have been unable to get any form of medical attention. This urgent care clinic will resolve that problem. I'm happy to announce the tender is now open, and very soon we'll be able to deliver that for the people of Cairns.

We've also delivered cheaper medicines. Labor has passed laws to cut the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme co-payment from $31.60 to $25 from 1 January next year, delivering on another of our election commitments. The last time PBS medicines cost no more than $25 was in 2004. That's more than 20 years ago. This is being delivered to ease another key cost-of-living pressure. Having already slashed the cost of medicine by the largest amount in the history of the PBS, we will now go even further, with a more than 20 per cent cut to the maximum cost of PBS medicines, which will save Australians over $200 million a year. Making medicines cheaper is a tangible way we are improving people's lives. You should never have to choose between medicine and a meal.

Four out of five of these medicines will become cheaper because of this investment. Pensioners and concession card holders will continue to benefit from the freeze on the cost of their PBS medicines, with the cost frozen at its current level of $7.70 until 2030. This is just the latest step in our ambition to deliver cheaper medicines for Australians. The Albanese Labor government has already delivered more free and cheaper medicines sooner, with a 25 per cent reduction in the number of scripts a concessional patient must fill before they hit the PBS safety net. That's the largest cut to the cost of medicines in the history of the PBS, with the maximum cost falling from $42 to $30. There are 60-day prescriptions, saving time and money for millions of Australians. Those are very important in an electorate like mine. If you live on the stations or in one of the communities and the nearest pharmacy is a three-hour drive away, you want to go in every two months rather than every fortnight. Cheaper medicines are good for the hip pocket and good for your health. If you don't believe me, I can tell you that, in Queensland, more than $330 million has been saved on 55 million cheaper scripts. Is it any surprise the Australian public have always supported and loved Medicare? Yet we're delivering more.

The Anthony Albanese Labor government is delivering more, lower cost and better health care for women and girls. We know that women too often experience delayed diagnosis for conditions, from endometriosis to heart disease. Their pain is dismissed. They struggle with issues such as unplanned pregnancies, menopause and miscarriage. The medical fraternity—and it quite often is a fraternity—has often gaslit women, not taking their medical conditions seriously. The Anthony Albanese government seeks to change that. It has listened and announced half a billion dollars in new investments for women for right across their entire lifespan.

Hundreds of thousands of Australian women are now accessing cheaper medicines and better health care due to our government's commitments. This includes the first PBS listing of new oral contraceptive pills in more than 30 years with the listing of Yaz, Yasmin and Slinda, saving 150,000 women hundreds of dollars a year. There is more choice, lower cost and better access to long-term contraceptives, with larger Medicare payments and more bulk-billing for IUDs and birth control implants, saving around 300,000 women a year up to $400 out of pocket. There is more Medicare support for women experiencing menopause, with the new Medicare rebate for menopause health assessments, funding to train health professionals, the first-ever clinical guidelines and a national awareness campaign. There is the first PBS listing for new menopausal hormone therapies in over 20 years, with around 150,000 women saving hundreds of dollars a year from the listings of Prometrium, Estrogel and Estrogel Pro.

There are more endo and pelvic pain clinics treating more conditions. We're opening 11 new clinics and ensuring all 33 clinics are staffed to provide specialist support for menopause. There are new endo treatment options as well, including the PBS listing of Ryeqo. There are contraceptives and treatment for uncomplicated UTIs from pharmacies, with two national trials to benefit 250,000 concession card holders, who will be able to consult a trained pharmacist at no cost. If medications are required, they pay only the usual medicine cost. Australian women undergoing IVF will receive earlier and more affordable access to fertility treatment, with Pergoveris pens added onto the PBS and the maximum number of pens increased to four instead of two per script. This is a massive and much-needed investment to ensure Australian women can access the health care they need.

Those are the facts—a list of what's going on. But it doesn't talk about the investment in Medicare and what that means to the people of Leichhardt, what that means to my own family and what that means to millions of families around Australia. My children were born in the public hospital, both of them. A midwife came and checked on us. It was all free of charge. My friend Dr Steve Sutcliffe is a cardiologist. He refuses to work in private practice; he'll only work in public. He travels the cape. He diagnoses and treats RHD, a disease that has no place in modern Australia yet is prevalent throughout our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in Far North Queensland. None of those people have access to private medicine. They are wholly reliant on Medicare and on people like my friend Dr Steve.

From my own personal experience, having lived in a place where there is no public health care, I can say that a shoulder reconstruction costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. The plastic surgery to reattach my lip was $70,000 or $80,000. In Australia, I had a stroke. I spent three days in hospital. I came home with just my Medicare card. These are tangible differences. This is what makes Australia great—the socialisation, the Medicare system that gives us bulk-billing and gives us the confidence to go to a hospital, not worry about that insurance payment and get the medicine that we need to get back home and live our lives. It is one of the great and enduring parts of Australian culture. It was built by Labor. It is protected by Labor. It is expanded by Labor.

These changes might seem technical and small in nature, but they streamline a system that makes a difference every single day to every single Australian. We know that there's more work to be done, and I know that, as a government, we will always put the health of Australians first, because it is the most important thing that you have. Without your health, you have nothing else. And the Anthony Albanese Labor government will ensure that Australia has its health.

Ms WHITE (Lyons—Assistant Minister for Women, Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care and Assistant Minister for Indigenous Health) (17:14): First, I thank all members for their contributions to the debate on this bill. The Health Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures No. 1) Bill 2025 does streamline Medicare provider number administrative processes so that health practitioners receive their Medicare provider number sooner.

Schedule 1 of this bill will amend the Health Insurance Act 1973 to enable the Chief Executive Medicare to approve the use of a computer program to make decisions to allow Medicare provider numbers, including validating Medicare provider numbers that were previously issued by a computer program. This will only apply to positive decisions to issue a Medicare provider number, and any decision requiring assessment of a discretionary factor will still be mainly processed by a service officer. Schedule 1 also confirms that any Medicare provider numbers issued by automation remain valid so there is no impact on health practitioners or their patients for services previously provided.

Our government is committed to ensuring that there is a sufficient and sustainable health workforce to meet the healthcare needs of Australians. The Australian government, together with state and territory governments, has committed to implementing all health related recommendations from the independent review of Australia's regulatory settings relating to overseas health practitioners. This will help to ease the shortage in the health workforce by removing unnecessary barriers and improving and expediting regulatory processes for more overseas health practitioners to commence working in the Australian health system sooner. This bill supports a key recommendation from the review to automate the issuance of Medicare provider numbers.

Schedule 1 also confirms the conditions that applicants must meet to be issued an MPN, ensuring the highest standards of healthcare provision are maintained. I would like to let the House know that Services Australia, the Department of Social Services and the Department of Veterans' Affairs were consulted as part of the drafting of the bill and support this streamlining process.

Schedule 2 of the bill amends the Private Health Insurance Act 2007. This is to support processes for claiming the private health insurance rebate upfront through the premium reduction scheme. The self-assessment process will be supported by postpayment compliance activities.

Schedule 3 of the bill makes changes to the Health Insurance Act 1973 and Health Insurance Legislation Amendment (Assignment of Medicare Benefits) Act 2024 to allow finalisation of regulations to modernise and digitise the assignment of Medicare benefits and to delay commencement of the new processes from 9 January 2026 to 1 July 2026 to provide industry more time to ensure the necessary software and system changes can be made.

For simplified billing, the bill enables any eligible person covered by a private health insurance policy to assign Medicare benefits and reduces the administrative burden on providers of privately insured services associated with mandatory notification, without reducing patient access to this information. For bulk-billing, the bill will enable the completion of regulations for enduring agreements to complement the government's primary care payment reforms, such as MyMedicare. It also provides for a new legislative instrument to be delegated to the Minister for Health and Ageing and Minister for Disability and the National Disability Insurance Scheme to make service information simpler for patients and to inform an assignment decision.

Amending the commencement date to 1 July 2026 will be welcomed by stakeholders, who will now have additional time to adopt modern and simplified assignments that benefit the processes, including through updating their software products which are used to manage clinical businesses. Modernising, simplifying and making assignment of benefit easier for patients and providers will strengthen Medicare now and into the future. I think it's important to note some of those timelines included in this particular bill and the importance of progressing this legislation.

Schedule 4 of the bill amends part VD of the Health Insurance Act 1973 to enhance elements of the Bonded Medical Program. I would like to acknowledge the questions that were put by the member for Nicholls in his contribution, and I provide some answers to those questions that I hope will provide further information. The bill ensures consequences for breaching a condition or for withdrawing from the program and balances the personal circumstances of the bonded participant with the broader interests of the community. There were questions around further clarification of what this means.

We know that, due to the specialisation of some doctors, there is a risk they have breached and, as a consequence, have a ban of six years from billing under Medicare. This is bad not only for them but for patients who might be in need of services that they have been providing, so we are removing this consequence.

We also know that currently, if a medical student withdraws before the census date in their second year, they avoid any debt. What we intend to do, if this bill successfully passes, is to extend that grace period, which would mean that any withdrawal after this date—the census date in year 2 of their medical degree—up until they finish would be regarded as within the period where, if they incurred a debt, it could be waived.

We have circumstances where somebody hasn't completed their medical degree but, under this program, they have a debt raised against them, which could be between $100,000 and $140,000, that they've been asked to repay. This change recognises that, if a student hasn't completed their degree, they shouldn't be required to pay this debt, and this is due to the acknowledgement that personal circumstances change. There might be a person who is 17 or 18 and commits to a medical degree. They might be embarking on a bonded medical program, thinking that they could continue to complete that degree at that placement, and circumstances change for them. I can update the House and let you know that the cohort is very small with regard to the types of medical students we're talking about here who don't complete their degrees. However, the impact on them is enormous when they are faced with a student debt of $100,000 or more and they have no qualification to show for it. So we propose this amendment through this legislation to ensure this is fairer.

There were questions raised by the member for Nicholls about concerns that doctors won't have to work for as long in rural areas under the changes proposed. This amendment bill aims to simplify the Bonded Medical Program. The department administers, I understand, about 36 different contracts and different contract types due to the legacy schemes for bonded medical students across a range of different schemes over the last couple of decades. For example, there was a legacy scheme that ran between the years of 2016 and 2019 or thereabouts wherein there was only a need to do one year of a rural placement as part of the return-of-service obligation. What we are doing here is acknowledging that there are different lengths of time. We are trying to simplify and also be consistent, with a three-year requirement for the return-of-service obligation for those medical students. The explanatory memorandum, in 'Part 3—Bonded Medical Program rules', does explain in detail the reason for this change, which is about more fairly recognising work completed by bonded participants, and I draw the member's attention to that section of the explanatory memorandum.

As the member for Macarthur spoke about in his contribution, these changes to the Bonded Medical Program will make it more flexible and aid any uptake of rural bonded scholarships as an option for medical students. We understand that there isn't as great an uptake as we would like of the rural bonded medical program because there is an inflexibility to the scheme, which we are seeking to address through making these changes which provide for greater consistency and simplification.

Our government is very committed to providing greater access to health services and health care for all Australians, no matter where they live. As a member who also represents a regional electorate, I can empathise with the concerns that were raised by the member for Nicholls and appreciate his interest in ensuring that we provide access to health care to Australians no matter where they live. He will be very pleased to know that, alongside the good work of the Murray-Darling medical school that he spoke about, our government has also seen an increase in the number of medical students studying right around the country.

Since 2022 the government has invested in over 140 new medical Commonwealth supported places, with a focus on training in rural communities. In 2022 we had 3,095 commenced CSPs; we are looking to increase that to 3,450 by 2028. We've had 80 new commencing CSPs per year and funding for end-to-end rural medical training across six medical schools; 20 new commencing CSPs per year and funding for James Cook University's Cairns medical school; and 40 new commencing CSPs per year and $27.4 million in funding to establish the Charles Darwin University medical school. And, in the 2025-26 budget, the Australian government committed a further $48.4 million for up to 150 new primary care focused medical student places as one element of our $606 million GP workforce package. There are also the 100 CSPs currently out for tender now that we heard the Minister for Health and Ageing speak about in question time today. They'll be distributed by a competitive process for universities with existing medical schools, and a further 50 new commencing CSPs per year will be on offer from 2028 and open to universities that do not currently possess a medical school.

We also made two commitments in the 2025 federal election to support up to 68 additional medical places at the University of Tasmania and Queensland University of Technology by converting some of their non-medical CSPs. The University of Tasmania will be allowed to provide 20 commencing medical places based in Launceston from 2026, and Queensland University of Technology will be allowed to provide 48 commencing places from 2027, subject to AMC accreditation of its proposed medical school. We are training more doctors than we have ever before. There are record numbers this year compared to last year, and we are hopeful that next year we will see an intake that is even greater than the record numbers we've seen this year. Our government is very committed to training more health professionals, including more doctors; to providing more bulk-billing and more access to urgent care clinics; and, of course, to providing cheaper medicines to Australians.

I understand that the department has offered a briefing to members opposite to support them in getting more information about the Bonded Medical Program. I hope this provides them with further answers to the questions that were raised so that we can have the support of this parliament for this bill. There are some key dates that we need to address so that we can commence this to alleviate some of the pressure on medical students or those who have started a medical degree but haven't finished and have a debt raised against them, not only to streamline and simplify the processes for those who are in the Bonded Medical Program but also to deal with some of those other bulk-billing matters by the automation of some of our systems. That will allow more time for our general practitioners to have the software in place so that they can commence appropriately from the middle of next year, rather than the start of next year, which is what the timeline currently allows for. This bill would give them more time, and I would expect and hope that all members of this parliament would be endeavouring to support our GPs and GP practices so that they can take full advantage of bulk-billing provisions to support patients across the country.

I thank everyone who made a contribution to this bill. It is clear how important affordable access to health care is right across this country, and it was reflected in all of the contributions on this bill. Our government is working very hard to deliver on our commitment to strengthen Medicare, and this bill is another step in that endeavour. I thank members for their contributions.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Message from the Governor-General recommending appropriation announced.

Ms WHITE (Lyons—Assistant Minister for Women, Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care and Assistant Minister for Indigenous Health) (17:28): by leave—I move:

That this bill be now read a third time.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a third time.

Mr LEESER (Berowra) (17:29): The Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025 amends the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979, the Surveillance Devices Act 2004 and the Crimes Act 1914 to ensure key provisions operate as intended. It also makes technical amendments flowing from the government's decision to reconstitute the Home Affairs portfolio following the federal election.

Schedule 1 to the bill permits protected network activity warrant and warrant intercept information to be used, communicated and recorded to meet disclosure obligations. It also allows the information to be admitted in evidence where necessary to ensure the defensible prosecution of criminal activity while retaining the intelligence-only purpose of network activity warrants.

Schedule 2 amends the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 to transfer the statutory functions of the Communications Access Coordinator from the Secretary of the Attorney-General's Department to the Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs. This change is only necessary because the Albanese Labor government dismantled the Home Affairs portfolio after the 2022 election. Following the 2025 election the Albanese Labor government restored the Home Affairs portfolio to the original structure established under the coalition by returning the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission and the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre to the Home Affairs portfolio. This came after the coalition took this commitment to the election while Labor made no such commitment. The decision to reconstitute the Home Affairs portfolio following the election and the Prime Minister's election acknowledgement that there were issues with information-sharing during the Dural caravan incident are an admission that the national security architecture he put in place failed at a critical time. The government should apologise for putting party politics over Australia's national security by changing the Home Affairs portfolio three times in three years in a pointless, factional tug-of-war.

Schedule 3 amends the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 to permit limited access to stored communications to allow agencies to undertake development and testing activities in circumstances where they otherwise would have been authorised to intercept the same communication if it were still passing over the telecommunication system. These changes will ensure the framework remains fit for purpose in the modern operating environment where stored communications may pass over the telecommunication system alongside and become indistinguishable from live communications.

Schedule 4 corrects a technical issue with the operation of interception international production orders in the T(IA) Act that was preventing international production orders from being given to US based prescribed communication providers in certain circumstances under the agreement between the government of Australia and the government of the United States of America on access to electronic data for the purpose of countering serious crime. The amendments clarify that interception orders issued to Australian law enforcement and national security agencies may be used to obtain prospective content data from communications providers in a country with which Australia has a designated international agreement regardless of the technical method by which that prospective data is sent to the agency.

Schedule 5 amends the Crimes Act to clarify the threshold for authorising and varying controlled operations in the circumstances in which a participant is protected from criminal responsibility and indemnified against civil liability. The anonymous nature of online crime means law enforcement may lack information to assess potential risks when deciding whether to authorise or vary a controlled operation. The amendments will clarify that authorising officers must consider the indirect and reasonable foreseeable consequences of controlled conduct when varying a controlled operation.

Schedule 5 also provides clarity around legal protections for officers involved in undercover operations targeted at taking down sexual abuse syndicates. In the 2024-25 financial year the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation's Child Protection Triage Unit received 82,764 reports of online child sexual exploitation. I just want to underscore that by saying it again. The ACCCE received 82,764 reports of online sexual exploitation in a single year. That equates to an average of 226 reports per day. The need for strong action against these predators has never been more acute. These amendments ensure the law is fit for purpose in addressing the most abhorrent online crimes where the persons under investigation are anonymised, including on the dark web and encrypted communications platforms.

The changes in the Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment Bill provide essential clarifications to ensure that the agencies that keep our nation safe can continue to do so in an era of rapid technological development. The coalition will always support sensible reforms which ensure that the men and women serving in intelligence and law enforcement roles have the tools they need to take down criminals no matter where they are hiding. We will be supporting this bill without amendment.

Ms CLUTTERHAM (Sturt) (17:35): I wish to begin this speech by acknowledging the outstanding work of the individual Australians who work for our security agencies. Often faced with challenging, complex and disturbing situations, these Australians turn up to work every day in order to serve their fellow countrymen and countrywomen by taking steps to keep us safe, to investigate matters and to ensure that perpetrators of horrific offences can be brought to justice and that the victims of these offences feel heard and can try to move forward with their lives in the knowledge that action is being taken to prevent the same things happening to others.

This bill, the Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025, sets forth a number of very technical amendments that recognise that we are in an era of rapid and constantly changing and evolving technological and cyber development and that law enforcement agencies are being expected to operate in this challenging environment whilst remaining charged with the very serious obligation to protect Australians. More specifically, this bill makes technical amendments to the Surveillance Devices Act 2004, the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 and the Crimes Act 1914. These amendments are required to clarify or correct provisions in Australia's electronic surveillance and law enforcement frameworks, particularly when they have been rendered less effective due to technological change. The amendments are set out in the various schedules to the bill.

Firstly, schedule 1 sets out the proposed amendments to the Surveillance Devices Act 2004 and the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979. The amendments have the effect of enabling agencies and prosecutors to disclose information obtained under network activity warrants for the purposes of complying with their disclosure obligations in a prosecution for a relevant offence. For clarity, network activity warrants are used for the collection of intelligence that relates to criminal networks operating online. Without these amendments, the current disclosure arrangements would remain in place. This current regime prohibits disclosure of information obtained pursuant to a network activity warrant, which not only limits the prosecution but presents an access-to-justice issue in that individuals may be denied the opportunity to receive a fair trial. This is because those individuals in relation to whom information is obtained pursuant to a network activity warrant do not currently have access to it, which is unfair if the evidence and information obtained through these warrants may assist those people in their own defence. So these changes promote the Commonwealth's compliance with the duty of disclosure that it owes to courts in relation to network activity warrant information. Quite understandably and quite rightly, disclosure of this information will remain limited and subject to strict safeguards, but these amendments deliver the required clarity so that the Commonwealth can provide necessary information to facilitate the defensible prosecution of serious criminal activity.

Then we have the amendments set out in schedule 2, which relate to the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979. This amendment seeks to transfer the regulatory role of the Communications Access Coordinator from the Secretary of the Attorney-General's Department to the Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs. It does this to reflect postelection machinery-of-government changes. The Communications Access Coordinator is responsible for liaising between state and Commonwealth security and law enforcement agencies, the Commonwealth telecommunications regulator and the telecommunications industry. It is a function that also supports industry to understand and comply with relevant interception capability obligations under the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979.

Moving to schedule 3, these amendments are technical in nature and apply to that same act to ensure that the framework for testing and developing technologies and interception capabilities can operate in the manner that parliament intended. They are designed to ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to facilitate the proper development and testing of new capabilities by intelligence and law enforcement agencies. Specifically, the Attorney-General will be empowered to authorise agencies to access communications that are stored in like circumstances where they would have been authorised to intercept these communications when they were live, but only for the purpose of developing and testing technologies and interception capabilities.

The difference this amendment makes is that currently only live communications can be used by agencies for testing and development purposes. Stored communications may pass over the telecommunications system alongside live communications. At the point of interception, these stored communications are indistinguishable from live communications—for example, when emails are synced between two devices at the same time as messages are being transmitted between them.

This crossover is occurring because technological advancements are facilitating it. That being the case in these circumstances, and because of this indistinguishability, access to stored communications cannot be avoided. That is why agencies require authorisation to access both live communications and stored communications for testing and development purposes. Stored communications that are accessed for this purpose will follow authorisation from the Attorney-General and can be used only for that purpose and for no other purpose. Importantly, they cannot be used for intelligence purposes, investigative purposes or anything else. As for this ring fenced purpose, stored communications that are accessed pursuant to this schedule 3 amendment will be treated no differently to live communications.

Moving to schedule 4 to the bill, this schedule operates to amend the international production order framework in the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979, with the motivation for the amendment being to give effect to the original intent of this regime. The international production order framework in that act is found in schedule 1. It is a framework that permits Australia to enter into agreements with other countries to share electronic information for the purposes of countering serious crime. An example is the Australia-US data access agreement signed in 2021, which facilitates Australian and United States law enforcement and national security agencies to obtain orders for data held by communication service providers in the partner nation without the need for separate review and authorisation. These arrangements operate to improve the overall effectiveness of Australian and United States investigations and prosecutions of serious crimes.

An international production order can be issued for the purpose of enforcing criminal law to monitor persons subject to supervisory orders and for national security reasons. Information that is covered by an international production order includes live and stored communications and telecommunications data. Examples include files uploaded to a storage or backup service, emails and chat history, in addition to the related information to those communications.

International production orders are an important tool in the toolbox that Australia has at its disposal to prosecute serious crimes. The amendments proposed by schedule 4 to this bill will provide certainty that interception orders issued to Australian law enforcement and national security agencies may be used to obtain prospective content data from communications providers in a country with which Australia has a designated international agreement, regardless of the technical method by which that prospective data is sent to the agency. In plain language, these amendments will make the international production order regime more technology neutral, ensuring that Australian agencies' use of these powers is available to request access to communications held by a US communications provider now and into the future, regardless of the technical methods that those providers use to access communications, all subject to the current safeguards in the framework.

Finally, there is schedule 5 to the bill. This schedule proposes amendments to the Crimes Act 1914 to clarify and strengthen safeguards in the controlled operations provisions framework. Pursuant to section 15GD of the Crimes Act:

A controlled operation is an operation that:

(a) involves the participation of law enforcement officers; and

(b) is carried out for the purpose of obtaining evidence that may lead to the prosecution of a person for a serious Commonwealth offence or a serious State offence that has a federal aspect; and

(c) may involve a law enforcement officer or other person in conduct that would, apart from section 15HA, constitute a Commonwealth offence or an offence against a law of a State or Territory.

Controlled operations might include infiltrating serious and organised crime groups, identifying and rescuing victims of abuse or gathering evidence for the prosecution of serious offences, including in relation to online sexual abuse syndicates. Plainly, controlled operations involve serious risks and must therefore be appropriately safeguarded. The nature and development of the online world have meant the prevalence of the crimes committed while facilitated online is increasing. Perpetrators can hide on the internet, and they do so in sophisticated manners, making it difficult to gather information and difficult to assess the risks when determining whether a controlled operation should proceed or be varied. Authorising officers currently have insufficient guidelines as to the extent to which they are expected to foresee potential risks and not authorise or vary a controlled operation in the context of these risks.

The amendments proposed by schedule 5 oblige authorising officers to consider the direct and reasonably foreseeable consequences of controlled conduct when authorising or burying a controlled operation instead of any conduct of third parties, as was the original intent of these thresholds. Critically, the proposed amendments set out in schedule 5 provide clearer legal protections for officers who are participating in undercover operations designed to disrupt and take down sexual abuse syndicates. A sobering statistic is that, in the 2023-2024 financial year alone, reports of online child exploitation to the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation increased by 45 per cent from the previous year. So officers doing this challenging and sometimes horrific work need to be able to do it without fear of personal liability.

Full and fearless investigations are the only way these sorts of crimes can be investigated and the only way mitigation strategies to reduce or eliminate the further perpetration of these crimes can be implemented. Therefore, the proposed framework will retain the appropriate carve-outs for liability protections where officers engage in otherwise illegal behaviour not pursuant to an approved control operation and where their conduct is likely to cause the death or serious injury of a person or where their conduct would involve the commission of a sexual offence against a person. Without these amendments, law enforcement agencies will lack the confidence and agency to authorise and deploy controlled operations in online spaces, particularly as they relate to the investigation and disruption of child sexual abuse syndicates.

In commending this bill to the House, I finish by again expressing my deepest gratitude to those who do this work in service to their fellow Australians.

Mr TIM WILSON (Goldstein) (17:49): In the era of national security, all legislation is, of course, enormously important, but it's also equally important that we scrutinise all pieces of legislation to make sure there is not needless overreach and to make sure this parliament is always getting the balance right. We all believe in the importance of human freedom and dignity but also in making sure that we have a secure environment and making sure that we have appropriate crackdowns on those people who wish our community and our society harm—particularly those who are most vulnerable, children in particular—and those who want to perpetrate sexual violence and harm. That's the basis on which this legislation, the Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025, has been put forward to this parliament.

I will have served in this parliament now for six years in about five months, with a little bit of a gap in between some of that tenure, and have served on the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, including with the current Minister for Small Business, who is sitting at the table opposite me. One of the challenges you confront—and it's a difficult thing to confront—is that, because we have an enormous amount of faith and hope in our country and our fellow citizens, sometimes some of our fellow citizens fall short. I don't just mean fall short. Sometimes they fall short in a very large way, and we see the dark depths of humanity. When we find those dark depths and when our agencies that are charged responsible for making sure those people are held accountable, we need to make sure that they have the laws and tools available to them. We need them to be able to go into those deep, dark recesses, particularly online and through telecommunication platforms, to find them; to make sure the content they are producing, what it is they are doing and the harm they are doing, particularly against those who are vulnerable, can be exposed and brought into the sunlight; and to make sure that there's a full pathway for prosecution.

That's why legislation like this matters. What we're actually doing is empowering our agencies—whether they're Federal Police or other intelligence organisations or whether they're working across international borders—to be able to go into places like the dark web and discover the deep, dark realities and the shortcomings of humanity. This legislation is very important because it's a tragedy that, when you engage in some of the responsibilities that you must engage in in this office that we all hold in our different capacities, you see what humanity is capable of. More importantly, you see how people will treat the most vulnerable, in particular children—whether it's sexual crimes, abuse or sexual violence—the content people will create, capture or distribute; and the different mechanisms by which they connect with other people who find satisfaction through such crimes.

Of course, we in the opposition are supporting this legislation because we understand how important it is to protect children and, of course, anyone else who is at the end of sexual violence, sexual crimes or any other type of violent crime where people perpetuate or use telecommunications as a mechanism to do harm. It's more important because we understand how much technology has become an enabler of some of the most distressing parts of increased crime. There are lots of different challenges that are now being presented. We know that telecommunications is a very significant part of the networks that organised crime uses. It's a very important part of how terrorist organisations connect with each other, whether it's through mechanisms of distribution of finance, distributing information to others around the promotion and propagation of the information about their crimes, or pathways of coordination for their various different attacks. It's also for other types of harm, where people use telecommunications as a mechanism to distribute the consequences of their criminal conduct and to be able to send it out to consumers as well.

As we use technology to identify pathways to address what might be through traditional channels, what we see more and more of is telecommunications pathways going deeper and darker into the recesses of the internet, beneath the things that you or I, or average people, would use to be able to distribute that information. The consequence of that is that the powers our agencies need to crack down on it are becoming much more substantial. They need powers so they can access information, and they need pathways to represent others and be in a position to get information from people so that they can provide the evidentiary basis to go through to points of identification and prosecution. We have dealt with this before on the intelligence and security committee, when I was on it. Some of the legislative measures have continued to evolve and take time; that includes what is presented before the parliament today. It's also something we on this side of the chamber, leading up to the last election, said we would be very aggressive in continuing to pursue, particularly around mandatory minimum sentences, particularly when telecommunications devices are used for things like sexual violence and crime, particularly against women. We understand how much it can become an enabler, how much we see it as a significant and serious threat into the future and how we need to take these issues very seriously.

Sitting behind anything that happens in the online world is something that's actually happening in the real world. When the online world becomes an enabler of crime, it's becoming an enabler of crime in the real world. And sitting behind every one of those stories are real people—often, as I've said before, some of the most vulnerable within our community. So it's extremely important that we give the agencies the powers they need to be able to crack down on these types of crimes. More important than that, because telecommunications are not limited solely to what goes on within in the domestic boundaries of our great Commonwealth, is that we also need to make sure that our agencies have the capacity to access data and information that transcends our national boundaries.

This has been one of the biggest challenges for our agencies working with other governments and police force counterparts around the world. Once you leave Australia's national boundaries, so ends Australian national law. So we have partnerships, agreements and arrangements with governments and agencies in other countries to be able to information-share on a voluntary basis where we find it fruitful to do so. With some countries, we're not necessarily in the best position to have those arrangements, but there are countries where we can do it if we come to terms and work with their governments on a mutually beneficial basis. We have agreements in place with the United States, of course, which is of incredible importance, particularly for the infrastructure they have as part of the internet.

But there are countries we should have arrangements with or that we wish we had arrangements with because they are the harbours of so much illicit and illegal content on the internet. I think of countries like Russia, North Korea and so many others. They use themselves as safe havens for criminal activities. We know they do. They know they do. They become enablers of criminal activity which directly harms not just Australians, although Australians are caught up in it; they become enablers of criminal activity that has an impact on people in every nation around this world. Because of their role aboveboard and on the dark web, we're in a situation where they allow the criminals to write the rules, not the law-abiding citizens and democratic governments standing up for safety, for justice and for protecting the vulnerable.

Whatever our differences, I would hope that everybody in this chamber and this parliament fundamentally believes that the role of this parliament—the government that represents the people of Australia—is to make sure that we defend the best interests of those who cannot speak for themselves and that we stand up and say that there is no place on online platforms for things like sexual violence and sexual crimes against children. I am fully extending that with the absolute intent that that is the view of the government and that we need to bring forward the powers for our agencies and police to do everything to stamp that out. That's the basis on which, in a bipartisan way, we are supporting this legislation. We actually understand just how important it is to take these steps, because of the human impact that sits behind it.

Telecommunications powers matter. Getting them right matters. This legislation matters for the reasons I've outlined. That doesn't mean the government always get things right. We know and have lived with, in recent weeks, a situation where Australians have lost their lives as a direct consequence of what happens when the government—through intransigence, indifference or apparently because the minister is new—does not have the proper arrangements in place around telecommunications powers where Australians want to do simple things like dial triple 0 to be connected to an emergency service so that they can get the support they desperately need in a moment of health crisis. If they don't get that help, tragically, people die.

Triple 0—zero, zero, zero—represents the absence of the heartbeats of the lives lost. It should be one, one, one for the people who are still alive. One of the most disappointing things that we heard in question time today was how the minister responsible didn't see it as her responsibility. We heard the minister being quite happy to pass the buck to the telecommunications company as a way of avoidance and to accept that that number of Australians who desperately needed support in past weeks amounted to their lives being worth zero, zero, zero.

It's very sobering, because we all depend on telecommunications these days. We all desperately need the support and services. When the services are there, we need them to work for us. We need them to be able to do the task of protecting us, to secure the services we need, to empower Australians—whether it's access to health services or whether it's through crime and support and security. There are times in my electorate where people call the local police station, and they can't even get connected. There are times when they're using their mobile telephony across this country and expect to get access, but they can't even connect to a local telephone tower. This is a common complaint of members, particularly those from rural and regional Australia, but I can tell you that it happens even in the Goldstein electorate.

When it comes to the powers that this parliament affords our agencies, including the Australian Federal Police, ASIO and others, we want to be confident that, when those agencies are going after criminals, working with partners overseas, they are able to find people who are perpetuating harm—people who are committing crimes against children, against women or against any person, particularly where they're using nefarious recording of information, often involving sexual violence, sexual crimes—and that they can find that content and shut it down. This is not an unreasonable expectation. It is, in fact, exactly what everybody in this parliament should seek.

My hope is that, by passing this legislation, it will not be the end of this discussion—sadly, it will not be the end because, tragically, we see the dark depths of humanity in these conversations—but a continuation of the commitment from this parliament that we are serious about finding every pathway to crack down on those people who wish our fellow citizens harm and, more importantly, that we work with agencies around the world to stop the tragedy of those in our country who aid and assist other people in the commitment of their sexual violence and their sexual crimes and help bring them to justice as well.

This is a common cause of humanity. We should make sure that the internet and technology do not become, any more than absolutely necessary—the answer is it's never necessary, absolutely never—a pathway or an enabler to cause harm against those who cannot stand up or speak for themselves. That's why we support this legislation.

Mr McCORMACK (Riverina) (18:04): Anything that can make Australia's telecommunications even more watertight—the security thereof—has to be commended and supported, and the coalition does support the Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025. It's important legislation. As you've just heard from the member for Goldstein, our national security is vital. Obviously, what we need to do in the space of child exploitation through sex trafficking, particularly in the Philippines and South-East Asia, is crack on those nefarious characters who use telecommunications devices and other ways and means to do the wrong thing and to do great harm not only to children but, indeed, also to our nation's reputation.

I know, from when I was the shadow minister for the Pacific and international development, that the greatest exploiters of child sex trafficking in these areas were Australians, and that is very sad to say; it is abhorrent. Anything in this bill that can amend that, fix that, eradicate that has got to be seen as a good thing.

There was recently an article on SmartCompany, written by Morganne Kopittke, in relation to investment and false-billing scams costing small businesses $25 million. In the very well-researched article, the journalist wrote that Australian small businesses have lost just over $25 million to scams in two years, with investment scams and false billing pinpointed as the biggest drains on their bank accounts. You get this wrong image that criminal activity, when it is blue collar—if I could put it that way—is really bad but white-collar crime is in some way forgivable. In many ways, when you think about it, white-collar crime costs people their life savings, and it harms them—it sometimes even kills people—in other ways. In this article, the journalist wrote that a software company, Reckon, prepared some research. It's an accounting firm. This report analysed scam data from micro- and small businesses using scam statistics provided upon request by the National Anti-Scam Centre. They found that small businesses lost $17.3 million in 2023, with 2,490 cases reported. And the article says:

From January 1 to November 30, 2024, business scams cost Australian small businesses $7.9 million with 1,707 reports made according to Reckon's report.

I know that the former minister, the former assistant treasurer and member for Whitlam, who's now gone on to other things, did a lot of work in this regard. I applaud him for the efforts that he went to, to crack down on scams. I know he headed up a very well-attended forum in Wagga Wagga, where he warned people of the white-collar crime that exists, particularly in the area of small business and especially targeting older Australians. These scams have become much slicker, much more professional and much more believable. Anything that we can do to prevent this has to be seen to be a good thing.

This report from SmartCompany says:

For investment scams, small businesses saw a loss of more than $3.7 million, with 50 reports made, while false billing, which had 422 reports, recorded a loss of over $3.6 million.

Speaking with SmartCompany, Reckon's chief executive officer, Sam Allert, said:

… business scams cost Australia's small businesses millions each year—

of course, that's an understatement, because they absolutely do—

The financial and operational impact is often devastating, particularly for micro-businesses operating on tight margins.

That's what was reported. The quote that he gave was:

Scammers are becoming more sophisticated, using AI-driven phishing attacks and business email compromise scams that can be difficult to detect. This makes cybersecurity no longer optional but essential …

Small businesses must take a proactive approach by embedding cybersecurity into their daily operations. Implementing two-factor authentication, regularly updating software, and training staff to recognise scam tactics are crucial first steps.

But the difficulty, too, is that often you'll go onto a website that you need to access quickly—I know that this is the same for business—and you have to prove that you're a human. It's almost like the computers are taking over. And you have to look at each of the squares and mark the number of umbrellas or cars or bus signs or whatever the case might be to prove that you're not a bot and to prove that, in fact, you are a real human being. I know it's another form of ensuring that you are what you say you are and who you say you are, but—I tell you what—it is frustrating.

The article continues:

Allert added that many businesses also overlook the importance of cyber insurance, which can provide a safety net in the event of a breach.

And, of course, we've seen some spectacularly bad breaches in recent times with companies now, because they didn't take the measures, didn't take the steps, didn't take the precautions, having to pay up big time to customers who were quite innocently—or perhaps, in some cases, stupidly—separated from their money. Allert said:

Since email scams remain a common attack method, business owners must watch for red flags like unusual sender addresses, poor grammar, urgent requests, and emails impersonating trusted contacts.

Again, that's from the report. Allert then said:

Establishing verification protocols for payments and sensitive requests can help prevent costly mistakes.

Again, that's an understatement, but it's so true.

I want to commend the work that Bruce Billson has done as the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman in this particular area. I'm sorry that the government hasn't seen fit to increase his time with ASBFEO. I think it's a very good organisation; in fact, I know it's a very good organisation. I also commend him for the work that he is doing in the area of small business, building on the work he did as the best small-business minister this parliament has seen. I say that with all due respect to other small-business ministers, including me, who have actually occupied that role—and I know Anne Aly is doing it at the moment. But it's a critical role. It truly is.

But, to this bill, we are supporting the Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025. It ensures key provisions operate as intended, taking in the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979, the Surveillance Devices Act 2004 and the Crimes Act from way back in 1914. It flows from the government's decision to reconstitute the Home Affairs portfolio from the federal election.

The decision to reconstitute the Home Affairs portfolio after the May election and the Prime Minister's recognition that there were issues with information sharing during the Dural caravan incident are an admission that the national security framework that he put in place by dismantling the Home Affairs portfolio failed, and it did so at a critical juncture. It did. That has to be said. The federal government and the AFP need to work in with states and the various state police forces to ensure that, when we have incidents such as the Dural caravan incident, we absolutely get the information, we absolutely share it as much as possible with the public as soon as possible and we are upfront about it. And I'm not quite sure, in that particular case, that everything happened that way. I have to say that what we've seen is, unfortunately, party and factional politics winning over common sense and public safety, and that is perhaps not the greatest outcome.

The second schedule amends the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 to transfer the statutory function of the Communications Access Coordinator from the Secretary of the Attorney-General's Department to the Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs. That might sound like it's perfunctory, but it's not. It is a major change and is seen by the government to be a necessary amendment and update.

Schedule 3 amends the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 to permit limited access to stored communications to allow agencies to undertake development and testing activities in situations where they otherwise would have been authorised to intercept the same communication if they were still passing over a telecommunications system. I want to point this out: we are served—and very well served—by some wonderful public servants in ASIO, in the AFP and in those surveillance organisations and departments. I've seen them at their best, and I know the member for New England has as well, in our capacities of being second in charge, each of us, of national security during times of government. We are well served, and we have to be. We need to be, because there are bad actors, both overseas governments and overseas individuals, who will do Australia harm. They would and they do. The number of times that these bad actors have been prevented from doing us more harm has only been through absolute diligence. These public servants, these surveillance agencies—AFP and ASIO and other people—are going out of their way to make sure that they undertake every stringent measure to make sure our public safety is No. 1, and I thank them for that.

Schedule 4 is for the technical issue with the operation of interception of international production orders in the T(IA) Act. Schedule 5 amends the Crimes Act, which dates back to the First World War, to clarify the threshold for authorising and varying controlled operations and the circumstances in which a participant is protected from criminal responsibility and indemnified against civil liability. They are necessary, perfunctory things that strengthen this particular legislation. The fifth schedule provides clarity around legal protection for officers involved in undercover operations targeted at taking down sexual abuse syndicates. As I said at the outset, clamping down on these people, identifying who they are and making sure that they are arrested either before they leave Australia or when they return to this country is of paramount importance, not only for the security of our nation but for the protection of those kids who they would seek to do harm to in other destinations, in other countries.

In the 2024-25 financial year, there were, according to the ACCCE Child Protection Triage Unit—and this is a sobering and devastating statistic—82,764 reports of online child sexual exploitation. That is nearly 83,000. That is gut wrenching. That is sickening. That is so disturbing. This equates to an average of 226 reports per day. To be honest, the penalties for this are probably nowhere near what they need to be. They should be strengthened, whether it's at the state or national level. These evildoers need to be weeded out and put behind bars—whatever it takes, to be honest.

These amendments in the overall legislation before the House ensure the law is fit for purpose going forward in addressing the most abhorrent online crimes where the persons under investigation are anonymised, including on the dark web and encrypted communications platforms, and that is good. That is absolutely encouraged. The coalition will always support sensible reforms which ensure that the men and women serving in intelligence agencies in Australia are given the best tools, the best support and the funding necessary. They do a wonderful job, and we commend them for it.

Mr JOYCE (New England) (18:20): I concur with those remarks. I just want to add to the closing remarks of the member for Riverina that what we've seen is that obviously the set-up that we had in dealing with this was the correct one. It was changed by the incoming government, and it's had to be changed back.

But I want to concentrate on one thing, and that's paedophile rings and having to track these things down. It is an abhorrence that is more pronounced now. It has always been there, but with the capacity for people to go online, with the capacity for people to organise across national boundaries, we have to have the utmost forensic intelligence to track these monsters down. As we've seen in the notes, and I know the member for Riverina quoted it, there are about 226 new cases a day. For any person who's had children or has young children it's probably one of your greatest fears. It's your greatest fear all the time. When you're out in the community, you ask: 'Who is that person? What is that threat?' Unfortunately, you do have to be vigilant against it.

I have huge admiration for the police officers and for those who actually have to follow these nefarious, evil people through the dark web—through the onion routers and down into the dark web—without getting affected themselves. When they're trying to track these monsters down—and they are monsters; they are total and utter monsters—these officers have to be supervised so that any effect on them is also managed.

What we have here, in the Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025, is yet another mechanism that we hope will give greater efficacy to our continual pursuit of these people. What we see with the continued discovery of paedophiles is they're obviously still there, no matter what we do. There's still a burgeoning filth that is threatening what is probably the most sacred thing you can have, which is a child.

The other part of this that we have to be very aware of is the circumstance that Australia now sees itself in. There was a good article in the Australian today where Andrew Shearer talked about the issues that are now happening with the intrusions, the hacking into the lives of everyday Australians, predominantly by communist China. We also know in the past it's come from Russia, it's come from Iran, it's come from North Korea and it's probably come from other malevolent forces. This also is incredibly insidious. The capacity for people with ulterior purposes to gain access to personal details, to be able to manipulate those details, to put misinformation out into the public square—I'm not talking about misinformation about climate or something like that but misinformation that can actually change governments and change the direction of where things are going. These two need to be intercepted; these two need to be dealt with.

One of the things Mr Shearer said that I find quite alarming is:

Confidence in multinational institutions is weakening. The military balance is shifting against the West and deterrence is eroding. Our adversaries are exploiting our preference for restraint and de-escalation and leveraging coercion, cyber attacks, sabotage and disinformation to test us without triggering outright conflict.

Our nation's capacity to have oversight over telecommunications also segues into our nation's capacity to deal with what is already a prominent covert attack on Australia. This is already in train. It's already happening. It's not going to happen; it's happening right now. It's happening today. The previous coalition had to put forward a substantial amount of money—I think it was $10 billion—because we could see this, and even $10 billion is not enough. In conversations—because I'm not stupid; I knew we were going to lose government when we did—that I had with Labor Party people in the corridors, I remember saying just one thing: 'As you go into government, remember this: communist China'—I don't say 'the Chinese people'; the Chinese people are good people—'the totalitarian regime, is a danger. It's not any sort of association with genetics; it's associated with policy. It's associated with the process of unilateral control by one person. That's always a danger.' I said, 'Remember communist China is not a threat; communist China is already here. The issue is already here. It has already arrived, and how we deal with it is to be eternally vigilant.' What we hope we get with this is greater efficacy in that vigilance. If we were just to rest and to quietly think that this issue will somehow fade away, then the greatest threat and the greatest problem will be ours.

One of the processes that this can lead to if we do not have proper oversight is the total chaos that could be inflicted on our nation with things such as sleeper code. To give you an example, Deputy Speaker Freelander, I presume that you rate your wealth by numbers on a piece of paper. You don't have—maybe you do, but I doubt it—bars of gold in your roof; you don't have wads of cash stuck in your mattress. What you have is the reliance that the figures you see back what you're worth. For the title on your house, I bet you don't even have a piece of paper anymore; I'd presume it's all online. I'm going to pose a scenario. What would happen if people were clever enough in the online environment to make all those numbers disappear? You look at your bank account and there is no amount in it. You look at your title and there is no record of you owning a house. All your records have disappeared. If you had to go to a bank and prove you had the money you thought you had, how would you do that? If you could create a whole range of that across a society, imagine the chaos you'd create. Imagine the absolute chaos you'd be able to create in a nation. Imagine the view the nation would have of its own security. These are the sorts of things we have concerns about.

I'll give you another example, something that was put in the realms of conspiracy theories but now not so much. So many people today—this is a part of intermittent energy I have got no problems with—have solar panels on their roofs. However, one of the concerns we have now is if people are able to remotely control these and affect the inverters so that they don't switch off—they just heat—then they will catch on fire. That means, as we always hear Minister Bowen speak about how many of these solar panels are going on roofs, if they're coming from China and communist China has the capacity to turn off their safety requirements, then you have a huge problem stuck on every roof throughout Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide—across Australia. This could be complete and utter chaos. If you can make them catch on fire, I imagine that you can burn down the houses.

It's the same thing with electric cars coming in. If you have the capacity to switch them off, it's same thing. If you have the capacity to deal with the delay in the safety capacity of that car, to have its electronics overheat and catch on fire—if you can turn that off, you can create mass confusion in a nation. As they say, a war will start in the cyberworld, and it'll start in space. All of these other things that are envisaged—if you can turn off our reports in regard to weather, you also turn off the capacity for our airports to work and for our planes to work. In all of this, we are playing a massive game of catch-up.

As we have to as a trading country, we import products from sources that might have a malevolent interest in how they work with us, and we have to be absolutely vigilant in everything we do. We have to use every card that we've got to make sure we keep Australia safe. It's not just from Mr Shearer; we've also heard in the past from Mr Burgess and before that from Mr Pezzullo. They have all said the same thing. All these people who've been in the realm of understanding the threats to our nation have the same thing to say. It's no longer a conspiracy theory; it's no longer outlandish; it is in live play and happening now. I'm absolutely certain that those who are on the National Security Committee are fully aware of that. So any form of legislation we can bring in, such as the Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment Bill, that allows us the capacity for the better protection of Australia, the better understanding of anything—of getting any intel that we can as to what other people are up to in our nation—we must use.

In closing, I just want go to one thing that's in every town. It is the tobacco wars. In every town, just being flaunted in front of you, is the sale of illegal tobacco. It's the burning down of people's houses. If you dare to bring it up, if you try to address it—I was talking to people in a regional town not that long ago, and I said, 'Why doesn't somebody do something about this?' and they said: 'You'd have to be the bravest person in town. They'll burn your house down if you approach them.' I have real concerns. Obviously, we need to get inside what's happening in these criminal rings, but, at this point in time, we don't seem to have the desire, the capacity or the mechanism to touch them.

It's perverse that you can walk down the main street of a town and find maybe three or four shops illegally selling tobacco, and no-one cares about it, or they're unable to do anything about it. It also shows to other people walking down the street that the law is lost. There is no control over this. If they can do it in plain sight, how do we have confidence in other aspects of law enforcement? How do we believe that you have the capacity to deal with other issues, other criminal activities, if you can't fix something that's right in front of your nose?

If you look at the people serving in these tobacco shops, they look like they're opportunists. They don't look like geniuses, but they're obviously being organised. They're getting their product from somewhere. They're selling their product out in the street. The actual incidence of smoking is going up. The revenue that we were getting is falling through the floor, and our law enforcement is—I don't know—just completely unable to deal with it. I hope things such as this bill can assist in what is a much, much wider issue, and that is the lack of capacity Australia has to deal with some of the most pertinent issues, whether it's paedophilia, whether it's international pressures or whether it's domestic crime. I hope we can actually manage them.

Ms ALDRED (Monash) (18:35): I associate myself with the remarks of my colleague, the member for New England, on the insidious rise of the illegal tobacco trade at the moment. It is causing huge issues for regional Australia, particularly in my home state of Victoria, where that was brought home just this week, with the illegal ram raid on a local grocery store in Longwarry. They're good businesspeople; they care about their staff. They had a ransom note from one of these characters. They didn't pay the ransom. They did all of the right things. They went to the police. Yet, a couple of days later, they had a ram raid attack on their business, which is totally unacceptable. So we really need to deal very, very strongly with that in a number of ways.

The Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025 amends the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979, Surveillance Devices Act 2004 and Crimes Act 1914 to make critical provisions operate as they are intended to. It also provides technical amendments flowing from the government's decision to reconstitute the Home Affairs portfolio after this year's federal election. Schedule 1 of the bill deals with the permitting of protected network activity and how warrants for intercepts of information are to be used, communicated and recorded to meet disclosure obligations. Schedule 2 amends the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 to transfer the statutory function of the Communications Access Coordinator, the CAC, from the Secretary of the Attorney-General's Department to the Department of Home Affairs.

We're at this juncture because the Labor government decided, after the federal election in 2022, that it would pull apart the Department of Home Affairs. This blatantly prioritised party political mechanics above the Australian national interest. We know that, following the 2025 election, the Albanese Labor government was dragged into putting the Home Affairs portfolio back together again in its original structure, which was put forward by the coalition. That included returning the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission and the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre to Home Affairs from the Attorney-General's portfolio. The coalition was open and upfront about its commitment to this structure before the election. The Labor Party was nowhere to be seen on getting its act together on this front. At the time, the Prime Minister was quoted in the Canberra Times as saying:

… the move came after challenges with information sharing …

'Challenges with information sharing' must be the understatement of the year in this case. The change was the third round of changes, by the way, that this government fiddled around with in three years as part of their machinery-of-government changes. This was, of course, after the events in January, when there was an initial discovery of a caravan full of explosives.

Schedule 3 will amend the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 to permit limited access to stored communications and allow agencies to undertake development and testing activities in circumstances where they would, in other circumstances, be allowed to intercept the same communication if it were continuing to pass over a telecommunications system. The intention of these changes will be to firm up the existing framework and ensure it is able to keep pace with a continually developing and modern operating environment. Schedule 4 corrects a technical issue with the operation of the interception—

Ms ALDRED: No, I'm not—of international production orders in the T(IA) Act that was preventing international production orders from being given to US based prescribed communications providers in certain circumstances. This is dealt with under an agreement between the government of Australia and the government of the United States of America on access to electronic data for the purpose of countering serious crime.

I go back to my remarks about the illegal tobacco trade in Australia. While official figures show that smoking rates are declining, wastewater reports from criminal intelligence agencies show that smoking as recorded in wastewater is actually at an eight-year high. Legal retailers of legal cigarettes are reporting, I think, 50 per cent down on the last 12 months and 30 per cent on the year before that. So we have a major problem with criminal gangs. That is absolutely relatable to some of the points in this bill.

What these amendments do is clarify that interception orders issued to Australian law enforcement and national security agencies may be used to obtain prospective content data from communications providers in a country with which Australia has a designated international agreement regardless of the type of technical method by which that prospective data is sent on.

I've had a bit to say about data management recently, particularly around issues pertaining to data sovereignty. I think it's really important that we have regard for the management and security of data kept here and abroad where it concerns sensitive consumer data, such as financial records or health records, or where we're dealing with the areas of national security and our Defence Force agencies.

The amendments clarify that interception orders issued to Australian law enforcement and national security agencies may be used to obtain prospective content data from communications providers in a country with which Australia has a designated international agreement regardless of the technical method by which that prospective data is sent to an agency.

Schedule 5 amends the Crimes Act 1914 to clarify the threshold for authorising and varying controlled operations and the circumstances in which a participant is protected from criminal responsibility and indemnified against civil liability. The anonymous nature of online crime means law enforcement may lack information to assess potential risks when deciding whether to authorise or vary a controlled operation. The amendments will clarify that the authorising officers must consider the direct and reasonably foreseeable consequences of controlled conduct when authorising or varying a controlled operation.

Schedule 5 also provides clarity around legal protections for officers involved in undercover operations targeted at taking down insidious sexual abuse syndicates. In the 2024-25 financial year, the ACCCE Child Protection Triage Unit received 82,764 reports of online child sexual exploitation. This equates to an average of 226 reports per day. The need for strong action against these predators has never been more acute. These amendments ensure the law is fit for purpose in addressing the most abhorrent online crimes where persons under investigation are anonymised, including on the dark web and encrypted communications platforms.

The changes in the Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025 provide essential clarifications to ensure that the agencies that keep our nation safe can continue to do so in an era of rapid technological development. The coalition will always support sensible reforms which ensure men and women serving in intelligence and law enforcement roles have the tools they need to take down criminals, no matter where they are hiding, and the coalition will be supporting this bill without amendment.

Mr VENNING (Grey) (18:44): I wish to contribute to the debate on the Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025. I want to focus on regional telecommunications. Of course, the electorate of Grey represents 92.4 per cent of geographic South Australia, from the Nullarbor to the Eyre Peninsula, the Yorke Peninsula, the mid-north, the far north and, of course, the outback. So telecommunications are of enormous importance for the people of Grey.

Now, we've gone through a few generations of telecommunications. We used to have the copper network, and this was fax and dial-up, and that revolutionised regional communications. Times have changed, and the reliance on that network is no longer required, but of course we still have the universal service obligation on a service which is not being used. On our farm, for example, the tractor hit the copper cable. It's no longer needed, but we weren't using it in the first place.

Then we had the mobile network. It started off with, I assume, 1G and 2G. Then it went to 3G, 4G and 5G. As the Gs went up, the less distance the network could travel but the faster the transfer speeds were.

Mr Hill: We're about to get 6G!

Mr VENNING: Well, I'm not sure if we're about to get 6G! But, in regional South Australia, of course—5G does not work in regional Australia, because the distances it can travel are quite short.

The other way that regional individuals communicate is through the satellite system. The NBN made satellites available to a lot of customers, but these are satellites that travel in the outer atmosphere, at great distances, so the speeds at which you could communicate were poor, and that didn't really revolutionise the connections in regional Australia. NBN fixed wireless did revolutionise regional telecommunications. These are towers that were put up in communities of between 100 and 1,000 people and had a range of about 14 kilometres. That certainly did revolutionise regional telecommunication. But I want to stress that there are plenty of communities in Grey that still do not have the NBN. It is 2025. The district council of Elliston on the west coast of the Eyre Peninsula still does not have access to the NBN, so community members there either don't have connectivity or are using the old Telstra ADSL services. In 2025, that is not acceptable.

Now, in 2025, the private sector has got involved and we have LEOs, low-Earth-orbit satellites. Thanks to Elon Musk and Starlink, these have revolutionised regional connectivity. The technology in our iPhones today has the ability to talk with these LEOs, and that will be turned on throughout the coming months. That's why I thought it was a bit disingenuous when, at the last election, the Labor government came out with a policy to say, 'We will be supporting connectivity for all of Australia.' This was a nothing announcement because this was happening anyway They weren't doing anything to support the connectivity of LEOs. Of course, their announcement didn't talk about Elon Musk or Starlink at all, but that was the technology that they were leveraging.

What that also means is that providers like Telstra and Optus are in what I call a cost-out environment. They do not want to invest more towers into regional Australia, because they know the market share will get swallowed up by LEOs. That's what we're seeing particularly in my electorate of Grey. There continue to be no more mobile phone towers going up in Grey. I also argue that the Labor government is part of that. My predecessor, Rowan Ramsey, in his tenure got 56 mobile phone towers put up in the electorate of Grey. In the previous Labor term, not one new tower was put up. There were two promised, but still these two have not been built.

Last week were the Yorke Peninsula Field Days, and of course Telstra had a stand there. I talked about this fact with them, and they agreed. Another concern that we talked about was the degradation of services when 3G was switched off. As regional communities, we were promised that there would be no degradation of service when 3G was to be shut down. That's clearly not been the case. I drive thousands of kilometres every week. I know exactly where the dead spots are and can tell you that the service has been degraded.

With LEOs, there is a huge opportunity for Australia to get a hold of this market. We are launching low-Earth-orbit satellites into the atmosphere regularly. We have a retrieval site in the electorate of Grey because of our vast spaces of uninhabited land. It's perfect for retrieving satellites. We are currently launching satellites at Koonibba. That happens every week. We have a new satellite launch site at Whalers Way for sun-synchronous launches. These are satellites that go polar to polar, not around the equator. We are launching more each week, and there is a huge opportunity, a multibillion-dollar industry, that we need to take hold of here in Australia. Space is a regional industry. We are launching satellites from the regions, we are retrieving them from the regions and now we need to manufacture them in the regions as well.

The last thing I will talk about is the issue of power outages and their effect on telecommunications. Earlier in the year we had a power outage for about 20 hours on the Yorke Peninsula. The whole peninsula was out of power. The towers have batteries on them, but they only last for a couple of hours. By the time we got to 10 o'clock in the morning, no-one in Yorke Peninsula could communicate. That has impacts on emergency services. That has impacts on business, and it was a weekend, so business shut down for that day. ElectroNet at the time considered that not to be something they would pay out. If you were a butcher and you lost all of your produce, you didn't get paid out for that power outage. Some exciting developments that are happening include the ability for councils and other community members to get a generator and plug it into these mobile phone towers when there are power outages. We realise, with this all-in-one-basket, wind-and-solar approach to our energy market, our grid is becoming less and less stable. The degradation of our telecommunication network is getting worse as well. So we need to start thinking about these initiatives to support the telecommunications in the regions. I'll leave it there, but I'll finish by saying that we will be supporting this bill without amendment.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Mr HILL (Bruce—Assistant Minister for Citizenship, Customs and Multicultural Affairs and Assistant Minister for International Education) (18:52): by leave—I move:

That this bill be now read a third time.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a third time.

Mr TED O'BRIEN (Fairfax—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (18:53): I'm happy to rise in the House today to talk about the Treasury Laws Amendment (Strengthening Financial Systems and Other Measures) Bill 2025. I move the amendment circulated in my name:

That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House notes that:

(1) the bill seeks to extend two successful Coalition policies;

(2) the Government's policies have seen energy prices increase by $1,300 more than promised and it is now extending Coalition policy to ensure energy prices don't increase even further;

(3) the Government has only reluctantly decided to support business by extending the instant asset write-off under pressure from the Coalition ahead of the last election;

(4) this bill seeks to provide less frequent assessments of ASIC and APRA;

(5) thousands of Australians have lost over $1 billion in superannuation due to alleged misconduct by First Guardian and Shield;

(6) ASIC has been accused of major failures in responding to this crisis which the Government has been silent about;

(7) the Government must explain to the thousands of victims why it is seeking to reduce accountability and transparency for ASIC at this time; and

(8) this bill seeks to clean up a range of the Government's mistakes including the application of GST to disability services".

Comprising seven schedules and impacting at least eight portfolios, it's not often that this parliament sees such a large bill that simultaneously demonstrates the coalition's competence and Labor's laziness. But that's what we have in this omnibus bill before the House today. I take the opportunity to look at a few of the schedules. If you look at two in particular, they are very close to copy and paste. One is a complete copy and paste and an extension of a former coalition measure and the other one is almost a copy and paste. It builds on a coalition measure.

The first is an extension of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Prohibiting Energy Market Misconduct) Bill 2019. This is all about the energy market, and we know why this government has chosen to extend a coalition measure—because, under the last term of the coalition government, we saw energy prices come down. They came down by about eight per cent for households, 10 per cent for businesses and 12 per cent for industry. We had a proven track record of getting energy prices down. That's what a coalition does. Then in came the Albanese Labor government. The reason I'm trying hard not to laugh is that they promised the Australian people a $275 reduction in household power bills—$275 down was their promise. In fact, power bills have gone up by $1,300.

Well, if you look at the coalition's record in its last term—on average, let's say we got prices down by 10 per cent. Over the Albanese government's first term, they got prices up for gas by 38 per cent and up for electricity by 39 per cent. It is no wonder, therefore, that within this omnibus bill you have a schedule which basically extends a coalition measure that ensured that any savings made by energy retailers would be passed through to consumers—a measure that ensured that energy generators would not be able to adversely bid into the system, as in play the system to the adverse impact of consumers, and that ensured that they would have to be signing up to financial contracts.

This was all set up by the coalition government to ensure it was putting downward pressure on electricity prices. It was one of the many schemes that helped the coalition deliver. It goes to coalition competence, but the Labor government has defied the coalition's practice, and they have seen prices go through the roof. Indeed, only recently, we saw the 2035 emissions reduction targets come out from this government, but they cannot tell the Australian people how much it's going to cost. They don't know how they're going to get there or how much it will cost. What we do know from the market operator and every other energy market expert in the country is that prices are going to continue to rise. This government has no answers—it has no solutions whatsoever—which is why, in this omnibus bill, as a demonstration of coalition competence and Labor laziness, they have decided, in schedule 6, to extend that legislation. That legislation was famously known in this chamber as the 'big stick legislation'. The Labor opposition at the time were very excited about the big stick legislation, I have to say. They were determined to tell the Australian people that the big stick legislation was bad.

I'll let you in on a bit of history here. The now climate change and energy minister—the very minister who wants to extend this measure—said of this measure, 'The Liberals' silly big-stick divestment policy will drive up electricity prices even further.' And now the minister of the day says, 'Actually the coalition had it right after all.' I remind you that this is the now Labor climate change and energy minister who was saying, about the very measure that today he wants this House to pass, 'this ridiculous policy'—the very one he has in front of the House now—'this Venezuelan-style intervention, this intervention in the economy which would chill investment'. This is what he said. The now health minister, another frontbencher, said of this very measure:

This is a stunt by a government that has no energy plan.

The now housing minister, another frontbencher, said:

It is a silly grab bag of things that don't amount to a cohesive policy …

And the now assistant minister for immigration said of the measure that they want to put through today it 'would have to be the worst, shallowest, most ill-conceived piece of legislation that I have seen in the parliament in my time as a member'. Yet here they are today. This goes to the fact that the coalition was competent, because everything the government is doing is seeing prices go up for energy. There's one measure in their kitbag that the coalition had introduced which is driving the pressure downwards, and that's the one they bring forward, trying to hide it amidst all these other measures within the omnibus.

If I can go to another measure, it's schedule 7. This one is the instant asset write-off. Again, it goes to the competence of the former coalition government. The Liberals and the Nationals are the only side of politics who actually care about small business and recognise the importance of cash flow and the importance of encouraging the bringing forward of investment, because that will enable businesses to grow. But they can't do that too easily, which is why the instant asset write-offs were created in the first place by the coalition. And now we have the Labor government stealing the policy—which we're very happy about, by the way. That's fine. The more the Labor government steals coalition policy, the better it is for the Australian people. Again, it goes to coalition competence versus Labor laziness. But we do say we like instant asset write-offs.

The only reason they actually were doing this for this term of government anyway is the fact that the coalition had shamed them into it. At the end of the last term of government, the coalition came out with a far stronger instant asset write-off policy to what's before the House today. This shamed the Albanese government, because they'd totally forgotten, as they always do, about small business. But it shamed them, on the eve of the election, to come forward with their own instant asset write-off. While it is nowhere near as good as what the coalition had put up, of course, it is a demonstration of coalition competence and the lazy Labor approach, and we support the instant asset write-offs, as you would expect from a coalition of Liberals and Nationals who understand the importance of small business and the importance of the economy.

But then there are other schedules. I won't run through them all, but, if you look at schedule 3, this is quite a disturbing one. It is suggesting that the government wants to weaken the accountability of both ASIC and APRA. This is most disturbing because, basically, again, due to the competence of the coalition government, you have an authority that assesses these two important regulators to see if they're doing the job as expected. You would think that, of all times, now would be the time where the Labor government would ensure that these bodies are accountable. That's because of the effect of the likes of First Guardian Master Fund and Shield Master Fund, where you have over $1 billion being lost by hardworking, everyday Australians from their savings.

This government has shown itself, again, to be completely lazy. They're not actively trying to ensure that they are fixing the problems here. They are not looking into ASIC to make sure that this does not happen again. Indeed, in the October 2022-23 budget, Labor promised to review the regulatory framework for managed investment schemes, like those of First Guardian and Shield. That review was due over a year ago. No findings have been released. Australians have lost their savings; no findings have been released from that review. Indeed, there was a Senate inquiry done, led by Senator Andrew Bragg. That report goes to the issues which are impacting the likes of Shield and First Guardian and leading to losses by everyday Australians. Do you think the government has responded to that? No. They're too lazy. They're just too lazy. Fifteen months have gone by. They're not responding to that. Why would they bother? Meanwhile, everyday Australians, hardworking Australians, are losing their life savings.

What's in this bill? What's the relevance here? Well, instead of actually scrutinising the likes of ASIC and APRA further and having assessments done every two years, what we see in this bill is the government saying, 'We'll only do it every five years.' Think about that. Australians have lost their savings. ASIC has a lot to answer for. This government has done nothing. It has been given reports and recommendations to fix it. They've done nothing. Then they put in this bill the idea, 'Actually, we don't need to look at ASIC every two years anymore; we're going to do it every five.' What sort of message does that send to those hardworking Australian families who have lost everything in some cases? What message does it send ASIC about whether or not this government wants them to fix problems? I think we know the answer to that rhetorical question.

There are other issues and schedules. I won't go through them now. The reason is that, while the coalition will not oppose this bill in the House, we are referring it to a Senate committee. That Senate committee is the committee for economics. We will reserve our final position until after that committee has submitted its report.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Scrymgour ): Is the amendment seconded?

Mr Willcox: I second the amendment and reserve my right to speak.

Mr LAXALE (Bennelong) (19:06): I haven't been in this place for too long. It's only my second term. But, in my short time here, I've learned two things pretty quickly. One is not to take history lessons from the coalition—the Liberals or the Nationals. We just heard a claim that the instant asset write-off was a policy created by the coalition, when it was, in fact, the Rudd-Gillard government that started the instant asset write-off and a Labor government that supported small-business cash flow. I'll talk to that as part of schedule 7.

The second thing I've learnt while being in this place for a short time is certainly not to take any advice on energy policy from those opposite. Just quickly then I tried to google how many failed energy policies they've had since 2013. I think it's over 20 failed energy policies. They took another one to the last election, and it was nuked by the Australian public. They want to bring that back as another energy policy. They'll probably change it a little bit again, and we'll start racking up triple digits, perhaps, on how many energy policies they've brought in here. So, when the member for Fairfax comes here and says how fantastic the coalition were at energy policy, you need to laugh, because history suggests the total opposite.

What we are doing, though, is modernising the energy market. We are transitioning to the cheapest form of new energy. We will make the decisions, like we are in this bill, the Treasury Laws Amendment (Strengthening Financial Systems and Other Measures) Bill 2025, to extend measures that were due to expire. I was going to talk about schedule 7 first, but, given the member for Fairfax's contribution, I might start on schedule 6. The energy market protections were due to expire. What this bill does is the right thing. It does a bit of maintenance on some of these expiring protections, and it will extend the consumer safeguard in the Treasury Laws Amendment (Prohibiting Energy Market Misconduct) Act until 2031. An independent review found that these protections were effective in constraining market misconduct and protecting households and businesses. By extending them, we are ensuring that affordability and fairness remain at the centre of the energy transition. That is what good governments do. They look at policies, they review them and, if they're worthy of extension, they extend them. But taking advice from those opposite on energy policy is absolutely laughable.

As we've heard, there are seven schedules in this bill. Overall, what this bill does is seek to strengthen confidence in our markets, improve the ways that regulators operate and support long-term economic growth. It obviously, like most TLABs—again, this is not unique—covers a wide range of areas, from corporate disclosure and charity oversight to financial regulators, energy market protections and taxation. But, at its heart, this is a bill about investment, transparency and accountability—the foundations of stronger productivity and public trust, particularly in our economy.

Continuing on with schedule 7, this bill will implement the government's election commitment to extend the $20,000 instant asset write-off for small businesses until 30 June 2026—a really important measure for small businesses. I used to run a small business. I grew up in one—the family business—and spent a good 15 years running it, growing it and making sure it paid my bills and the family bills and also employed 10 to 15 workers during its peaks and troughs. Having a more simplified tax system, encouraging investment in assets of up to $20,000, was a really important measure introduced by the Rudd-Gillard government way back in the early 2000s—not created by the Liberals and Nationals, as claimed by the member for Fairfax, but a Labor policy that we implemented, that we supported when we were in opposition and that we continued in government.

It's really an important thing to extend, because it improves cash flows and reduces compliance costs for small businesses. I've got some incredible small businesses right across Bennelong—in Eastwood, West Ryde, Gladesville and Lane Cove. They are mum-and-dad small businesses, including a lot of people who have just come to Australia for the first time. Migrant communities have a high representation in small-business ownership. If you take a walk through Eastwood you can see them all, vibrant and making our high streets places to go, places to be. When you go out and talk to these small businesses in our electorates, they often talk about reducing red tape and making things easier for them. They understand that compliance is important, but how can we make that simpler?

The $20,000 instant asset write-off is absolutely one of those things that makes the everyday running of a small business easier. It means a cafe can upgrade its coffee machine or buy new hardware for its point-of-sale software. It means companies can invest in those higher-price items, up to $20,000, without having to carry the depreciation over the schedule. It reduces their costs with their accountant, which we all know can be high sometimes, and they can write it off for 12 months to buy new and, importantly, second-hand assets.

This measure was first introduced by Labor, because we know that cashflow measures like this really support small businesses. It means they'll be able to immediately deduct eligible assets costing less than $20,000 rather than, as I said, tracking those assets over time. Importantly, up to 4.1 million small businesses across the country can access this instant asset write-off.

The member for Fairfax just said that they're going to reserve their right. The last time an instant asset write-off TLAB came to parliament, the coalition blocked and delayed it for at least 12 months, creating a whole heap of uncertainty for investment from the small-business sector. Those over on the other side claim to be all about small business, understanding the economics of running a small business, fighting for small businesses. Yet they sowed doubt in the small-business community about whether or not they were going to support an extension of last financial year's instant asset write-off, only passing it at the eleventh hour. Let's hope the processes go through as outlined by the member for Fairfax. Let's hope that they can get through to the Senate, that they can have a look at this bill, which they're entitled to do, obviously, and send it off to a committee and that they don't sit on it and team up with others to delay this TLAB for an unnecessary amount of time. All that will do is slow down investment from small businesses and create doubt in their minds. There are 1.281 million small businesses in New South Wales that can benefit from this measure and will benefit from this measure sooner, with confidence, the quicker this TLAB gets through the House and through the Senate.

This is one measure of how this re-elected Labor government is really ensuring that we are supporting small businesses, and it's growing, I think. I know many, many members of the class of 2025 mentioned small businesses in their first speeches. They either have come from a small-business background, have worked in them or have family that have worked in them. This is the modern Labor Party—one that has roots in our industrial base but also has real connection to small and medium-sized businesses right across the country. We understand what small businesses go through, and we're here in this place representing them as much as we are workers across our economy.

In our last parliamentary term, that manifested itself as more than $2 billion in targeted supports. I'll just focus on the targeted ones for now; obviously, there are the economy-wide reforms that we put through as well. We've got a $900 million National Productivity Fund working with the states and territories to unlock productivity and cut red tape, particularly for small businesses. We've invested $33.4 million to improve payment times for small businesses, including $25.3 million in the 2024-25 budget to support the overhauled Payment Times Reporting Scheme and to enhance the regulator's ability to deliver payment outcomes for small businesses—another cash flow measure, just like the instant asset write-off. Being paid on time saves small businesses headaches in chasing up their delinquent debtors, but it also means that they can get money in their bank accounts to reinvest.

We provided over $60 million to help small businesses uplift their digital and cybersecurity capabilities, a huge and growing cost and concern for small businesses, particularly those that don't have the technical know-how of how to roll out a firewall in their local IT systems or how to deal with training of their staff—'Don't click on this,' and, 'Don't open that email.' Having the Cyber Wardens program and the Digital Solutions program is a way in which we understand that problem, and we're trying to help small businesses overcome these high-risk situations.

Of course, there are our tax cuts, famously opposed by the Liberals and Nationals. Having tax cuts for every taxpayer benefits 1.5 million sole traders. All 1.5 million of those sole traders—including tradies, hairdressers, coffee shops and other small businesses—across the country benefit when we change the income tax rates. We know that the Liberals and Nationals went to the last election with the policy of not only opposing our tax cuts but actually repealing them and trying to increase taxes. Those over there are not Menzies's party, and perhaps that's the reason why someone like me was re-elected in a seat like Bennelong.

We're here supporting small businesses and workers, including sole traders. We have, of course, delivered additional energy bill relief, with another $150 in rebates until the end of the year. This builds on specific and targeted small-business electricity rebates we rolled out in the last term. As for our Cheaper Home Batteries Program, you heard the responsible minister say that over 78,000 home batteries have been installed through that. We've made sure that small businesses are eligible to accept that. They will be eligible for up to 50 kilowatt hours of battery storage capacity. I would love to see some stats on how many small businesses are taking up that battery subsidy rebate, because we acknowledge that small businesses also want to decarbonise and reduce emissions and also want to access battery technology to help reduce their bills. We've supported the hospitality sector by pausing indexation on the draught beer excise, and we've extended unfair trading practices protections to small business by strengthening the enforcement of the Franchising Code of Conduct.

Schedule 7 of this bill and our commitment to deliver an extended instant asset write-off build on what we've done to support small businesses in our term-and-a-bit in government. I would hope that the coalition cooperate in passing this bill through the House and through the Senate as soon as possible so that, in particular, schedule 7 gives small business the confidence to invest up to that $20,000 cap, a really important measure.

I'll talk a little bit about some of the other schedules in my remaining time. Schedule 1 is all about corporate transparency. These provisions will align us with international best practice to stop hidden build-ups of influence in listed companies. It'll give ASIC sharper enforcement powers to ensure compliance. Essentially, schedule 1 means that the public will have better access to ownership registers of corporations, shining a light on who really controls these companies—again, another measure building on what we did last term to increase world-leading transparency measures on corporations. We've got public country-by-country reporting, disclosures of subsidiaries' tax residency and greater accountability for firms bidding for government contracts. Schedule 1 of this bill seeks to extend that principle.

Schedule 2, on charities, is really important as well. Public trust in charities is too important to be undermined by secrecy. Currently, the ACNC, the national regulator, cannot confirm whether or not a charity is under investigation, even in cases of gross and serious misconduct. This bill changes that, allowing disclosures where needed to prevent harm and assure the public that issues are being addressed. This will give the public confidence in the charities sector. It will also give donors confidence that their contributions are well placed and support our goal of doubling philanthropic giving by 2030. Again, it's another cog in the wheel of broader reforms in transparency.

There's much more to this bill, but the aspects that I've highlighted are incredibly important, and I commend them to the House.

Mr JOYCE (New England) (19:21): As soon as we talk about ASIC, I will take the first opportunity I have to come in on behalf of the people of the Shield fund and First Guardian. These are superannuants who lost up to, I think, $1.2 billion. The money was basically stolen. Now, I know Macquarie Bank has now come in to bat for one of them as one of the proponents who put these forward, but this was a classic example of red flags being thrown up that were never picked up, of pressure salespeople coming in.

There are people who woke up and had lost over a million dollars worth of their savings. We had people who were ready to retire and now basically have to go back to work. For how long? For as long as they can possibly work. This is a sign of the incompetence of this system to pick these things up. First Guardian and Shield were approved by four super fund trustees but rejected by others. There should be a minimum standard for a superannuation fund and limits on exposure to one. These mass-marketing campaigns—ASIC should have been looking at them and finding out what was happening.

I want to give a big shout-out to Melinda Kee and the work that she's been doing on behalf of these people. I told these people that I would go in to bat for them. I know that Minister Mulino has now seen them, but they sent over 4,000 emails to him, and he never replied. Now he has, but it's taken a while. What these people want is—they're saying, 'If you're the policeman, if you're looking after this, if you have the oversight of this, how did this happen to us?'

What should be happening now is these people should be paid, and you go out and recover the money as best you can. But what we see here is sort of a silence. Macquarie Bank have come in, but it's silence from the government on the rest. It's funny how the government can find all these billions and billions of dollars for domestic billionaires and international companies for intermittent power and then, when their own workers are put out and have basically had their retirements smashed, it all becomes too quiet. I have been waiting. Maybe the minister might want to give a statement or come to the dispatch box and answer a question. I thought that that would have to happen. You would imagine that a lot of these people voted for Labor. When you blow between $1.2 billion and $1.4 billion, you would expect that it might strike a feature—as we used say in accounting terms—in your reporting back to the parliament, but no such luck.

We have lost $1.2 billion from these two funds. How do we know it's not going to happen again? Why don't we have the minister come out? I hear he's an honours graduate. I think he went to Harvard. He's obviously a capable person. He should be given a question by the Prime Minister. Come up and give us a little yarn about how you are going with this. I know that Melinda Kee and all the other people in Save Our Super—that's the support group—really want to hear what's going on because they haven't heard much from this chamber. In fact, they've heard nothing. They've heard absolutely nothing.

As I said, we also have other issues. I'll give you one. Even though they have lost their money, the people aren't eligible for the age pension because Centrelink sees their super balances as still existing. Can you imagine that? You've got no money; your money has been stolen. They went out to find some of these people, and they found safes full of jewellery and cash and property disappearing overseas. People say, 'You can go on the age pension.' No, they can't, because they still deem that they have super balances. It is incredible that this has been allowed to happen.

We obviously also have health impacts. People woke up, and they thought that something was not quite right. They were trying to get their super out, and, all of sudden, it was frozen. Then they found it was not there. That can affect people emotionally—finding out you're bust. It can hurt people to find out: 'Oh, hang on; I'm broke. I've got no money.' I'm thinking of the case of one bloke who had over a million dollars in super. He blew it. Another lady had $600,000. She'd been working diligently and woke up with no money. It was just gone!

ASIC has oversight of this, and they have been bereft of competency, capability and an explanation as to what has happened. We should be holding the Assistant Treasurer to account. There should be an explanation to this House about exactly how this happened and some guarantee or warrant that it's not already happening again because I haven't heard one. Maybe I've been missing in these exorbitant and exciting question times, but I haven't heard anybody talk about this. I think it's about time they do. I say to Melinda and the others, 'Yes, come to Sydney.' After I've kicked up a big stink about intermittent power, I'll start kicking up a big stink about them as well and try to help them out because they need help.

We want to see what happens in the complex AFCA complaints process. We want to make sure that this gets to some form of resolution. We want to make sure that even the tax and superannuation complication issues that have been brought up by this are resolved. I'm sure the assistant minister has the academic acumen to deal with this, but I haven't seen the delivery of dealing with this. Once more, I acknowledge that he has now had a meeting with Melinda Kee, and I appreciate that. His apparent approach was very empathetic, as I read in Melinda's notes, but it can't stop there. Empathy goes so far but doesn't go as far as restoring your superannuation balance, and that's what we need.

Macquarie Bank has done the right thing. They've said, 'Okay, we had our fingers in this, and we are going to have to pay these people out.' Good! What about the rest? They had their fingers in it too. They got their commissions and their trailing fees. They made money out of it and put it in their pocket. They didn't do it for free. If they've made their money out of it, if they've received their commissions, then I think they're responsible for exactly what happened to their clients' money. This is going to be—let's see, maybe this week. One day has gone, and there are two days to go. Let's see if it gets through the tactics committee of the Labor Party to do a dorothy dixer. I want to put it on Facebook and show Melinda and show the others that you are actually as good as your word.

Debate interrupted.