REBECCA WHITE, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR WOMEN, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR INDIGENOUS HEALTH: Thank you for joining us today for the launch of Australia's very first perimenopause and menopause national awareness campaign. This is an exciting one that has been driven by the voices of women who have been saying very clearly that we need to do better when it comes to providing access to good information for them to navigate perimenopause and menopause. The campaign launched today has been supported through investment in the women's health package by the Albanese Labor Government because we have been prioritising women's health. Across the course of this government, we've made significant investments when it comes to better access to contraception, menopause medication, endometriosis treatment, the establishment of 33 endometriosis and persistent pelvic pain clinics, and today the launch of a national perimenopause and menopause awareness campaign.
This has been guided by the voice of women who shared their stories with a Senate inquiry, the recommendation there, and the leadership of people such as Senator Marielle Smith and predecessor, Assistant Minister for Health, Ged Kearney. Of course, the Minister Mark Butler is with us today, who has helped deliver this important package of reform. Alongside the resources that will be made available on the website, there are digital assets that will be provided through social media and a television advertising campaign that'll be running for the rest of this year.
This is really important. Menopause can seem a little bit like a secret society, where women don't know how to find information out, where you really don't know what you're up for or what you're in for until you're in the middle of it. And a lot of women have shared with us stories where they feel completely dismissed, distressed, burnt out, and worried because they haven't been able to get access to the support that they need. We know that this will help to change lives and, in some cases, save lives. For those women who have felt at times like perimenopause and menopause has meant that they are losing themselves.
I'm really proud to be joined a number of outstanding women who have been very important in their contribution of this campaign. I'm going to hand across now to Sarah White, the CEO of Jean Hailes for Women's Health, who's going to speak about the campaign.
SARAH WHITE, JEAN HAILES FOR WOMEN'S HEALTH CEO: Research tells us that a lot of women find it really confusing when it gets to menopause. They find it hard to identify symptoms. They really find it hard to wade through the information that's available. So much of it is actually misinformation and disinformation. I think this campaign is really critically important because it's going to give women evidence-based information that they can trust, and that allows women to make really good informed choices about the treatment and support that they take. I really commend the government for this campaign.
WHITE: I’m going to ask Amanda to come forward, thanks, Amanda. Amanda is the woman who shared her story with us as part of the campaign.
AMANDA SMYTH, PATIENT: G’day. I’m Amanda Smyth. I'm 47. I’m a turf farmer from the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. I first sought help for perimenopause last year, and prior to that, I had written off many of my symptoms as being able to attribute them to other things. My sore hip that was waking me at night was because I'd spent too much time on an old tractor. The sleeplessness and anxiety was because we were short-handed during our busy season. So, I was really surprised then to speak to my GP and realised that many of these things could be attributed to perimenopause.
I guess my message to Australian women is speak to your GP. Don't operate on outdated assumptions about what help is available or what menopause looked like. The science has come along the way. The medicine's come along the way. Don't be stuck in the thoughts of our mother's generation because it can be really life-changing if you seek help and get the right treatment for you.
WHITE: Perimenopause warrior, Shelly Horton, who’s going to also speak about her experience.
SHELLY HORTON, HEALTH ADVOCATE AND AUTHOR: Warrior, I love that. I am your peri godmother in Parliament.
My name is Shelly Horton. I'm a health advocate, and I've also written the book, I'm Your Peri Godmother. I was here three years ago for the first parliamentary roundtable on menopause, and that was the first time menopause had ever been mentioned in Parliament, just three years ago. We have come so far so quickly. I am so proud of this campaign.
I was terrified. And I was very, very hard on the government, saying that don't make it boring, don't make it dull, don't make it worthy. And it's great. It's funny. It's sassy. It's actually captures perimenopausal women as we are in our prime, and I think it's going to save lives. I'm very, very proud of the work that everyone has done to bring it all together and onwards and upwards.
WHITE: Happy to take any questions that people might have about the campaign.
JOURNALIST: I’d just ask, there's still a lot that isn't known even among the professional or medical community when it comes to perimenopause and menopause. What's the government doing sort of in that space to try and find out more about the disease? What sort of research and what's being supported there?
WHITE: We're currently updating the perimenopause and menopause guidelines, which will provide better education and resourcing to our health professionals. We know there has been a big gap. A lot of people would tell us they've been speaking to a professional and have been dismissed or haven't been properly assisted and heard. Part of this campaign is about educating the public, about providing resources and support for women so they know where they can go to, but it's also elevating it in the broader consciousness of the workplace, in family and friends and providing a place they have health professionals to get information to. Alongside the work this campaign is doing, we’re also working with them updating the guidelines so that they actually have a contemporary framework to support women.
JOURNALIST: Is there any sort of timeline on that framework when it'll be rolled out or accessible for GPs?
WHITE: Very soon.
JOURNALIST: Just on top of this campaign, I mean, what else has been happening to help women to access more medication or assistance for the symptoms that they might experience?
WHITE: Yeah, thank you. Through our endometriosis and persistent pelvic pain clinics, where we now have 33 across the country, from 1 July this year, they'll also be providing support for perimenopause and menopause. Alongside the campaign we’re launching today, we also have places where women can walk in the front door and talk to a health professional about the symptoms they might be experiencing. And we've also introduced a new Medicare rebate item number. From 1 July last year, women have now been able to access extra support through their regular treating GP when they present and seek support for perimenopause and menopause.
JOURNALIST: Just want to check, so with this campaign you've announced today, is this targeted specifically at women? And is there something else to kind of make sure that the rest of society is aware so they can actually support it?
WHITE: This is a very large public awareness campaign because it's aimed at doing two things. One is about providing women with a single source of truth, where they can get accurate information about their perimenopause or menopause symptoms and find a way to connect with the support that they need. The second part of this campaign is educating the public, educating workplaces, educating friends and families from the broader community about the fact that 50 per cent of our population is going to experience perimenopause and menopause. And that is something we should be better informed of because it does impact on the way that we operate in our lives every single day when we're going through perimenopause and menopause. And it isn't something we should suffer alone or in silence. This campaign is aimed at breaking down the stigma and encouraging people to talk about perimenopause and menopause so it can no longer be some kind of secret society.
JOURNALIST: Is there scope for more funding for medical research, because so much around menopause, medication treatments is still very unknown, so, I mean, what’s the plan for that?
WHITE: As the Minister has spoken about as well, there’s been an uplift in funding through the Medical Research Future Fund which will encourage additional research a range of areas, and hopefully women's health will be a focus for some of that research. We are very focused on making sure there is extra investment in women's health research because we know it has been underfunded for so many years and that has led to the underinvestment across women's services when it comes to health. I can assure you that we're working very closely with our medical research colleagues to ensure that there are pathways for more research options for women's health care.
JOURNALIST: Minister, just on other topics, the Coalition is threatening to block NDIS reforms unless there's an inquiry into tax changes. Is that something that you're open to?
MARK BUTLER, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING, MINISTER FOR DISABILITY AND THE NDIS: That, ultimately, is a matter for the Senate, the sequencing of different pieces of legislation. Up until now, I've had really constructive engagement with the Opposition. You will have seen the Leader of the Opposition, in this Budget reply, lean quite heavily into their support for the hard but necessary reforms we're undertaking with the NDIS. I've had terrific engagement with the Shadow Minister and her office as well.
There's an inquiry underway, submissions are flowing in, there are public hearings scheduled with a report due on 16 June. We're getting on with the job. Obviously, there'll be arm wrestling in the Senate around processes and sequencing, that's the natural course of events for the Senate. But we're very confident we've made the case for this legislation to pass during this session.
JOURNALIST: And so, you're confident it will ultimately pass within weeks?
BUTLER: Yeah, we've had really constructive engagement with the Opposition. There's an inquiry underway, as I’ve said. We've been engaging, Jenny McAllister and I, with the disability community. Jenny McAllister met with state and territory ministers again on Friday. We're doing the sort of engagement you'd expect of a responsible government, and we expect that inquiry to hand its report on 16 June.
JOURNALIST: Minister, I also want to ask you, last year we spoke about the inequity that oral cancer patients are facing, having to re-mortgage their homes or drain their super to pay for dental prosthetics. You said that you were looking at that. Can we just have an update on where that’s gotten to?
BUTLER: We haven’t landed a particular position with that group. I had some engagement with them last week. Again, I realise this is an area where people, understandably, would like to see more progress. I don't have anything in particular I can say about that today except, as I said last week, I want to continue to engage with this group of stakeholders on what more we can do.
JOURNALIST: Just on bulk billing targets. Will the government provide any interim targets before 2030, and if not, how can we hold you accountable for them?
BUTLER: If you look at the Office of Impact Analysis report on our bulk billing changes that took effect on 1 November, they suggested, for example, that we'd reach about 3,600 bulk billing practices by 2028 on our way to a 90 per cent bulk billing position by the end of the decade. They thought we'd be at 3,600 by 2028. We're already over 3,800.
The data that I have released today shows that we are making big changes, big increases to bulk billing, particularly for those working Australians who don't have the benefit on a concession card. An almost nine per cent increase in bulk billing rates just since November, an even bigger increase in bulk billing rates for those Australians in some jurisdictions, I think it's more than 20 per cent, for example, in the Northern Territory.
I'm confident we're running ahead of schedule. We didn't put particular milestones in place between now and 2030, but if you look at the Independent Office of Impact Analysis report on this, we’re ahead, well ahead of where they thought we’d be.
JOURNALIST: What about the percentage? Do you have any percentage in terms of targets in terms of on the way to the 90 per cent?
BUTLER: No, we didn’t set that out, except to say that given that we've made such inroads since only 1 November, a matter of months, and the data I released this morning only takes us to the end of March, we've been having a number of dozens of practices join the program every single week since then. This is tracking in a very pleasing direction from the government's perspective, but it's already, since November, delivered millions of additional free visits to the doctor for working Australians who don't have that benefit of a concession plan.
JOURNALIST: Just in terms of outbreaks, is there any update on the consideration of travel restrictions in terms of Ebola?
BUTLER: No, there's no update on that. We continue to monitor what's happening in the Democratic Republic of Congo very, very closely. I looked at the World Health Organization update on that in the last 24 hours. They're obviously very worried of an increase in the number of suspected cases in the DRC, the number of suspected deaths. This, as you know, is a relatively rare strain of Ebola that’s not responsive to existing vaccines and treatments. The situation in Uganda appears to have stabilised, although the WHO is monitoring that very closely, but the situation in the DRC is still a matter of significant concern.
The risk to Australia, though, is still very low. We're monitoring this very, very closely. We're engaging with aid organisations that might be involved, Australian organisations that might be involved in the response to this outbreak in the DRC and making sure that if they do become involved in that there are very clear protocols about any staff that might be engaged there.
JOURNALIST: And just on diphtheria, some public health experts have said the fact that we've had an outbreak this widespread is a public health failure. I was just interested in your response to that, and when some of the measures you've announced will start to roll out?
BUTLER: Our focus right now is on containment. I've said publicly before that obviously we're going to have to examine how we got to a position of having an outbreak that, even though it's still growing, is already probably 13 times the size of the outbreaks we've seen over recent years. This is well and away the biggest outbreak of diphtheria since we started gathering records on this disease in 1991, national records. It's a deeply concerning outbreak, which is why we've, first of all, declared it through the Chief Medical Officer a communicable disease incident of national significance, which brings together a whole lot of work across jurisdictions. We've also distributed funding, both to the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre for a surging workforce, through the NT, a healthy vaccination and treatment efforts as well as general containment.
I think there does obviously have to be a pretty close examination of how we've got to an outbreak this size, not for today, today we're focused on containment. But something clearly has gone wrong here. Having an outbreak that is so big compared to the historical position of a disease that most developed countries have largely consigned to the dustbin of history does mean we have to examine what has gone wrong here. But today, my main focus, I know the focus of other jurisdictions, Aboriginal Medical Services and that NCCTRC group that are surging through the territory, the focus right now is containing the outbreak. And to the extent people do acquire this disease, treating them and avoiding any severe complications.
JOURNALIST: After the COVID-19 inquiry we heard that trusts had been kind of broken in our medical institutions. How much of that do you think has played out in this diphtheria outbreak?
BUTLER: Vaccination rates will be a factor in an outbreak this large, which is why we're surging workforce into communities. And most of these communities are relatively remote or very remote that's why we're doing this. Because you do need to make sure as an adult that your protections are up to date. Your immunity for diphtheria from vaccinations you will have received as a child do wane over time. And updated advice from our immunisation experts suggests that Indigenous adult Australians should get a booster shot every five years. We've had to make sure that there is an effort underway to boost that.
It's unclear right now the degree to which waning support, or should I say perhaps in another way, some increased vaccine hesitancy has played a role in this outbreak. There are obviously other drivers like sanitation and housing conditions in some of these communities that have played a role as well. But as I said in response to that earlier question, I think we're going to have to examine this very, very closely. Of course, I'm concerned about waning immunisation rates across a range of groups in our community; childhood immunisation, adult immunisation, but it's probably only a factor in this outbreak, and certainly not the only factor.
Thanks, everyone.