Ms ROSOL question to MINISTER for HEALTH, Mrs PETRUSMA
For the last three years, the Pelvic Pain Foundation has delivered a school program called PPEP Talk. The program has educated students about periods, endometriosis and other pelvic pain, equipping them with strategies to identify issues and to manage their health. Such programs are critically important anywhere, but particularly in Tasmania. Our students are missing more school due to periods and pelvic pain than anywhere else in Australia.
The Education Department recently advised PPEP Talk that they have denied their request for $115,000 in annual funding to continue the program for another two years. That decision has come despite the program’s success across dozens of Tasmanian public schools. I have here letters of support from 12 schools and pages of positive feedback from students. I will send them to you. Given this is also very clearly a health issue, we are hoping you can save the day. Will you consider providing PPEP Talk with funding in the upcoming state budget?
ANSWER
Honourable Speaker, I want to just assure the House that our government does support Women’s Health right across Tasmania, through the delivery of high quality healthcare every day. Women’s health, has been at the forefront of public discussion. I am really glad that it is. I really support the fact that women’s health is at the forefront of public discussion.
Our priority is ensuring that all Tasmanians have access to the healthcare they need, when they need it. Currently the federal funding gaps, particularly relating to Medicare surrounding women’s health are significant. In regard to the member’s question, we are seeking federal government funding for a range of different initiatives to support women’s health. We support and welcome federal Labor and the Coalition’s pre-election commitments to a women’s health package that was announced earlier this year. We believe that there should be more information and greater choice and lower cost to women across Australia, especially targeting critical areas like contraceptives, menopause, endometriosis and pelvic pain.
In regard to the member’s specific question in regard to education, that will be a matter that I will have to take up with the Minister for Education to find out more. Their budget allocation is very separate to my own, so I will need to follow it up. I assure the member that when it comes to endometriosis and other important women’s health initiatives we recognise the challenges faced by women and girls living with endometriosis and how this condition can affect them in their daily lives. This is why we have invested in new staff, new technologies and public awareness campaigns to help women to obtain the care they need, when and where they need it.
In the 2024-25 Budget, funding was provided over three years for a targeted campaign to increase awareness, diagnosis and education for clinicians and the community to develop greater understanding about the impacts of endometriosis. This program will provide increased outpatient clinics appointments in public hospitals across Tasmania so that more women and girls have access to specialists for diagnosis, treatment and ongoing management options. We are also investing $4.7 million to deliver a new state-of-the-art surgical robot at the Launceston General Hospital for improved clinical outcomes for gynaecological surgeries.
We will continue to do all that we can to ensure that Tasmanian women and girls suffering from endometriosis can access timely, affordable care within the Tasmania public health system.
The SPEAKER – Before I take the supplementary, minister, were you saying that you would come back to the House with that information? I appreciate it is another minister’s portfolio.
Mrs PETRUSMA – I will need to. It might take a little while to find out. I cannot guarantee I will be able to come back today.
The SPEAKER – No, that is fine. I just wanted to note that.
SUPPLEMENTARY QUESTION
Ms ROSOL – A supplementary question, Speaker?
The SPEAKER – I will hear the supplementary question.
Ms ROSOL – Thank you, minister, for your answer and I appreciate that you will speak with the Minister for Education. The Education Department have already said they will not fund this project. We are asking if you will consider funding it from the Health budget rather than from the Education budget?
The SPEAKER – Minister, that was the original question.
Mrs PETRUSMA – Honourable Speaker, I really do need to find out from the Minister for Education the reasons why behind this. I cannot commit to getting back today, but I do commit to coming back with a response to the House.
The SPEAKER – Thank you, Minister.
