The policy priorities we highlighted during the previous election
The Full Medicare
The Australian Progressives will:
- Guarantee government-owned and provided Medicare and reverse funding cuts for common procedures.
- Reform the health care sector to improve service delivery costs and focus on preventative health outcomes.
- Include Dental procedures in Medicare.
- Support the provision of full mental health coverage in Medicare.
- Support policies to reduce out of pocket costs for cancer patients.
- Legislate for medical coverage under Medicare for gender dysphoria services.
- Close the water fluoridation gap.
Health Services
- The Australian Progressives will guarantee Hearing Australia and other asset health services are not privatised.
Health Funding
The Australian Progressives support:
- Policies to build a long term Health Funding model to take Commonwealth-State politics out of the picture and provide long term guaranteed health services for all Australians.
- Policies to increase health research funding for age-related health issues to tackle issues arising as a result of Australia’s ageing population.
Mental Health
The Australian Progressives support:
- Policies to provide funding to increase regional and rural services.
- Policies to add and improve mental health education in school syllabuses.
- Policies to provide increased preventive mental health services to reduce reliance on hospitals.
- Improved access to selected support services such as mental and general health and substance addiction care.
Drug reform
The Australian Progressives will:
- End the “War on Drugs” and transition the Australian Government from viewing drugs as a criminal issue, to a health-centered focus for people with drug addiction, and recreational users.
- Support responsible regulation around drugs for recreational, industrial, scientific or medical use.
- Advocate for policies to decriminalise and map the transition to legalisation and taxation.
- Back expansions on current alcohol and tobacco legislation as appropriate.
- Support the medical use of drugs, as per evidence.
- Support policies to end public sniffer dog searches and limit strip search rights.
- Agree to graduated regulation on an evidence based harm minimisation approach.
- Support policies to evaluate the evidence for benefits as well as mitigation of the risks/negatives with various drugs.
- Advocate policies to fund medical and public health research into health benefits and harm mitigation.
Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme
The Australian Progressives support:
- Policy to create a new pharmaceutical production facility to supply “off patent” pharmaceuticals and sell at just above the cost price in order to make the PBS more sustainable and create room for new medications to be introduced into the PBS.
- A policy of listing every drug recommended by independent experts on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
Health service provision
The Australian Progressives support:
- Targeted upgrades to all public hospitals and allied health services infrastructure to assure minimum health care standards, especially in regional and remote areas
- Policies to reorient health services provision infrastructure to help support a flexible and adaptable approach to health services delivery in regional and remote areas, including the construction or upgrade of flexible health service centres in targeted regional cities.
Aged Care
- The Australian Progressives support policies that would improve access to aged healthcare services.
Organ Donation
The Australian Progressives support:
- A single national organ-donation registry to create easy ability to register all donation wishes.
- Moving to a presumed consent model, with the ability to opt out.
- Policies that prioritise registered organ donors in equal medical need cases.
- The creation of a donor leave allowance for living donors.
Vaccinations
The Australian Progressives will:
- Implement vaccination programs as an effective and proven means of preventing avoidable illnesses with minimal risk and enormous benefit.
- Support the establishment of a National lifetime immunisation registry and reminder service.
- Require an up-to-date vaccination record for any child to be enrolled in all early childhood education services or any school.
- Require truthful advertising around vaccination information.
- Restore the AusAID vaccination work in developing countries to help lessen the risk of disease elsewhere in the globe.
- Develop a program to encourage travel vaccinations.
- Establish a “no fault” compensation scheme for vaccination injuries.
Health Insurance
The Australian Progressives will hold a root-and-branch parliamentary review of the health insurance industry and related hospital funding arrangements.