Bill
Midwife Professional Indemnity (Commonwealth Contribution) Scheme Amendment Bill 2024
passed, as at 2024-12-10. Health and Aged Care portfolio.
- Sponsor
- Not recorded
- Portfolio
- Health and Aged Care
Recorded stages
- introduced — 2024-11-20
- second reading — 2024-11-20
- other — 2024-11-26
- second reading — 2024-11-26
- second reading — 2024-11-26
- other — 2024-11-27
- third reading — 2024-11-27
- introduced — 2024-11-28
- second reading — 2024-11-28
- second reading — 2024-11-28
- third reading — 2024-11-28
- passed — 2024-11-28
- royal assent — 2024-12-10
Divisions
No divisions recorded. Most questions are decided on the voices; this does not establish that a bill was unopposed.
Plain-language summary
Written by a model from the explanatory memorandum; not the record, as at 2024-11-20.
The bill would let the Midwife Professional Indemnity Scheme cover low-risk homebirths and labour care outside hospitals, ending the current insurance exemption for those services.
The Commonwealth would add these services to the scheme's eligible products, working with insurers and using a definition of low-risk homebirth agreed with states and territories.
The exemption from insurance requirements for homebirths and intrapartum care outside hospitals is set to expire on 30 June 2025, and the new cover is planned to start in July 2025.
- The bill would expand the Midwife Professional Indemnity Scheme to cover low-risk homebirths.
- The bill would also expand the scheme to cover intrapartum care outside hospitals before a planned hospital birth.
- The bill would remove the current exemption from professional indemnity insurance for these services.
Pregnant women, midwives, and insurers, including those serving Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations.
Sources
em
billhome
frl act