Everyone should be able to access quality health care, regardless of how much they earn.

But healthcare services in Victoria are often underfunded and our healthcare workers are exhausted.

We need to invest in our healthcare system and workers so that people can get the best possible care when they need it.

Our wins for public health and maternity care include:

• Alongside parents and midwives I ran a campaign for more investment in public maternity care and secured $13 million in extra funding, including 175 new midwives in Victorian hospitals and support for at-risk programs at the Royal Women’s Hospital.
• Last year we successfully called on the Victorian Labor Government to provide a much deserved bonus to frontline healthcare workers during the pandemic.
• We ensured there was parliamentary oversight of the government’s COVID-19 response and secured fairer, more transparent pandemic laws, including preventing the misuse of QR code check-in data and reducing fines for welfare recipients.

I’m fighting for:

• Well-paid and secure jobs for nurses, carers, mental health workers and other healthcare workers.
• Funding to improve access to public dental services and reduce dental waiting lists, while we support our Federal Greens in calling for dental to be covered by Medicare.
• More focus on preventative health to keep people well and out of hospital where needed, for example promoting active transport, getting rid of junk food and alcohol advertising in public spaces.
• Investment in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander controlled organisations to improve health outcomes and increase life expectancy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
• More psychologists and psychiatrists in our under-funded public mental health system.
• More publicly-funded homebirth programs to give women and pregnant people more choice in birthing options.
• Re-opening family birth centres connected to major hospitals, so more women and pregnant people can give birth in a comfortable, supportive environment with care provided by a known midwife.
• More funding for continuity of care (1:1 midwifery care) programs in hospitals.
• Further investment in our medical precincts to ensure that Melbourne has a world-class public healthcare system that is accessible for all members of our community.

Find out more about the Greens’ plan to fix out health system here.