Federation Chamber (part 1 of 2)
7 September 2026
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Federation Chamber Australian Parliament
12:10 - 12:24
Speaker 4
Honourable members, the Deputy Speaker.
12:24 - 12:29
Speaker 2
Are there any constituency statements by honourable members? The member for Wide Bay.
12:29 - 13:55
Speaker 8
Thanks, Deputy Speaker. I rise today to speak about petition EN10266 launched by Alicia Staines and the Maternity Consumer Network concerning professional indemnity insurance for midwives attending home births. That petition is now closed with almost 6,000 signatures. Those signatures represent women, families and midwives asking the Commonwealth to fix a problem of its own making before the current exemption ends on the 31st of December 2026. This issue will be felt most acutely in rural and regional Australia where maternity choices are already limited.
Services have been repeatedly centralised or closed and women can travel hundreds of kilometres simply to give birth. The government committed $3.5 million over four years to expand the midwife professional indemnity scheme. Yet the home birth insurance product created through the insurer MIGA is not fit for purpose. It does not provide a workable insurance pathway for the many experienced registered midwives who currently act as second attendants at private home births. That matter, that matters because rural and regional endorsed midwives often rely on local hospital midwives to provide that second attendant role.
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