Today Nicola Roxon introduced two Bills to Parliament.

1) Health legislation amendment (midwife and nurse practitioner) Bill 2009
This Bill is about accessing Medicare and PBS, there is nothing currently written in this Bill that discuses eligibility - there is no comment within it at present that states anything about homebirth. However, in her speech today she openly stated that there will be no MBS for Homebirth.

2) (and this is the clincher) Midwife Professional Indemnity (Commonwealth contribution scheme) Bill 2009
This Bill excludes midwives from providing intrapartum homebirth care.

THIS IS A SAD SAD DAY FOR THE WOMEN OF AUSTRALIA!

C.F. the Homebirth Australia’s media release and a poster for the Sept 7th rally in Canberra– we know of 100s of women who will be attending from all over the country – we need 1000s so print it out, pass it on and email it around! You can register your attendance on our facebook page

Australia is going to be the laughing stock of the Western world – what a tragedy! Our new website will be going live by tomorrow morning (I hope) – for regular updates go to www.homebirthaustralia.org

Cheers

Jo Hunter
National Convenor
Homebirth Australia