Thursday, 23 February 2023

Ministers statements: LGBTIQ+ health services

Mary-Anne THOMAS (Macedon – Leader of the House, Minister for Health, Minister for Health Infrastructure, Minister for Medical Research) (14:11): I rise to update the house on the Andrews Labor government’s commitment to the health and wellbeing of LGBTIQ+ Victorians. We know that LGBTIQ+ Victorians face higher levels of discrimination, stigma and exclusion than other Victorians, which leads to poorer health outcomes. This is simply not acceptable. As all Victorians know, under the Andrews Labor government equality is not negotiable. When it comes to equality, leadership matters, words matter and doing what you say you are going to do matters.

We are tackling the social and structural challenges that are faced by our LGBTIQ+ community, and we are doing that through Victoria’s first whole-of-government strategy, Pride in our Future. Through the strategy we will deliver greater access to inclusive healthcare services that meet the specific needs of community members while respecting their identities and valuing our LGBTIQ+ communities as they are and for who they are.

The real-life benefits of working alongside the community have been recently demonstrated in the response to the mpox outbreak. We worked with Thorne Harbour and other LGBTIQ+ communities on a campaign that ensured that vaccines got as quickly as possible to those who needed them the most in the simplest way possible for them. This proved highly effective, and I am pleased to say that as of today there are no mpox cases in Victoria. This was a scarce vaccine, but we worked with the LGBTIQ+ community of Victoria, who our government always respects, always has and always will.