Photo shows the torso of a person wearing shorts and a t-shirt. They are sitting on a low table. A person wearing a white lab coat is standing and holding the knee of the person sitting down with both hands. This implies the person in the coat is a healthcare professional and they are examining the knee of a patient.

The Federal Parliament is running an inquiry into access to and affordability of medical specialists in Australia, and they want to hear from you.

On this page:

  • About Parliamentary Inquiries
  • Aims of This Inquiry
  • Reflect on Your Experiences
  • How to Have Your Say

About Parliamentary Inquiries

Parliamentary committees conduct inquiries to gather information and feedback on specific topics and report back to Parliament. Federal Parliament committees contain Members of the House of Representatives and/or Senators.

Most inquiries include terms of reference that set out the scope of the inquiry. When a committee conducts an inquiry, it will try to find out the facts of a case or issue, gather and sift through evidence provided to it in writing or in person and draw conclusions, which will be published in a report.

The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Disability is conducting this inquiry. This ten-member committee includes independent MPs and MPs from several political parties.

Aims of This Inquiry

For this inquiry, the committee aims to:

  1. Examine current access to medical specialists in cities, regional and rural communities, with consideration of workforce distribution, shortages, waiting times and barriers to recruitment, retention and training.
  2. Examine the effectiveness, transparency and equity of referral pathways from the perspective of patients, primary health care practitioners and medical specialists across the public and private health sectors, with consideration of factors affecting referral patterns and any systemic, regulatory or administrative barriers to the appropriate utilisation of these pathways.
  3. Examine the affordability of specialist services, including out-of-pocket costs for consultations, diagnostics, procedures, and patient access to specialists through public health services, as well as factors influencing fee setting by specialists in the public and private health sectors.
  4. Examine the impact on patient outcomes by delays due to cost, distance and waiting times, and broader system impacts on primary care, emergency departments, public hospitals, chronic disease management, as well as impacts on people due to deferred or missed care, and
  5. Assess innovative and emerging models of care that may improve access to medical specialists.

Reflect on Your Experiences

Access? Referrals? Affordability? Impacts? Did buzzers go off in your brain when you read those terms in relation to seeing your medical specialists?

We know that many of you will have a lot to say about your (good or bad) experiences with these aspects of your care. What the committee wants to know is:

  • What are the issues you face?
  • What you believe are the likely causes of these issues.
  • How these issues affect you.

We suggest you make a note of your responses to these points as you think of them. Let your thoughts flow and feel any emotions that come with them. Once you’ve done that, reflect on your responses and have a go at collating them into a statement that you can share with the committee. What about solutions? You can share ideas for those as well.

How to Have Your Say

You can have your say in this inquiry by making a submission, either directly to the committee via their website or through us.

Submissions are usually written documents, but they can be pictures or short videos. There is no set format for submissions. Submissions can contain facts, opinions, and recommendations. They can address some or all of the terms of reference. Submissions should draw on your particular knowledge or experience of the issues.

Useful submissions make a clear argument, contain recommendations for action, and provide sources for any references.

Send your own submission directly to the committee,

You can upload your own submission directly to the committee via the inquiry into access to and affordability of medical specialists in Australia page of the Parliament of Australia website. Your submissions can be anonymous if you prefer.

You will also find helpful information on Making a submission to a committee inquiry there.

The deadline for direct submissions is Friday, 16 October 2026.

Share your comments with us

We plan to provide a detailed submission to the committee.

You can help us by sending us any comments you wish to share related to the terms of reference. These can be as short as a few bullet points and as long as a few pages. You can put them into a Word document, write them into an email or record them as a voice message.

We will collate all your comments into themes and use them to build a cohesive response on behalf of our GHLF Australia and CreakyJoints Australia communities. We will not include any of your personal names or contact details in our submission.

We will need plenty of time to prepare our submission, so please email your comments to Rosemary Ainley at rainley@ghlf.org.au. Our extended deadline for comments is now 5 pm on Friday 7 August 2026.

Thank you.

Share This Request with Others

You are welcome to share this request with anyone you think might like to have their voice heard in this inquiry.

 

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