Former MP Emma Husar has added her voice to the chorus demanding that the Department of Parliamentary Services establish an onsite GP for parliamentarians, their staff, and other workers.
Senators Jane Hume and David Pocock have pressed for the parliamentary department to prioritise the establishment of an in-house GP for parliamentary sitting weeks so that people working in the precinct have access to basic physical and mental health services.
The Department of Parliamentary Services commissioned a feasibility study as recommended in the Jenkins report that estimated it would cost $361,000 a year to fund an onsite GP that would service between 4,000 to 5,000 people during sitting weeks.
Husar was the member for the lower house seat of Lindsay from 2016 to 2019, and she told The Mandarin that it was fortunate there was a doctor in the Labor caucus when she was dealing with health challenges during her time in parliament.
She said the entire workforce would benefit from having a doctor in the house available for everyone to consult.
“Sheer luck would have it that during my time in parliament, we had a doctor in caucus, who I was able to visit a few times but if I was a young staffer or someone in a differing political party, I would not have felt comfortable visiting the Labor doctor,” Husar said.
“GPs are critical for our health, having one on-site in a building that once you enter on a workday you cannot ‘duck away’ from during your non-existent lunch break. I welcomed this in the Jenkins review, it’s a shame this recommendation has not been realised from 2022.”
The Department of Parliamentary Services has been questioned about the health and wellness recommendation in the Jenkins Report on multiple occasions since it received the Strategic Development Group feasibility study.
That interrogation included questioning from Hume, a member of the parliamentary leadership taskforce overseeing the implementation of the Jenkins report recommendations, on the introduction of the three trial vending machines in May 2023 at a time that happened to coincide with the department’s appearance before estimates.
The first that Hume learned of the introduction of the vending machines as a member of the taskforce was via a journalist’s social media post.
“I actually discovered that the vending machines were in place through Twitter, because a journalist tweeted something yesterday,” Hume said during the May 22, 2023 estimates hearing.
“What is the program that will be undertaken by the department to make sure that people are aware that those vending machines exist?”
Parliamentary Services Department secretary Rob Stefanic told Hume that the machines were installed the previous Friday.
“It took some time for the vendor to obtain a range of products for that. The intent was to run the promotion as of today,” Stefanic told Hume in response.
“There are three machines. One, the image you’re referring to, is in the press gallery area opposite the coffee hub.
“There is another machine on the approach to the health and recreation centre near the nurses’ centre. The third machine is in the House of Representatives wing in a tearoom.”
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