On 31 March 2026, the Minister for Health and Ageing, the Hon Mark Butler MP, referred an inquiry into the access to and affordability of medical specialists in Australia to the House Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Disability.

The Committee accepted the Minister’s request to inquire into access to and affordability of medical specialists, including current levels of access and barriers, the effectiveness and equity of referral pathways, affordability of services including out-of-pocket costs in the private system and access through the public system, the impact on patient outcomes, and innovative and emerging models of care that may improve access for patients.

The Committee would be grateful to receive submissions addressing the terms of reference by Friday, 16 October 2026. Further information about making a submission to a parliamentary committee is available here. 

Those making a submission should be mindful of including personal medical information, diagnostic information such as images or pathology information, or other graphic material in your submission. The Committee may decide to remove this information from your submission or decide not to publish it.

If you would like to provide a submission to the inquiry addressing the terms of reference, and would not like it to be published online, you can request that your submission be confidential.  

It is not the role of the Committee to investigate individual complaints or concerns about medical specialists. Please do not include allegations against individuals in your submission. If you include this information in your submission, the Committee may decide to remove this information from your submission or decide not to publish it.

Please note that contributions to the inquiry are not automatically published on the website. Each contribution is processed by the Secretariat before being made available on the 'Submissions' web page.

For further information about the inquiry please contact the Committee Secretariat.