The Albanese Government revealed its ten-year plan for LGBTIQA+ health earlier this week, led by Health Minister Mark Butler and Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care Ged Kearney.
Intersex advocacy group InterAction for Health and Human Rights, formerly known as Intersex Human Rights Australia, has welcomed the launch of the National Action Plan for the Health and Wellbeing of LGBTIQA+ People 2025 – 2035.
InterAction Executive Director Morgan Carpenter says he is grateful to Assistant Minister Kearney and her staff for their work on the plan.
“Assistant Minster Kearney’s vision, experience and values are evident in the final report. I am proud to work with the Assistant Minister, her team and Department to ensure consultation with, and attention to the needs of people with innate variations of sex characteristics.”
Among the key actions outlined in the plan is to “support and drive consistency in key models of care and to establish best practice frameworks”. This action includes a commitment to explore opportunities with states and territories, including through consideration of findings from the Australian Human Rights Commission’s 2021 Ensuring health and bodily integrity report, to improve protections and care for people with innate variations fo sex characteristics.
Carpenter says the plan recognises that LGBTIQA+ people need support to “make their own decisions about their bodies.”
“It recognises the legacies of harm, stigmatisation and discrimination, and proposes actions to address these.
“This work shows the value of intersex advocacy in attending to the as yet unrealised rights of bodily autonomy and integrity for all people.”
InterAction for Health and Human Rights have praised the plan for its focus on a number of key areas for people with innate variations of sex characteristics, such as building system-wide leadership and cultural change to foster an inclusive environment, and strengthening preventative health and building health literacy to empower people with the knowledge and resources they need to maintain their health.
Other focus areas include enhancing accessibility, availability, and safety of health care services; improving workforce capability and capacity across mainstream and intersex-led services and; advancing research, data and evaluation to inform policy and practice and drive continuous improvement.
InterAction say the launch of the plan has been supported by significant financial investment from the government, which will be used to expand the capacity of intersex-led community psychosocial support service InterLink.
Deputy Executive Director and Manager of InterLink, Bonnie Hart, says the funding announcement recognises the great need for peer-led depathologised services for people with innate variations of sex characteristics of all ages.
“It also begins to acknowledge the mental health impacts of negative healthcare experiences on our community’s bodily autonomy, human rights, family and interpersonal connections,” Hart said.
“The InterLink program makes a real difference in the lives of people with innate variations of sex characteristics, connecting them with support, community and affirmative services.
“With this funding, we can continue our work helping community process previous harms, navigate current healthcare needs and flourish in their relationships.”
