Ive been keeping an eye on midwifery with our closest neighbors, Just my opinion about the "Australia situation"

"With the federal health minister, Nicola Roxon, already on record as
indicating some sympathy for the midwives’ pitch, specialist doctors
say the Government should first consider what they claim are the
‘‘harmful effects’’ experienced in New Zealand, which moved to a
midwife-led system in 1990. "

What "harmful efects" I don't see our system as being "midwife-led" rather a collaboration of women their whanau, support people, and health professional who bring their specialist knowledge. A partnership.

In December the Government revealed over 900 submissions to the review had been received, most of them from individual consumers.

Releasing the news at the time, Roxon said in a statement that the women’s ‘‘personal accounts of experiences with maternity care sound a strong note of concern that our maternity system has become too focused on medical intervention’’.

It was the push consumers of Maternity services that pathed the way for New Zealand Midwives. I believe It will be the voice of consumers in Australia that will make a difference to the Australian system.