The purpose of this paper is to outline the current position regarding women's health policy in Australia, both at the Federal and State/Territory levels. 

In recent years, the increasing importance of 'women's health' as a legitimate separate entity in Australia has been recognised. This is evidenced by the release of the National Women's Health Policy and its implementation via the National Women's Health Program. In addition, all States and Territory Governments have, or are in the process of developing, Women's Health policies. 

Section 2 discusses the rationale for a separate women's health system and Section 3 is a chronology of key events in relation to the adoption of a national policy on women's health policy and its implementation. Section 4 outlines the National Women's Health Policy and Section 5 the National Women's Health Program while the evaluation of the National Women's Health Program is considered in Section 6. Other policy initiatives such as Health Goals and Targets for Australian Women 1993; the Australian Medical Association's Position Statement on Women's Health, and the Commonwealth Government's Commitment to the Women's Health Program are outlined in Section 7. State and Territory Women's Health Policies are detailed in Section 8, with concluding remarks at Section 9.