Women, trans, inter-sex and non-binary people are slipping through the cracks because there is no overarching system for create solutions to meet their needs, Gender Justice Collective founder Angela Meyer said.
Our current health system continued to rely on data from studies done on men as if they apply to women also and that needed to change, she said.
Meyer said this commitment from the Government to include a women's health strategy in the new legislation was a "game changer for women".
In the HSC report, it said the women's health strategy must contain, but not be limited to, an assessment of; the current state of health outcomes for women and performance of the health sector in relation to women, and medium- and long-term trends that will affect women.
It also advised the Government to set out priorities for health services that would improve healthcare for women.
It's not clear if any money will be allocated to establishing the strategy in this year's Budget, which is due to be announced next month. And no detail has been given about what a strategy would look like and how long it could take to establish.
Meyer said she was thrilled to hear the Government would be actioning a health strategy because it meant their needs had been heard. However, funding was crucial.
"Money talks and the development of a strategy needs to have a budget line put against it, otherwise it's just going to sit at the bottom of the pile like women's issues often are."
The GJC petition was launched after a nationwide survey asked 3508 women, trans, inter-sex and non-binary what they needed and wanted from their politicians.
"We heard very loudly and clearly that health was one of the key issues and so working and talking with the sector, it became very obvious that the entire sector was behind the development of a strategy," Meyer said.
It's not the first time a women's health strategy had been recommended to the Government.
In 2014, another group called Women's Health Action put forward a similar proposal without success.
Women's Health Action's general manager Isis McKay said though it did prompt discussion that went all the way to the United Nations, the strategy didn't meet "political appetite" at the time.
This kind of work had been ongoing well before the 2014 proposal but it had repeatedly been ignored, she said.
Meanwhile, women's health strategies have since been adopted in Australia, England, Scotland and Canada. They've focused on improving care for maternity, endometriosis, gynaecological cancers and other conditions that affect women differently to men.
"Changes of government can have a direct impact on how successful something like this would be ... cross-party support is therefore crucial," McKay said.
National health spokesman Shane Reti told the Herald late last year National was supportive of "a strategy that sits among other strategies".
National's focus for women's health would be on improving care for cancers, including ovarian, fallopian tube, uterine, cervix and vaginal cancer, Reti said.
