Margaret May (McPherson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

Can I thank the member for Fremantle for bringing this motion before the House today. It is an important motion and one we should all take note of. I would also like to offer my congratulations to the member for Fremantle on her election to this place and I wish her well in the years ahead.

I have often spoken in this place about the need for Australians to register for organ donation as I believe bipartisan support is required to raise donation rates in Australia. We need to raise awareness in our own communities. We need to understand what organ donation means to so many Australians who are waiting on that list. The gift of life is the ultimate gift that one human being can give to another. Australians have been receiving life-giving organ and tissue transplants since 1965, and to date more than 30,000 people have received transplants which have saved or enhanced their lives. I think that is an incredible record and something we should move to increase.

Though Australia does boast one of the highest transplantation success rates in the world, with kidney transplant survival rates at about 90 per cent in the first year and over 75 per cent over five years, even with that very high success rate we have an extremely low rate of donation in this country. In fact Australia has one of the lowest rates among Western countries of organ and tissue donation. I would say to all of those in the House today that that is very disappointing and alarming considering our success rate on donor transplants.

Last year just 198 people became organ donors. Incredibly, from those 198 people 626 transplants were performed from those donations. I think it says a lot for what one person can do if they put their name on that list. With 1,875 people waiting for an organ transplant in Australia, a person has a 10 times greater chance of requiring an organ or tissue transplant than of becoming a donor. We certainly have to turn that around.

Spain has the highest rate of organ donation in the developed world. Their level of national support has been achieved through government legislation, professional education and ongoing community awareness programs. The Howard government did announce the Australians Donate National Organ Donation Collaborative measures on 19 February 2006 and I am encouraged to hear that the new Rudd government has committed to continuing this funding through to 2009. This is a great step forward. The National Organ Donation Collaborative educates hospital staff across the country on ways that donation rates can be improved. It is a great example of social policy and one which makes me proud to stand in this place. I would like to quote from the collaborative charter about the opportunity it sees:

While donation rates in Australia’s major hospitals vary greatly, those with high rates did not achieve them by accident. The practices leading to higher rates can be identified and replicated. Through the collaborative, hospitals will form multidisciplinary teams—each to include a donor coordinator—to improve the identification of potential donors. Working closely together, the teams will also lift the conversion rate of potential to actual donors.

I think it will be a great outcome if we can do that through our hospital systems.

Hundreds of Australians every year suffer and die needlessly due to a shortage of organ and tissue donors. Every donor has the potential to improve the lives of at least 10 people. Organ donation saves lives and tissue donation improves the quality of life. But, as we know, every year we lose hundreds of people because those organs are not available. I would like to quote Senator Gary Humphries, who made a speech last week here in the theatre about Australian Organ Donor Awareness Week. One of the comments he made in his speech was:

Every year we burn and bury thousands of perfectly healthy, useful organs, while hundreds of people with serious illnesses die for want of them. For some the decision to take their organs to the grave is made for religious, social or personal reasons, but for the vast majority of Australians the decision is not one they will bother to make nor will they probably even consider. And because of this people are dying.

I think that says it all. We have a huge job ahead of us to educate the Australian public on the importance of becoming an organ donor. I believe that to sign on for organ donation is one of the greatest gifts a person can give but it is one form of generosity that cannot be spontaneous. Research has shown that more than 90 per cent of Australians support organ and tissue donation but that many people are unaware that simply marking your drivers licence as an organ donor is no longer sufficient to carry out your wishes. The law now requires people to register their consent with the Organ Donor Register. You can register online at www.medicareaustralia.gov.au, obtain a registration form from Medicare offices or call Medicare on 1800777203. I make available in my office the registration forms that people can fill in and I certainly talk to constituents about what they can do or how they can become organ donors. I would encourage everyone in this House today to think about having those forms in their offices and trying to encourage constituents to fill them in. It really is a very important step that we can all take.

I cannot stress strongly enough that, if you register, it is a subject you must talk over with your family and your loved ones. The most common reason families decline to donate their deceased relative’s organs and tissue is that they do not know whether or not their relative wished to donate their organs. It is not pleasant to talk about death, but, in the case of organ donation, forward planning is imperative. Families are placed in a situation where they have to make a heart-wrenching decision when their loved one has just been pronounced dead. Even if someone has registered their wishes on the Organ Donor Register, a family member may still override that wish. If your family knows and understands your wishes, following through with your wishes will not be such a hard decision for them to make when you pass away.

I would like to stress today that organ donors are treated with the utmost respect. The donor’s body is treated with dignity. Of course, that is of huge concern to people putting their names forward as donors. I have been assured by the people I have spoken to, the organisation itself, that bodies are treated with the utmost respect and dignity.

Organ donation is important, and I very much hope that people do not delay but register as soon as possible. As I said before, each individual has the potential to help up to 10 people through organ transplants, such as heart, lungs, liver, pancreas and kidneys, or through tissue transplants, such as bone and eye tissue. We need to educate people about organ and tissue donation, to encourage families to discuss their wishes, to highlight the success of organ transplantation in Australia and to promote the registration of consent through the Australian Organ Donor Register. Each and every one of us can make a difference to someone else’s life if we are unfortunate enough to ourselves to pass away, but we should make the decision, fill in the form and register as organ donors.

In my own electorate there is a wonderful young man named Chris Wills. He was around 37 when he received a heart-lung transplant. Chris could not work and was on oxygen all the time. He could not walk 50 metres and could not put his workboots on because he did not have the energy to do it. Through his transplant—and it only kept him in hospital for 10 days—Chris is now an active member of the community, works full time, and coaches and plays cricket; in fact, he played for Australia in England as part of our Transplant Games. So I urge all of my colleagues here today: please, talk to your constituents and encourage them to register. I hope everyone in this House also registers for organ donation.

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