Chris Hayes (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

With 90 per cent of Australians supporting organ donation and with there being a longstanding shortage of organs for transplantation, the Australian Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation Authority Bill 2008 is designed to lift organ donation rates and make it possible to save the lives of many Australians and return them to good health. That is why this bill before us today takes on additional relevance.

Today, I am proud to stand before the House and join with other members to support the Australian Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation Authority Bill 2008. I can say that I am a registered organ donor. On 1 September this year, I made a statement to this House about the Australian Organ Donor Register, which is Australia’s only organ and tissue donor register and is really a lifeline for Australians who are, unfortunately, on the waiting list for organ donation.

For some time in my electorate I have produced a fact sheet about organ donation. On the reverse side of that fact sheet is the actual registration form. Some might say this is a political statement but, with all outgoing correspondence from my office, I include one of these fact sheets and draw attention to the significance of organ donation. It is designed to lift the rates of organ donation within my electorate. When I, as do other members of parliament, attend railway stations in the morning or street meetings on Saturdays and Sundays, I hand out the organ donation sheet. Obviously there are reasons for being out and talking to constituents but, when it comes to organ donation, we all have a role to play in ensuring that the communities we represent properly understand this as an issue—not one where we simply tick it off and say ‘We support it’ but one where we actually translate that support into a positive commitment. The only way that can be done is by registering to become one of Australia’s organ donors.

I have tried to increase awareness in my constituency on this matter. That was not forced ahead because of this bill coming before the House. I was caused to have a very close look at organ donating because of Debbie Roberts, CEO of one of our youth organisations, Campbelltown Youth Solutions. She told me of her daughter Rebecca. Her daughter died aged 20 back in 2002. Her daughter had suffered as a diabetic for some time, but she actually died of a heart attack. Rebecca had taken it upon herself to have a discussion with her mum and her family to the effect that, in the event of her death, she wanted her organs to be available to assist others. Coming from a mum who had lost a child, that had a profound effect on me. That is why I ramped up this campaign within my electorate. By the way, as I said, Debbie is the CEO of an organisation that does a wonderful job for young people in my electorate who are trying to find solutions to drugs and alcohol and other things. She is obviously a woman who cares about the community. She had a profound effect on me. The discussions she had with her daughter prior to her daughter dying of a heart attack were why she became involved in organ donation.

Debbie has shared the correspondence that she has received from four recipients of Rebecca’s organs. It is very touching correspondence. The correspondence is not all from the recipients themselves; some of it is from the families. She does not know who they are—that is not brought to Debbie’s attention, because of issues of confidentiality—but she has been given copies of the letters. They show how other people’s lives have been profoundly affected and enriched—as a matter of fact, how life has been given—through Rebecca’s selfless decision to donate her organs should she die. Two people have benefited from her kidneys and two others have benefited from receiving her corneas.

That is just one instance of a person I happen to know through work in my community. There are countless other people in a similar position. We owe Rebecca a great debt of gratitude for the fact that as a young person aged 20 she had the courage to have that discussion with her parents with a view to donating her organs should she die. That came from a very young person showing great leadership in our community. I see on the face of Debbie Roberts when she speaks of her daughter how proud she is of her. But the issue is really not just how proud her mother is of her daughter in those circumstances; it should be how proud we are as a community that a young person would choose to take such a serious decision as that as early as she did.

This bill is designed to lift our rates of donation and to do something to assist those people who are unfortunately languishing on our waiting lists. According to the Australian and New Zealand Organ Donation Registry, as at July this year there were 1,793 people on the waiting list—1,357 were waiting for kidney transplants, 65 were waiting for heart transplants, 194 were waiting for liver transplants, 140 were waiting for lung transplants and 35 were waiting for pancreas transplants.

Up to August this year, 175 donors have saved the lives of 595 people. That is an incredible contribution to make to our community. Rebecca’s story, which I outlined to the House earlier, is one I will continue to place before my family, my staff and my constituents generally. I encourage every member, when we are corresponding or dealing with our constituents, to leave politics aside on this issue and ensure that we have very much a bipartisan position going forward in our unequivocal support for organ donation.

This bill will have the effect of establishing the Australian Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation Authority, which is, quite frankly, absolutely critical in ensuring these outcomes take place. This bill will provide $151 million over four years and that will hopefully help lift Australia’s donation rate to world’s best practice on organ and tissue transplants. The plan will be delivered in five stages: $46 million to introduce the Australian Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation Authority; $67 million over four years to fund dedicated organ donation specialist doctors and other staff in public and private hospitals; $17 million over four years in new funding for hospitals to meet the additional staffing, bed and infrastructure costs associated with organ donation; $13.4 million over four years to continue the national public awareness and education campaign; and, very importantly, $1.9 million over four years to provide counselling and assistance to the families of deceased donors who generally grapple with the notion that their deceased loved ones wished to donate their organs. That will always be a difficult position; therefore this money will go towards supporting those people in that difficult time.

I encourage all Australians to register to become organ donors. That is the critical first step in being able, as Rebecca was in Campbelltown, to give to somebody—albeit unknown—what could only be seen as the greatest gift one human being can give another: the gift of life. I commend the bill to the House.

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