Mark Coulton (Parkes, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to speak on the Australian Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation Authority Bill 2008. I welcome the opportunity to speak in the debate on this bill. I am really pleased to be speaking on a bill that has support from both sides of the House. It is a bill that is worth while and that is going to make a big difference to a lot of people. It is a pleasant relief from some of the other silliness that we carry on with in here at times.

I know from local experience how important organ donation is. I would like to draw the attention of the chamber to some of the facts and figures relating to organ donation. One organ donor can save and improve the quality of life of up to 10 people. Today solid organs as well as tissues, skin and bone can be utilised to help return people to good health. Australia’s rate of organ donation has remained static for the last 25 years. Currently, each year Australia has approximately 200 organ donors, and this number could be doubled. Australia has one of the lowest organ donation rates anywhere in the developed world.

Among the many reasons for our low rate of donation are several that we cannot complain about. We fortunately do not have the same amount of gun crime as do other countries, such as the United States, which results in fewer trauma patients presenting to hospital. There are very successful road death prevention campaigns that help reduce road trauma deaths. The quality of our general health has greatly reduced stroke and other causes of permanent brain damage.

More than 1,800 Australians are now waiting for urgent transplants and it is estimated that 100 people die each year while waiting for an organ transplant due to the shortage of organ and tissue donors. The greatest mortality occurs in patients waiting for hearts, lungs and livers where no real alternative or short-term treatment exists. Although less than one per cent of deaths occur in such a way that organ donation is possible, the organ donation rate could be dramatically improved if more people discussed their wishes with their partners, families and friends and registered their decision with the Australian Organ Donor Register. That is one of the key components of this bill that I strongly support. We are actually going to get a framework in place that will facilitate this to happen.

Although in some states in Australia you can still tick a box on your licence, this process does not ensure you will be an organ and/or tissue donor. Family or next of kin will be consulted in the organ and tissue donation process. It is rare for a donation not to go ahead because the family or next of kin do not agree with their loved one’s decision. Most families or next of kin will carry out a loved one’s wishes if they know what they are. On the other hand, if they do not know your decision their decision is made much harder and it is possible donation will not go ahead. Talking to your partner, family and friends about donation is crucial.

Anyone from the age of 12 months up to 90 years can potentially become an organ and tissue donor. Many people rule themselves out of organ and tissue donation because they think they are too old but, contrary to common belief, even when they are 90 potentially some of their organs could be used to improve someone else’s life. Very few medical conditions or bad habits automatically disqualify you from donating organs. The decision to use an organ is based on strict medical criteria. It may turn out that certain organs are not viable for transplantation but other organs and tissues may be fine. Do not disqualify yourself prematurely. Only medical professionals at the time of your death can determine whether your organs and tissues are suitable for transplantation. Organ donors save lives and you can choose all the specific organs and tissues you would like to donate.

With your indulgence, Mr Deputy Speaker, I would like to tell the House about an incident that is very close to my heart. It goes a long way towards explaining the benefits of organ donation. In February 2007, on the last day of the school holidays in my home town of Warialda, a small town in north-west New South Wales, a group of local students from years 8 and 9—aged 13 and 14—had gathered to fill in their last day before school went back. As country kids have been known to do for many years, they decided to go for a drive out in the state forest on the edge of town. They were in a small utility, being driven by a 13-year-old girl. Unfortunately, the worst possible thing happened. The ute got out of control and swerved off the road and tipped into a tree. Of the eight people in the vehicle, only one was not seriously injured. One girl, Emma Smith, was killed instantly and was dead at the scene. The other kids were transported to our small local bush hospital.

To add to the confusion of the day, the motor in the Westpac rescue helicopter, en route from Tamworth, cut out at 6,000 feet and crashed. The pilot of that helicopter managed to get it down, although landing it very hard and destroying the helicopter. But the doctor and the paramedic managed to crawl out and they hitched a ride with a local farmer and continued on to Warialda to help.

The hospital has a limited emergency room, so emergency rooms to cater for the six seriously injured children were set up. The local volunteers, the fire brigade and the state emergency services, as well as the local hospital staff and staff from surrounding hospitals, all rallied. During that afternoon they did a mighty job. They managed to stabilise the condition of the children and managed to get them transported for further treatment to Tamworth and to Sydney. As a result of that day, the entire hospital staff were commended and, as a matter of fact, the two local doctors, the husband-and-wife team of Dr Gordon and Dr Coote, were given the award of Australian Rural Doctors of the Year, largely because of the action they took on that day.

The families of two of those young people, Kallem Warrener and Mandy Butler, found them on life support in Sydney. After a short time, a matter of days, it was realised that they had no hope of survival. It must be the hardest thing for parents to do, but they had to turn off the life-support machines. Kallem Warrener’s family, a family I have known all my life and am quite close to, decided that it would be appropriate to donate Kallem’s organs. I am not sure how many lives Kallem’s death saved, but from my reading it could have been up to 10. I know from speaking to Kallem’s mother days after his death that she felt it was one way they could make some sense out of the tragedy that had befallen them.

The other child, Mandy Butler, as it happened, was a ward of the state. Mandy was not a bad kid; she just went through a bit of a rebellious patch when she hit her teenage years, and her mum felt that it might be better if she went and lived with someone else for a while. Despite her tender age, Mandy had quite often spoken about the fact that if anything ever happened to her she would like to donate her organs to save someone else. But unfortunately, at the time, the laws in New South Wales did not allow that for children in state care. Mandy’s organs could not be used and no transplants could take place. Despite the wishes of her birth mother, the law would not allow it at the time.

As an aside to that, due to the hard lobbying since then by Mandy’s birth mother, Diane Johanson, this year the New South Wales government amended the law. The Human Tissue Amendment (Children in Care of State) Bill passed through the house in New South Wales some time ago, so that sort of thing will not happen again.

By the way, this accident happened quite near to my house, on the little dirt road that goes up to my place, and every time I go home from this place I see the carefully tended memorial—flowers, photos and little messages from their friends and families, who go out there on a regular basis. While it is very touching to see it, I think possibly the long-term memorial and legacy from that terrible day is the fact that Kallem Warrener was able to save the lives of up to 10 other people.

On the flip side of that—and this is not in any way related to the other incident I spoke of—is the story of one of my neighbours. He was a young man, a giant of a man in his late 30s—a big, strong farmer with two small children—who suffered from kidney failure. After a short time on dialysis he was looking down the path of what was going to be quite an unproductive life. If you need constant care such as dialysis, particularly in rural areas, you have to go to a larger town, which can be 200 or 300 kilometres away. It looked as if his dreams of raising his children on the farm were going to come to an end. Fortunately, he was able to receive a kidney through the death of someone in Queensland, and now his life is pretty well back to normal and he is leading a healthy, active life. That is a positive picture of what can happen when organ donations go through.

In closing, I would like to stress the importance of organ donation and of raising awareness of it in the community. We have a responsibility to discuss this issue with our family and friends. We also need to keep in mind that in rural areas organ donation has specific problems. Unless the critically injured person who is going to die can be transferred to a large place—for example, Sydney—before they pass away, organ donation cannot happen.

There is another side to this. I am hopeful that the authority that is to be set up will take into account the wishes and feelings of the family. Picture yourself in the position of Kallem Warrener’s parents, who had to make this terrible decision when their son was about to die. They were 600 or 700 kilometres from home and they then had to get Kallem’s body home for burial. That is an expensive process. I suggest that this authority look at the special issues for people in regional areas—the emotional needs of the family at the time and also the expense related to donating organs to science.

I commend the government for taking the action to address this issue and I commend this bill to the House.

See this speech in context