Yvette D'Ath (Petrie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in support of the Australian Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation Authority Bill 2008. The purpose of this bill is to establish the Australian Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation Authority, which will provide national leadership to the organ and tissue sector and spearhead the campaign to lift donation rates. It will also coordinate, implement and monitor national reform initiatives and programs aimed at increasing access to lifesaving and life-transforming transplants. To achieve its aims, the authority will use experience gained from other countries in its work in increasing the numbers of donors in Australia and raising public awareness and knowledge of organ and tissue donation.

The government’s reforms in this area have been designed using international and national best practice models with a proven track record of maximising donation rates. Data from countries comparable to Australia indicates that a centralised and coordinated national approach lifts donation rates over time. It is this coordinated, central approach that has been so lacking and yet so desperately needed in this country. Over 90 per cent of Australians support organ donation, but the actual number of donations is, sadly, very low. Australia has had a longstanding shortage of organ and tissue donors. The disparity between such overwhelming support for organ donation and such shockingly low actual donation rates occurs for many reasons, and this bill goes some way towards addressing them.

The authority will be directly responsible to the Minister for Health and Ageing and will report as closely as possible to the end of the financial year on its success in lifting donation rates. The areas that the authority will have responsibility for include: the provision of an organ or tissue donation and transplantation service; the identification of potential organ or tissue donors; the obtaining of organs or tissue for transplantation; waiting lists for potential organ or tissue recipients; the allocation of organs or tissue for transplantation; support services for organ or tissue donors and their partners and families; the skills and knowledge of people involved in providing organ or tissue donation and transplantation services; and public knowledge about, and confidence in, organ or tissue donation and transplantation services.

This bill also provides for the establishment of the Australian Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation Advisory Council. The council will comprise 15 expert members who will advise and inform the CEO of the authority on policy issues. Like many bills that come through this House, this bill can affect many people’s lives. I believe that lives can be saved through a more nationally coordinated approach and investment in areas such as specialist transplantation teams throughout Australia.

Discussion around the topic of organ and tissue donation and transplantation can sometimes reduce the issue to numbers and statistics—the number of people who are donors, the number of people on waiting lists and the number of donations per year. These numbers are important and inform debate, but organ donation and transplantation is really about people—the people who choose to donate their organs or tissue, their families and loved ones and the people who receive a donation and their families. This issue touches so many lives: the individual who chooses either to be a live donor or to be registered as a donor if they die, the family of that donor, the recipient of that organ or tissue, and the family of the recipient.

As we know, any one person who is an organ donor could end up saving a number of lives. Choosing to be a donor either through a live transplantation or by identifying that you wish to be a donor if your life is lost so that you may help others is not a decision taken lightly by anyone. It is even more difficult for the family left behind to be able to deal with this issue at the height of their grief. That is why the new Organ Donor Register is such a significant improvement on the previous system of simply noting your willingness to be a donor on your drivers licence. The register requires that you discuss this issue with your immediate family so that they are aware of your wish and to confirm that you have given serious thought to this act.

Although I had been noted as a donor since first receiving my drivers licence in Queensland many years ago, I was pleased to add my name to the Organ Donor Register in February of this year. This now puts beyond doubt my wishes to my family. When people pass away because of illness or accident, families struggle with this decision even if organ donation was the wish of the person who died. Hopefully the Organ Donor Register and the process undertaken before placing your name on the register will assist at this difficult time when a family member dies. I concur with the comments of those who have already spoken on this bill in this House that those who donate commit the most selfless act imaginable. I thank them and their families very much for it.

As I stated earlier, organ and tissue donation and transplantation is about people. I would like to take this opportunity to talk about a couple of stories that show the strength of families that have dealt with tragedy and seen lives saved as a consequence of donations. The first story has been placed on the Teamlife Transplant Australia website by Leith and Jenny Bawden, who are the parents of a special young man named Steven Bawden. Leith and Jenny Bawden also placed a photo of Steven on the website. This is the story they posted with Steven’s photo:

This is the face of a fellow Australian. Just like thousands of us. Just like you and me. This is also the face of a special young man who lost his life on 16 October 1997—the face of our son, Steven. This is not an extraordinary face, but the possessor of this face accomplished an extraordinary act. Steven is an organ donor.

Although he was only 19 at the time of his death, Steven had already shown he was a compassionate young man through his work in the funeral business. Because of this and his experiences with death, not only of the aged and very young but also within his own age group, he understood the frailty of life. He could talk quite openly about death and naturally the subject of organ donation was raised. He expressed his fervent desire to register his intent and we had many long and meaningful discussions as a family over the dinner table. We were all in agreement that organ donation was a worthwhile and sensible step.

When the tragic event occurred, we had no doubts which course of action Steven would want us to take. The decision, at a time when you can barely function, was made simpler for us as a family because we had talked about the topic at length. We did not have to second-guess Steven’s wishes as we knew what they were. Thank goodness we had talked about organ donation with him.

His compassionate and unselfish gift has changed many lives. Not only the lives of his six recipients but also the lives of the many people who loved and cared for him. Steven’s gift gave sight to a teenage girl and a middle-aged woman. He saved the life of the middle-aged mum liver recipient and the heart recipient of a middle-aged man. Of the two kidney recipients, one was a man in his early thirties and the other a middle-aged family lady. His gifts have made the difference to their lives as evidenced by the cards and letters we receive.

Years have passed and we have been kept up-to-date with the progress of the recipients. All remain well and happy. This is so very important to us. It goes without saying that we are extremely proud of our son and the way in which he conducted his life as well as his death. Take care.

And then there is the story of Zaidee Rose Alexander Turner, aged seven years and 22 days, who died suddenly on 2 December 2004 from a burst blood vessel in her brain called a cerebral aneurysm. The Turner family had been registered organ and tissue donors for five years. As a result, Zaidee donated her organs and tissues at the Royal Children’s Hospital. Zaidee was the only child in Victoria under the age of 16 years and one of the youngest Australians to donate her organs and tissues in 2004. She was only one of six children nationally to donate their organs.

In 2004, 160,000 Australians died. Only 218 were organ and tissue donors. Being a parent, I can only imagine how a parent deals with such tragedy, but I do ask that families consider how one life lost may help many others. Having been listed as a donor for many years, I strongly encourage others to sit around the kitchen table with their families, just as the Bawden family did, and discuss becoming a donor and what it means. It is important that this is not a taboo topic in families and that discussions about donation are not left until a loved one has passed or is about to pass away. The loss of a loved one is difficult enough without the added stress of making a decision like this at such a time.

Amongst many benefits from this bill, one of the greatest is the $13.4 million provided for support for families of deceased donors, which is so fundamentally important. For this and all the reasons referred to by me and other members who have spoken in this chamber, I commend this bill to the House.

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