Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

According to Diabetes Australia, type 2 diabetes costs Australia about $3 billion a year. The cost of diabetes to the community for a person with no complications is $9,625 a year. For a person with complications, the cost to our community is $15,850 per year. Four per cent of people who have diagnosed diabetes account for 12 per cent of the health costs in Australia, and there is no cure for type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Diabetes Australia supports research through the Diabetes Australia Research Trust. Lifestyle changes can prevent or delay type 2 diabetes. This is a big issue for my electorate of Blair in Queensland. The study of diabetes will be part of the focus of the Ipswich study, conducted by the Healthy Communities Research Centre at the University of Queensland Ipswich campus. All the organisations who attended the Ipswich GP superclinic indicated that the study and treatment of diabetes will be a particular focus for the Ipswich GP superclinic. According to the 2006 census data, in my electorate of Blair in South-East Queensland 5,743 people have been diagnosed with diabetes, including 118 with gestation diabetes, 136 with type 1 and 4,773 with type 2.

I am pleased to say that the Rudd government did listen to various people, including me, amongst others, on these matters. I do not claim any special privilege but I certainly wrote to the Minister for Health and Ageing before the last budget in relation to insulin pumps. In the 2008-09 budget, the Commonwealth government announced that it would subsidise the cost of insulin pumps for young people with diabetes from 1 November 2008. This program was well received by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and by Diabetes Australia. It will provide a means test subsidy of up to $2,500 for people with type 1 diabetes who are aged under 18 years.

The Rudd government really is committed to tackling diabetes. It is committed to confronting diabetes as one of the eight national health priorities. The government has backed up that commitment strongly with real investment in short-term and long-term strategies to tackle this problem. For example, we have put in over $57 million in 2008 for diabetes research, provided through the National Health and Medical Research Council; $126 million has been allocated for the administration of the National Diabetes Services Scheme; and over $400 million was spent last year on diabetes products supplied by the NDSS and on medicines for diabetes through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. COAG last November made a really strong commitment with an historic $850 million for the national partnership on prevention. That was agreed to with the states and territories. According to the Department of Health and Ageing, around 700 young people will benefit from the insulin pumps subsidy. This is an important strategy from the Rudd government, but it is also important in terms of prevention because it will make a difference in terms of type 2 diabetes.

Childhood obesity is a real problem. You only have to visit schools and preschools to see that it is a real problem in our community. The Healthy Kids Check for four-year-olds will help to improve childhood health, and the Get Set 4 Life—habits for healthy kids guide is important for parents, because kids need to eat fruit and vegetables and have a balanced diet. The Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Project is another program, which is being run in 190 primary schools and has been allocated $12.8 million. Exercise is also important, so we have the Active After-school Communities Program. And on and on it goes. The Rudd government is strongly committed to tackling this problem.

The National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission released its interim report on 16 February this year, and the government have established a preventative health task force to assist us to prepare a national preventative health strategy to tackle the burden of chronic disease. This really is a chronic problem in our community. I warmly welcome the commitment of the Rudd government. It will help my constituents who have come to see me in my electorate. It will help the people in Ipswich and the people in the rural areas outside Ipswich. I thank the member for Pearce for bringing this matter to the attention of the House. This is an important commitment from both sides of politics, and I thank her for her longstanding work in the area. Well done.

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