Ken Wyatt (Hasluck, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the foetal alcohol spectrum disorder motion proposed by my colleague the member for Murray. This is a disorder that has been discussed for some period of time, and the previous speaker made reference to the number of reports. There are significant reports that have been undertaken, produced and circulated, but it seems to be a challenge in the way in which the public sector—that is the various state and territory governments and the Commonwealth—have failed to give due attention to a social problem that has significant health, psychological, learning and other challenges in the way in which a young child who comes into the world is affected by the impact of alcohol. One of the challenges we face in this day and age is that it is often thought of as being confined to Aboriginal communities and Aboriginal mothers and children but it is not. In some work we were doing in the Pilbara my colleague Dr Simon Towler, the Chief Medical Officer, made reference to one of the paediatricians saying he had diagnosed another nine new cases in the Pilbara. Dr Towler asked which Aboriginal community and the paediatrician said, 'It is not.' He said it is within the main community in the town in which he practices.

The challenge that we have is changing the thinking of women during pregnancy, but the other issue that arises out of this whole concept and construct of alcohol is that often women do not know that they are pregnant and the practice of using shooters or drinking heavily socially has an impact in those first six weeks of life. By the time they realise they are pregnant, the impact of alcohol in those formative stages has been quite marked. By the way, not all women suffer the consequences of alcohol consumption. There are children who are born without some of the spectrum of disorders associated with foetal alcohol. Nevertheless, we have an obligation to do something because the flip side to this is that I have seen adults who show all the attributes and meet the criteria against foetal alcohol spectrum disorder but nothing has ever been put into place that assists them to enhance their educative pathway in terms of the support they need, nor does it enable schools to identify that there is a need in this area for resources that allow teachers to provide education programs that at least give these children some skerrick of hope in receiving an education that will ground them well for some form of life in the future.

It is an area that has had significant key people do work but in particular I want to acknowledge enclosure Dr Gervase Chaney. I worked with him in WA Health. I asked the WA child health network to produce a model of care for foetal alcohol spectrum disorder so that professional colleagues could guide those who were raising issues but in particular to support the education department in Western Australia where school principals were asking for assistance from the health arena. The work they have done forms the basis for a direction of connectedness between two principal agencies that take over half of the state's responsibility in two key areas. If they take that on wholly and in the context of being focused on those children affected then I think we will see a better coordinated effort in impacting on mothers and some of their thinking but at the same time providing opportunities for children born with those disadvantages that will impact on their lives. The other thing is that it will enable us as a society to take some responsibility in the way that we guide. I certainly do not support a nanny-state approach in saying that thou shalt not drink, but at least allow people to make some decisions based on sound medical knowledge, based on the fact that their child is the ultimate essence of a continuing life and then for the mother to have a role, within that. I would support any work that we do in this parliament and any state and territory parliament on FASD. (Time expired)

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