Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I start my contribution by thanking the member for Bass for his generosity in allowing me to speak again to this private member's motion. It is really important that Lyme disease is recognised in Australia. It is really important because it is having an effect on so many people throughout the nation. In the Shortland electorate I have been contacted by at least 20 people whose lives have been impacted on by Lyme disease. I also thank the Lyme Association for the extra information that they have provided me with. I acknowledge that May was Lyme project month—something I did not do in my original contribution to this debate. I am really pleased that the health committee has agreed to hold a roundtable about Lyme disease on 18 September in Sydney. I think we will get a lot of information that will lead to this debate being taken forward. As the member for Throsby said, I know that you would be here speaking on this debate if you were not in the chair, Deputy Speaker Irons, because you are passionate about all issues of health. I know that when we look at the issue we will get a complete understanding.

I visited one family where the mother had been living with Lyme for quite some time. She was unable to do the most basic day-to-day things. Her husband showed me the cabinet with all her medicines in it—the medicines that she had to take on a daily basis. She was taking up to 20 medicines a day, over time. They had a small business and he was trying to continue with the business without her input into it. The children in the family had taken on the caring role. There was very little that this constituent could do, because of the impact that it had on her life. I have been contacted by mums of children who have Lyme disease. I have been contacted by other constituents who have told me about the trauma that they experience when they turn up at an accident and emergency department only to be told that there is nothing wrong.

The misdiagnoses that take place cause enormous hardship and problems for the person. It is not only the physical aspects of living with Lyme that are a problem; it is also the psychological aspects that are associated with it—not being able to perform the role that you have performed over a long period of time, not being able to work, which has a financial impact upon a person's life and that of their family, and not being able to enjoy the things that everybody has the expectation they will be able to enjoy. Add to that the simple fact of misdiagnosis and how you have to adjust to that.

People are being told that they have motor neurone disease or Parkinson's disease, then finding that those diseases are progressing and finding that the symptoms have changed. Finally you would find a doctor who takes you seriously, understands and knows about Lyme disease and enables you to have the right sorts of tests to determine whether you have Lyme disease. Quite often the only way that a successful diagnosis will be made is if the pathology test is undertaken overseas. Pathology in Australia does not get to the issue, does not look at it properly. We need to really recognise that the Borrelia infection does exist and that it is transferred by ticks, and understand that it is having an enormous impact on the lives of a number of Australians. (Time expired)

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