David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party, Assistant Minister for Rural Health) Share this | Hansard source

I am very proud to be showing my support for hearing impaired and deaf individuals during this National Week of Deaf People. It is a week of events, including forums, workshops and information, being coordinated by Deaf Australia. I encourage all my colleagues to celebrate the community, language, culture and history of people who are hearing impaired. I would also like to take this opportunity to recognise the incredible achievements and contribution that many of these people make to our communities. I will be supporting all the events being held this week, because it is such a good cause.

On Friday this week, 21 October 2016, Loud Shirt Day will be rolling in to the parliament and in and around Australian communities. It is a positive fundraising campaign, and I encourage all members of the House to take part. I encourage you all to wear your support by showing off your best loud shirt outfits. Let everyone know how easy and fun it is to be involved. This initiative is being driven by the work of the Shepherd Centre, the Cora Barclay Centre, Hear and Say and Taralye—organisations that have given deaf children a voice in our community. The initiative will raise funds that are needed to continue critical early intervention programs for deaf and hearing-impaired children across Australia.

Many people do not realise the consequences and the cost of delivering that early intervention. It costs more than $18,000 per year per child to provide these critical early intervention services. Providing access to these services means children are able to enter mainstream schools with language and speech skills on a par with their hearing peers and allows them to reach their true potential. It is something that every child deserves, regardless of their disability.

We would love it if every one of you could share a message of support via your online social media channels using the official hashtag #LoudShirtDay and encourage others to get involved in the day. Donations will give deaf children in your state access to sound, speech and language. Your support will open doors for the deaf and hearing impaired to better education and employment choices, social integration with the hearing world and the chance to contribute to the community. It is only through gifts like these that hundreds of deaf and hearing impaired children are now able to tell their mothers and fathers that they love them.

The many causes of hearing loss in young children are numerous. Many of them are no fault of anyone; they are just due to congenital infections that people are unaware of that they can pick up in childhood, developmental abnormalities, untreated glue ear from chronic suppurative otitis media through to the degenerative industrial causes of deafness that happen later on. But the many outcomes of deafness are really quite important for everyone to be aware of.

Not only is it socially isolating and a point of sadness if someone does not have their deafness picked up early; but if it is untreated or uncorrected it leads to poor educational outcomes as well as poor social outcomes, social isolation and poor employment outcomes. Behaviour changes as a result, leading through the spectrum to misbehaviour and even criminal behaviour if people go through life hearing-impaired.

I encourage all members to support Loud Shirt Day, help a really good cause and start looking now for your loud shirt. Somewhere in your cupboard there has to be one somewhere.

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