Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to present a petition of more than 7,000 signatures from families affected by food allergies, calling on the Minister for Health to facilitate all necessary policy initiatives, legislation and administrative action required to establish an Australian program of food immunotherapy.

Living with food allergies has been likened to walking a tightrope: living life in a perpetual state of hypervigilance that the next meal may result in a serious and life-threatening reaction called anaphylaxis. A new form of treatment, food immunotherapy, is being trialled overseas but is not yet available in Australia. The treatment takes many months, but in many cases it enables a child with a food allergy to live and eat food more safely, and it helps families to get off the allergy tightrope.

I acknowledge the work of Melissa Mooney, Simone Albert and other parents with children suffering from severe food allergies who have presented this petition to the Petitions Committee. These families want to ensure that other families don't have to go through what they have. These families have travelled overseas to find a cure for their children and have spent many months and money being there to keep their children safe. If successful, the outcomes of this petition will negate that need. Trials for food allergies require government support in Australia because they involve giving a food, not a drug, and therefore pharmaceutical companies cannot profit.

I present this petition to the House as approved by the Petitions Committee.

The petition read as follows—

We therefore ask the House to call on the Minister for Health to facilitate all necessary policy initiatives, legislation and administrative action required to establish an Australian trial of food immunotherapy.

from 7,265 (Petition No. EN1040)

Petition received.

See this speech in context