Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I cannot underestimate the importance of this report of the Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Sport entitled Walking the allergies tightrope: addressing the rise of allergies and anaphylaxis in Australia. I would like to thank the minister for referring this important topic to our team. As the deputy chair, I would like to thank very much the chair, the member for North Sydney, and, in particular, I'd like to thank the member for Higgins for contributing her enormous expertise to this inquiry.

It gives me great pleasure to speak on this report. I would like, first of all, to record my thanks to our wonderful secretariat—led by the formidable Rebecca Gordon as the inquiry secretary together with Joel Bateman, as the community secretary, and Tamara and the rest of the team—for their hard work in facilitating the inquiry and dealing with a very complex health issue in a very comprehensive and all-encompassing manner. I thank them. I would like to also thank my other parliamentary colleagues on the committee for their contributions.

I'm pleased to stand here today and assist in the handing down of this bipartisan report which really does set out, in a way that few other parliamentary reports I've seen have done, a very systematic approach to the increasing issue of allergy and anaphylaxis in Australian society. I have a grandchild who is prone to severe anaphylaxis due to nuts. I have been made increasingly aware of the effect on the family of what is really a quite difficult problem now that she's of school age. We've outlined over 20 recommendations. I won't go through them all, but they are all very important. The most important, of course, is that of committing more research in a comprehensive and structured way to the issue of allergy and anaphylaxis. It would not have been possible for the committee to formulate these positions and recommendations without the work of many, many people and the many organisations that contributed throughout our inquiry and provided lots of submissions. I would like to thank each and every person who made a contribution to our inquiry.

As a paediatrician, I of course recognise how important this issue is for families. I would like to thank all the families who've made submissions, and I would like to assure them that we will continue to fight for this issue and for recognition of this issue. I'd like to thank, in particular, Ms Maria Said from Allergy & Anaphylaxis Australia and her team, who made comprehensive submissions to the committee. I would like to personally thank Professor Connie Katelaris for her unceasing work with allergy, anaphylaxis and, in particular, severe eczema and for her contribution to the granting of PBS listing for dupilumab for severe eczema.

With allergies and anaphylaxis on the rise in our society, the committee has developed a list of recommendations, as outlined by the committee chair. The first recommendation, for the establishment of a Commonwealth national centre of allergies and anaphylaxis, as I've said, is the most important one. I believe such a national institution would be able to institute more comprehensive research and ensure that we have the best practice nationwide in our management.

I commend the report and the work of the committee to the parliament and encourage the government and the minister to take heed of the recommendations laid out herein before the House today.

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