Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

I strongly support the move to recognise International Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day in this building and, like the member for Boothby, thank the Senate for their consideration and for proposing it. I thank those senators who worked so hard on bringing this to fruition. Stillbirth has been in the dark for too long. It has been a silent tragedy for too long. It has been ignored for too long, and a proper and appropriate recognition in this building of the loss that so many Australian families have suffered and continue to suffer would be a very important moment in this building and in this country. We've all participated in the various ceremonies that occur around the building, recognising tragedies, apologising in the appropriate circumstances and commemorating, with the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition of the day coming together with all members to share in the loss that so many Australians have suffered. A day to mark stillbirth and pregnancy loss should be one of those days, and I believe it will be.

Many Australian families have for many years been dealing with the grief and with that grief not being recognised as true grief. Many people don't understand the grief of stillbirth and pregnancy loss. Still today, it is not commonly understood. With six stillbirths occurring in Australia each day, still today, and with the rate not falling over the last 20 years, we have much work to do. The member for Boothby referred to much of the good work that is occurring, with the National Stillbirth Action and Implementation Plan to bring those rates down—and I have some confidence that it will. But symbolism is important, particularly in this building. The symbolism of recognising the real grief of stillbirth is important. I was struck last year when I talked about my own family's experience—with my two brothers, of whom one died in infancy and one in stillbirth, and my mother, who went to hospital four times to give birth and came home with a child twice, and how her grief wasn't recognised and understood by doctors, by the medical profession and by society, which made her grief so much harder to deal with—by the number of people who contacted me, even though that happened a long time ago, and said, 'It's still the same today.' So we have a long, long way to go.

I want to thank those members and senators who have shared their own personal stories. Senator Keneally and Senator Bilyk have shared the stories of Caroline and Timothy respectively, and Senator Molan has shared the story of his grandchild who was lost to stillbirth. I know there are other members in the House who have suffered similar grief and haven't been able to talk about it publicly, and their grief should be acknowledged and respected as well. They know who they are, and I know who they are, and they grieve every day. They, I'm sure, will participate in the recognition of International Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day in their quiet way and they'll make their own contribution, remembering their loss as well. They, I know, have reached out to people in their own way and shared the grief and the bipartisan—more than bipartisan: unanimous—commitment of both houses to ensuring that we shine a light on this problem, on this tragedy, and that we contribute to making those tragedies much rarer, much less common, so that mothers and fathers can go to hospital to give birth and come home with those babies and share the babies with their grandparents and their brothers and sisters much more than happens today.

The Senate inquiry has been a very good process. It's shone a light on many issues that need addressing in our First Nations communities where stillbirth is more prevalent and where there are very complicated issues around birthing in country and other issues which arise from that. We already know that expertise, education, knowledge and awareness is capable of reducing stillbirth. We know we can do it as a country. As a country we've achieved so much when we put effort into it. We've reduced the road toll. We're working on the suicide toll. Our public health campaigns have reduced death rates across the board and cancers. We can do it.

It's about time we did it with stillbirth and pregnancy loss. Holding an appropriate day where the House will come together with our Senate colleagues and share in memorialising those Australians who never had the chance to even leave the hospital they were born in will be an important step in ensuring that we make the same progress with the terrible loss of stillbirth and infant loss. Thank you.

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