Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the motion from the member for Higgins on this important topic, and I commend the previous speakers on both sides of this place for their thoughtful contributions on this important issue. It is timely we debate and recognise polio eradication efforts, because, again, we face similar challenges with the coronavirus here in Australia and around the world.

I'm going to start at home, in my electorate of Macnamara. I'm going to start with the very person who my electorate was named after, Dame Jean Macnamara. She was a scientist. She was a doctor. She was formidable. She was one of the first female doctors at the Royal Children's Hospital. She was a doctor at the Royal Children's Hospital when there weren't even facilities for female doctors to use during their breaks. She broke through many glass ceilings.

She was a fine doctor and a fine medical mind in Australia, and one of the things that was famous about Dame Jean Macnamara was her commitment to treating polio—specifically, kids with polio. Despite Dame Jean being an academic giant and a real pioneer in the treatment of polio, she was also very well known for her bedside manner. As we know, polio was a crippling disease that, comparatively, affected children at a very high rate. It was extremely debilitating for children. If you're a young person crippled with polio, it can be a really confronting and devastating time. But Dame Jean, so I'm told, had a way to comfort and had a way to make her young patients feel at ease and feel like there was a pathway forward for them, which is, I think, a remarkable thing, and one that's worth recognising in this place.

I'm very proud to be the member in the seat names in her honour. We actually created the Dame Jean Macnamara award last year. The award is available for young female students in year 6, for excellence in science, technology, engineering and maths. It is an award that I was pleased to present to a number of year 6 female students for their excellence in science and technology, just like Dame Jean Macnamara.

We come together today to debate this motion because we are faced with a similar challenge, a challenge where, just like the member for Wills mentioned before, our world has been put to a stop and we have been forced to take public health measures that no-one wants to take. These measures have been devastating for our society and for businesses, but we've done it in order to protect and prevent infection of this really awful coronavirus disease. But, just as with history, we can turn to the past for some of the answers. Dame Jean Macnamara was one of the pioneers of an immune serum for patients, which is said to have helped pave the way for the eventual Salk vaccine. It was the sort of technology that evolved and developed. Just like many other vaccines, it doesn't start with just that particular illness. With the trials, the technology, the science and the data accumulated over years of research, you're able to make discoveries with the speed with which we have.

The other person that Dame Jean Macnamara worked alongside was a classmate of hers, Macfarlane Burnet. The Burnet Institute is in my electorate—although I am sad to say that it may be moving premises eventually—and Professor Brendan Crabb occupies some space in Macnamara. I'm always amazed at the work that goes on in the Burnet Institute. Together with Macnamara, some of their efforts on polio were key to unravelling the pathway to eventually eradicate polio. But the way in which it was eradicated was through a vaccine—a safe vaccine that took years of scientific discovery and the dedication of brilliant minds like Macnamara and Burnet, but one that also required the participation of Australians and people right around the world.

If we can learn anything from the eradication of polio, it is that it is not over until it's over everywhere. Right now Pakistan and Afghanistan are still facing polio, and we must commit ourselves to eradicating it there. Likewise, with coronavirus, it's not over until it's eradicated everywhere, and we commit ourselves to vaccines and to eradicating this new virus.

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