David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in support of this motion. Diabetes is a scourge of the modern world. It's been around for a long time but it's rising. I'd like to compliment both the previous speakers on their contributions.

For those Australians who aren't diabetics, I'll provide just a bit of explanation. Diabetes is when your sugar goes too high because either you have run out of insulin, which comes from your pancreas, or you have resistance to the effects of insulin—you might have hyperinsulinemia and resistance to it working. The latter is type 2 diabetes. The first condition, when there's no insulin, is an autoimmune condition. Juvenile onset diabetes is when your own immune system inflames and takes away the cells in your pancreas that make the insulin—so sugar goes up, insulin comes out and it comes down. There are other hormones in your gut and your body that help control that, there are incretin mimetics and there are wonderful drugs—insulin tablets that lower your blood sugar and reduce insulin resistance—but diabetes is a scourge on the health of everyone who gets it. The best prevention for that type 2 is to stay fit and healthy, and to eat good food. In my 35 years or so of practice, I always told patients about the three programs that will address the obesity problem in the Western world in particular. The first one is the ELF program—the eat-less-food program; the second program is the DME program—the do-more-exercise program; and the last, and the accessory program, is the DLG program—drink-less-grog! If you do that and do exercise you will be a lot healthier and will probably reduce your risk of getting diabetes as a result.

The other thing that we need to highlight is that in Australia we have the National Diabetes Services Scheme, which has been around since the late 1980s. It is federal government funded and a lot of the services are delivered by another jewel in Australia, and that is Diabetes Australia. Every state has a state based Diabetes Australia—for example, in New South Wales and the ACT. They offer oodles of support, help and practical knowledge to people who become diabetic. The National Diabetes Services Scheme is administered by them in some states and also delivered by pharmacies, where you can get things like free syringes, or you get reduced and subsidised prices for things like insulin pumps and continuous blood glucose monitoring.

The care that you get in Australia for diabetes, compared to that in some other nations, is exemplary. But that's because we have a wonderful, strong health system in this country. In the eight years that I've been here the coalition government has totally expanded the reach of our health system, nowhere better than with all the wonderful drugs that are available for diabetes. The incretin medics are an example of a class of drugs which are going to help weight loss. These try to get the natural got hormones which interact with the pancreas active. These can be via tablet or injection. There are breakthrough ones coming in the pipeline that will actually control this, with exercise and a sensible diet, with between 17 and 30 per cent weight loss. That's better than what all these gastric bypass operations are doing. That's in the pipeline.

There are so many things, but the practical help that people get out of the NDSS and through the organisations that deliver a lot of these services is exemplary. I don't know how it would have been to be diabetic before those two initiatives. I went to school with some colleagues who were diabetic, and it was a real nightmare for them. We always used to think: 'Oh my God! These poor guys have to stick needles in themselves twice a day!' Some of my friends at boarding school would freak out, seeing them inject themselves. It put them to the side a bit, 'Oh, he's one of those guys who sticks needles himself.' But now people understand that juvenile-onset diabetes or the autoimmune type isn't someone's fault; you just get it. It's just bad luck. Like many things in life, you get a disease because you run into a bad microbe or you didn't choose your grandparents or your genes very well, because you inherited it. Or it's just bad luck—you run into a bad microbe that does things.

So this is a thing to be celebrated. Thank God that we have Diabetes Australia and the National Diabetes Services Scheme! (Time expired)

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