Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Defence Personnel) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the amendment moved and, of course, this bill, the Australian Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation Authority Amendment (Governance and Other Measures) Bill 2021. It was a Labor government that established the Australian Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation Authority, or the Organ and Tissue Authority, in 2008. The amendments in the legislation before the House will essentially make the authority revert to the governance model established when the OTA was first implemented by Labor, which begs the question: what's changed? We know that the LNP government, when they came to power, made every effort to overturn reforms implemented by Labor. We have seen that in the NDIS and aged care.

Under the current governance structure, the Organ and Tissue Authority board is the accountable entity, making the OTA the first non-corporate Commonwealth entity to have a governance board as the accountable entity. There does not appear to be any rationale for this very unusual change to the governance structure in 2017. It's clearly not worked, and the board, under the leadership of its chair, Dr Mal Washer—someone for whom I have enormous regard and respect—advised the responsible minister it's time to put this inexplicable experiment to an end. It's time to get back to the model established when the Labor established the authority in 2008. The bill rightly seeks to restore this model. I want to commend the government for recognising what we on this side of the chamber knew on this issue: we were always right in the first place. The bill is a belated admission of failure by this government.

I do want to take the opportunity to commend the work of Dr Mal Washer. He's well-known in this House by many as an entirely reasonable, professional and compassionate man. He assisted me on occasions when I was unwell. I can recall one occasion when he saw me on a daily basis and assisted me—and I'm not necessarily convinced that was in the best interests of the then opposition as I actually cast a vote! He was very gracious towards me on many occasions, on both sides of the chamber. He was a physician first. He provided care and comfort ahead of partisan politics. That professionalism was evident when he resigned his chair of the Alcohol and Other Drugs Council of Australia in 2014 off the back of the government's decision to axe the council's funding without warning or rationale. Dr Washer, at the time, described that decision as a tragedy. It had not been subject to any review. He said, 'it was dumb advising dumber, and dumb won,' of the decision made by the former assistant minister Senator Nash at the time. It was quite an extraordinary decision, but that's Dr Washer's view and I respect that, and I respect his advice in relation to the bill that is before the chamber, which the government has finally seen fit to bring before this House.

I want to thank the member for Parkes, the former minister, who took the advice of Dr Washer and restored the governance model before the authority went the way of the Alcohol and Other Drugs Council of Australia. When this government came to power in 2013, they got rid of plenty of organisations, bodies and boards and made a number of changes thinking they were doing the right thing but now have realised, on occasions like this bill before the chamber, that they got it wrong.

Labor has a proud history of promoting organ and tissue donation. Back when the last Labor government was in power, I was the former Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing in a previous Labor government, in what the current government calls the assistant minister role. I had the privilege of working with the OTA and having it within my ministerial remit. I knew if the CEO Ms Yael Cass provided advice, it was reasonable and reliable and well researched, and I had no hesitancy commending this governance model, the subject of this bill, where the CEO is responsible to the minister while the board takes care of the strategic direction.

Labor has always been committed to the establishment of the world's best practice when it comes to organ and tissue donation, and we oversaw a community awareness program when we were last in government that funded great organisations and did projects like the groundswell project through 'Film life' film festival in Western Sydney, which I was pleased to help launch when I was at Nepean Hospital in Penrith one time, I recall, in 2013.

I was proud as part of a Labor government to oversee the introduction of paid leave to support living donors—a $1.3 million commitment over two years. At the time of course, 99 per cent of living donations were of kidneys and partial liver. But, as the member for Oxley correctly pointed out in his speech today, as he went through a list of various parts of the anatomy which could be subject to donation, many people do not think that those parts of our human body are capable of donation, but they really are. I thank the member for Oxley for pointing out to the House and to the public what they are. The paid leave to support living donors was a scheme that provided up to six weeks of salary to support employers and be passed onto the donor as paid leave. This helped to reduce financial stress that surgery and recovery put on people, their families and their employers.

Living organ donors provide a life saving or life transforming gift to another person. I recall that, as at 2013, each year more than 280 living organ donors made this incredibly generous gift of their organs, but there were 1,600 people waiting on the organ donation list. This particular program, giving paid leave to support living donors, was commended strongly by Transplant Australia and Kidney Health Australia. So Labor has a strong record in this space of supporting and promoting organ donation. In fact, in 2012, when we were last in government, 354 deceased organ donors transformed the lives of just over a thousand Australians. There was a five per cent increase in 2012, building on the nine per cent increase in 2011. It represented a 43 per cent increase over 2009, the year the DonateLife network was established. So, when Labor was last in government, we saw a significant increase in organ donation and also the implementation of the paid leave to support living donors initiative. That initiative helps alleviate financial burden on someone who donates an organ, usually to someone they have a strong emotional attachment to, such as a child, a partner or a mate. The process requires significant time, including medical evaluation prior to surgery. We brought this initiative forward because many living donors were forced to take leave without pay from work.

We understand that organ and tissue donation, whether it's from living or deceased people, can be a difficult and emotional decision. We know it's vital. One organ and tissue donor can transform the lives of many. If permitted, I'm happy to give the example of my mother-in-law, Corinne Briese, who's no longer with us. For 25 years, she experienced life after she had a liver transplant, and that liver transplant allowed her to see her grandchildren grow, to see her family expand and to see her great-grandchildren born. She was a beloved figure in our household. Because she suffered illness and was infirm in many ways for much of her life, that liver transplant really gave her the opportunity to experience a quality of life, to develop her recreational activities, to experience relationship development and to become an even more beloved figure not just in her family but in her church and her community. So I have seen the benefit of organ donation in my family. Tragically, Corinne died during the COVID pandemic from dementia. But, for 25 years, that new liver, donated generously by someone, by someone's family, enabled my family to experience their beloved mother, mother-in-law, grandmother and great-grandmother. So I encourage everyone to think about that, because that one donation of that liver made such a difference in my family's life, and it can in the lives of other Australian families.

The rate of donations has increased, but 2020 was a tough year for the program, with COVID-19 directly impacting the number of organ donations and transplantations. I encourage Australians to think about DonateLife. It doesn't take long to register to be a donor. About 1,800 Australians are awaiting a transplant, and another 12,000 or more are on dialysis, many requiring a kidney transplant. I have friends whose son currently needs a kidney transplant. My wife and I, with our friends, are going through that experience of their beloved son waiting for that kidney transplant.

Our donation rates can still improve. We can still do much, much better. Since 2009, there have been 14,352 organ transplant recipients from 5,029 deceased organ donors. About two per cent of the Australian population who die in an Australian hospital will meet the criteria for organ donation—1,300 a year. That's just a couple of hundred more than when Labor was last in power.

The government's got some work to do, and we would encourage them to do it. They'll get bipartisan support from our side of politics the more they act, and this bill is a demonstration of belated action from the government, fixing up the governance structure that they messed up in the first place. I'm pleased they've listened to Dr Mal Washer, and they're going back to a governance structure that we put in place, which was the right one all along.

Organ donation is a precious gift. It makes a difference to the lives of individuals—not just the individual but the family and the community in which it's given. It's a generous gift from a donor and their loved ones. The process needs to be respectful, appropriate and effective. That's why the governance of this authority needs to be suitable, fit for purpose and the world's best practice.

I support this bill, but I also support the amendment. I make this point to this government, as I did in a speech I gave virtually when I was back in my electorate last week: vaccination and quarantine need to be better. The government have failed in relation to that. They don't need an opinion poll to know that. The members on the government's side can go to their electorates and know that would be the feedback they would get. We get it as well. The amendment that the shadow minister has put doesn't decline to give this bill a second reading. But we urge the government to do better.

I looked at the vaccination rates in my electorate. Second dosages of eligible people in Ipswich are about 16 per cent and first dosages of AstraZeneca and Pfizer are just over 30-odd per cent. It's just not good enough. I've had people who don't vote for me contact me about the problems in aged care and the issues in terms of mandatory vaccination. The government promised that they would help people in aged care and the staff. We know that people died from COVID-19 in Victoria because people were working across multiple aged-care sites. The government promised that would be done by Easter this year. They did the same in relation to disability, for people working in disability under the auspices of the NDIS and helping people with disability. I urge the government to do better. Perform better. You've been entrusted with office and with power. Take responsibility. I urge the Prime Minister to take responsibility. It's no good giving us a word salad vocabulary of statistics here. The public knows they need to do better. I urge the government to act. We haven't got enough vaccination in this country. They were too tardy, too slow, and they've not taken responsibility for their failures in this space.

There is a place up near Toowoomba called Wellcamp. It could be a quarantine facility opened in a matter of a couple of months. It's been sitting on the table. Still, the government won't take the necessary steps to expand the quarantine facilities in this country—except in Howard Springs, where they talk about it but they haven't done it yet. In Brisbane, in our home state, in Pinkenba, we're talking about asbestos, we're talking about PFAS and we're talking about disused military hardware there. Do the right thing. Expand Wellcamp. Make it a proper quarantine facility. It will house hundreds and hundreds more. Do the right thing and bring back the Australians who are in countries where COVID is rampant, who want to come back to their loved ones and their family and friends, and get quarantine fixed. That will make a difference. That will restore people's faith not just in this government but in government generally.

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