Peta Murphy (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Like my colleagues who have spoken before me, I want to thank the member for Macarthur for moving this important motion. Anyone who has met or spent any time with the member for Macarthur knows of his genuine, deep commitment to all things health and, in particular, to this First 1,000 Days initiative. It's a privilege to be in the Labor caucus with him.

It's incredibly disturbing to know that more than 1.2 million Australian children live in poverty, that, on census night in 2016, almost 20,000 children aged nought to 14 were homeless and that almost 22 per cent of Australian children enter primary school developmentally delayed. We are a rich and prosperous country, as contributors before me in this debate have said, and most children in Australia do very well. But there are far too many who don't, and there are far too many children from lower socio-economic communities who are condemned to intergenerational poverty that research suggests starts before birth. That's why the First 1,000 Days initiative is so important.

In my state of Victoria, at the Royal Children's Hospital, the Strong Foundations: Getting it Right in the First 1000 Days partnership put out the research paper in 2019 which was a collaboration between the Centre for Community Child Health at Murdoch Children's Research Institute, the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth, BUPA Australia, the BUPA Health Foundation and PwC Australia. You can find that report on the Royal Children's Hospital website.

The objectives of Strong Foundations were to raise awareness among government, policymakers and the public about the importance of the first 1,000 days, because, as that report found in 2019, 'New knowledge that has been unveiled has served to increase experts' views of the significance of the first thousand days, and of the urgent need to reform our policies, practices and systems in response to the evidence'; to ensure decisions that affect children and families are based on the best available evidence; and to ensure that all steps that can be taken to improve early life for Australian children are identified and implemented as soon as possible. As I stand here in November 2021, one has to question whether those objectives have been answered.

The report synthesised current Australian and international evidence as of 2019 on the biological, social, global and environmental influences on development. The report showcased the economic benefits to society of investing in the first 1,000 days. I have to say I think that the moral and ethical arguments for doing so should be enough to convince anyone, but, for those who need further convincing, the economic arguments are also strong. The modelling showed significant potential benefits to society of improving outcomes for children for the first thousand days. Looking at the impacts of antenatal care and homeownership on that period, using smoking during pregnancy and housing stability as measures, the report revealed that, if every child in Australia grew up in a stable housing situation, the potential annual benefit to Australia would be an estimated $3 billion.

The key findings included that the age, health and wellbeing of both mother and father prior to the child's conception affect the integrity of the embryo from the very beginning. The fetus uses cues provided by their mother's physical and mental states to 'predict' the kind of world they will be born into, and adapt accordingly. So what happens in the first thousand days affects the whole body, with potentially profound consequences in the course of life. The report found that disadvantage can be passed down through generations at a cellular level. These changes can be passed on to children from their parents and grandparents. Our biology changes in response to stress, poverty and other prolonged adverse experiences, and these changes can be passed on to children from their parents and grandparents.

In addition to loving caregivers, children need safe communities, secure housing, access to green parklands, environments free of toxins and access to affordable nutritional foods—exactly what a good federal government would be focusing on. I'm proud of Labor's policies on child care and on supporting Medicare and our detailed policy about a housing future fund. If we don't invest in our communities, and in our children for the first 1,000 days, we are condemning too many people to the cycle of intergenerational poverty and disadvantage, and we can't do that.

See this speech in context