Kate Thwaites (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm really pleased to rise to join these important contributions from a number of colleagues this evening. This is an important topic, and it's good that it's being addressed in this chamber. I would echo the comments of many of my colleagues as I begin by saying how fortunate I am that I grew up in an environment where polio was certainly nothing I had to worry about contracting myself. My parents didn't have to worry about me contracting it, and now, with my children, I am certainly not worried about them contracting polio. I am not worried, because of the success of the vaccination program. This is truly a global success story. It shows us what happens when we, as an international community and as a nation, put the effort in—when we realise the benefits of what science has brought us and the safety that vaccines bring us from these diseases that, as many have talked about this evening, ravaged lives.

Polio left children in the position of carrying a lifelong disability or being in an iron lung, and, unfortunately, obviously, some children also died of polio. As I said, that is something that I have never had to experience in my lifetime—what a privilege. I very much hope that this is the direction that we, as a world, are heading in when it comes to COVID-19 and vaccinations. I know, when I have conversations with people in my community about vaccination, many of the stories that older people want to tell me are about their experience of the rollout of the polio vaccine in Australia—about just how important that time was and how people were anticipating and waiting for this vaccine because they'd seen the devastation that polio caused for too many families.

This is the potential that is within our grasp with the COVID vaccine now. We have excellent vaccine rates in our country. We can continue to push those higher and, of course, we can do the global work that has been happening with the polio vaccine. We can do this global work with the COVID vaccine. There is absolutely a role for Australia to play here as a good neighbour to our Pacific family and also as a good global citizen: to be a lead actor in making sure that we support countries around the world with their COVID vaccination efforts, both with vaccines and with information that combats the misinformation that is out there. There is too much misinformation, and we need people to understand the benefits that these vaccines bring. So I very much hope that is the next thing that Australia does in this space, because, as the past few days have shown us, we're not safe until the world is vaccinated, and that is really important.

As I said, this is a global success story—the effort to get polio eradicated in so many countries and also to have so many people vaccinated. I want to acknowledge the work of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, together with Rotary International, who have been such leaders in this space; the World Health Organization; other UN organisations; and the private sector, as well, who I know have been involved in this effort. I am such a supporter of this global polio initiative and I was delighted earlier this year to meet with representatives of Global Citizen, who are one of the Australian organisations who continually push us to be a supporter and an active participant in the push for global polio eradication.

Since 1988, when the World Health Assembly first resolved to attempt eradication, huge progress has been made around the world. It's estimated that 16 million people are able to walk today who otherwise would have been paralysed, some in iron lungs, and approximately 1.5 million people are now alive who might otherwise have been dead as a result of polio. This is a phenomenal achievement, and, as I said, as we face this global pandemic, it is something we can look to as to what we can achieve—as a nation, but also as a world—together.

We know that what is termed 'wild polio' is now only in two countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and in fact Africa was certified as polio free in August 2020. This success really is a result of the GPEI's extensive worldwide community-driven vaccination program, which has been the largest of its kind in the world, to safeguard children from polio worldwide. We should be proud of Australia's efforts and the strong role we've played, investing $135 million over three decades into it. So it is important now that we don't give up—that we make that last push on polio and we continue to hunt out the inaccessible places and to battle the misinformation to eradicate polio across our world. We've shown so much can be achieved; there's just a bit more to be done.

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