Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

In this appropriations bill debate tonight, I would like to predominantly pay tribute to, but also reference, a remarkable man and his son from my electorate of Greenway—Damien MacRae, from Kellyville Ridge, and his son, Aiden. I want to take members back to 2017, to a story that appeared in the local media in Blacktown about Damien MacRae, who was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma. Along with his young son, Aiden, who loved LEGO, they decided they wanted to do something positive to raise awareness of melanoma. They got together and designed—bearing in mind that this was when Damien was informed that he had literally months to live—a LEGO prototype for a sun-smart series of characters called LEGO Surf Rescue. This featured LEGO people wearing sunscreen. It was iconically Australian. The characters were dressed in surf-lifesaving outfits. The whole point was that it was not only something that he and his son, Aiden, could do together but also something that could subliminally change peoples' minds about the importance of being sun safe and the dangers of melanoma.

I was really privileged to meet Damien and to spend some time with his family, so much so that I actually moved some private members' business in the parliament on 11 September 2017, entitled 'Melanoma and LEGO Surf Rescue'. In that motion I moved that we acknowledge that Australia has the highest incidence of melanoma in the world, that it's the most common cancer in young Australians aged 15 to 39 and also that LEGO is a world-renowned brand with a philosophy to foster imaginative and creative learning and development through play. I also wanted to take the opportunity to congratulate Damien and Aiden on creating this Australian sun-smart beach themed LEGO project, LEGO Surf Rescue, which actually achieved the required 10,000 supporters for the LEGO Ideas Review. I learnt a lot through this process. At that time you needed to have 10,000 followers or endorsements in order for LEGO to think, 'Well, this could be an idea that we might end up taking up.' We also recognised—and I think this was really delightful—that we had cross-party support for this. Russell Broadbent—then the member for McMillan, now the member for Monash—supported it. The motion was seconded by Matt Thistlethwaite, who is the member for Kingsford Smith but also Labor's forefront person for Parliamentary Friends of Surf Life Saving. We really did acknowledge—and I think it did move everyone there—the resilience and positivity that Damien displayed, despite his terminal diagnosis, in raising awareness of the dangers of skin cancer.

In the end, we called on LEGO to support LEGO Surf Rescue and to approve the project to become an official LEGO set. As we are all aware, LEGO has done pretty well during this pandemic. There are some industries have actually thrived, and LEGO and the jigsaw puzzle industry would surely be some of them. I highlighted, in speaking to that motion, as did Mr Broadbent and Mr Thistlethwaite, that the goal of Aiden and his dad, Damien, was for this LEGO set to feature sun-smart Australian heroes wearing hats, sunglasses and sunscreen. They had an Australian beach with waves, surfboards, a sandcastle, lifesavers and a shark. This was iconically Australian. I was really delighted to have been given one of these prototypes, which I proudly displayed in the window of my suite in Parliament House and which my two daughters now play with.

Where I am getting to here is that this was submitted to the LEGO Ideas program, as I said. It received an enormous amount of supporters from around the globe. They managed to get to 10,000 supporters, the benchmark for official review. It was highlighted that, whilst Australia has some of the best weather, it also has the highest incidence of melanoma in the world.

This is where the story could have ended. But, on 11 February, just a couple of weeks ago, the story reappeared in the Sydney Morning Herald. What was highlighted here was, again, the story of 2017. So, nearly five years ago Damien began writing his will, organising his funeral, but he had had this positive experience with his son Aiden designing this LEGO set. I quote from the Herald article:

… Mr MacRae was astonished to learn last week that Lego had released onto the market its own Beach Lifeguard Station, including many of the features that were previously unique to the MacRae designs. It even had a rock pool, though the marine inhabitants included a turtle instead of a starfish.

Unlike the MacRae design, nobody was wearing a hat or sunscreen.

Damien is quoted in this article:

"As soon as I saw it I thought, that's not an exact copy, but it's clearly influenced by what Aiden and I had done," …

"They call it a lifeguard station but everything in it is basically how we presented the office, with binoculars, computer, maps and they've replaced the sunscreen with a bottle."

I don't know if LEGO is aware, but, as the article states:

Mr MacRae is an intellectual property lawyer, so he knows that it is not illegal to steal an idea and that the set is sufficiently different to avoid a copyright claim.

Again, Mr MacRae is quoted:

"This is how you would do it to avoid copyright infringement. You just tweak it a little bit. But it's not a good look, ethically."

I couldn't agree more with Damien. I couldn't agree more with the sentiment that was behind his original project with Aiden. As I said, I moved the motion in the House of Representatives and it was supported in a bipartisan manner, which really gave heart to Damien and Aiden that this was something that was really positive coming out of the parliament. I also pointed out that the global LEGO boss, Niels Christiansen, decided on behalf of the company not to go ahead with selling the LEGO kit due to some design issues. So Damien and Aiden revised the design and resubmitted it just late last year. It was knocked back again. But, as I said, it's just been revealed that LEGO has released its own beach lifeguard station.

It appears that, whilst LEGO is denying it—I take this from media reports; it's not directly from LEGO—it has copied the surf rescue project design. My questions to the LEGO Group are: Is this ethical? Is this moral? Is it a good look for a company to, in all but definition, steal all but an idea from a then five-year-old and his cancer-stricken father?

I point out that LEGO's own website states—and I think I may even have quoted this in my motion five years ago—that the LEGO Group's key values include 'caring'. Is it an act of socially responsible caring to act in this way? I honestly don't think so. I think many other consumers would agree that it is quite unethical. I see that has been echoed by LEGO fans in Australia and around the world.

I note that LEGO has denied that it has copied the Surf Rescue design, but again I point out that ultimately this is about a person and his son who, at one of the most challenging times in his life, just wanted to help others. 'I didn't do this to make money. I just wanted to help others.' At that time, Damien MacRae was given three months to live, and he decided to spend that time with his son on something very practical to promote cancer advocacy and awareness of melanoma and the very real dangers to the millions of Australians exposed to this type of cancer. He recognised that, if you're old enough to play with Lego, you're old enough to learn about sun safety. I implore LEGO to do the right thing and to be good ethical citizens. As I said, Australia has one of the highest rates—

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Debate adjourned.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 19:26

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