Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I hope the member for Lyne has many more heartbeats to go. I thank him for his contribution. I would like to thank everybody who spoke for their contribution. I would in particular thank the Assistant Minister for Health, Ged Kearney, who had carriage of this bill, and also the other Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, Emma McBride, for bringing the bill to the House.

As many of you are aware, I am a cochair of the Parliamentary Friends of Organ Donation alongside my very good friend the member for Mallee, Anne Webster. One of the most moving events I have seen in the House since my election in 2016 was when Anne spoke about her own granddaughter and the fact she had had a donated liver transplant. To see her grand-daughter running around the room as Anne was talking about this, as a healthy young girl, was absolutely fantastic and very, very moving. We have both had the privilege of co-chairing the group since 2019 and we have seen excellent progress in the space of organ donation. We worked along DonateLife, Transplant Australia, the Organ and Tissue Authority and many other dedicated organisations. We have been advocating for greater awareness and support for organ donors, their families, the organisations that do the vital work in this area, as well as recipients.

The success of organ and tissue donation in this country was greatly enhanced by the work of the Rudd Labor government in 2009. I would like to pay tribute to the present Minister for Health and Ageing, Mark Butler, who was instrumental in getting the original national program going through the Organ and Tissue Authority. Since then, there has been significant growth in donation rates, with more than 16,000 Australians receiving a life-changing organ transplant. However, the process through which an individual can become a donor is limited. Only two per cent of people who die in a hospital can be considered for organ donation, as there organs need to be in a well-functioning order and the process needs to occur within a specific time frame of death. Altogether, only 1,400 Australians were eligible to give the gift of life each year in our hospitals. Only 30 per cent of people eligible to be donors are in fact registered as donors. As the member for Lyne has explained, it is a simple matter with your Medicare card to the go to the DonateLife website and register as a donor. I encourage everyone to do so.

This is why the work of the Australian Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation Authority, known as the OTA, is so vitally important. Their promotional and educational activities are vital in increasing community awareness of organ and tissue donation and the fact that it really is the gift of life and in encouraging individuals to register and inform their nearest and dearest relatives of their choice. This is why this bill is so important. It will broaden disclosure information provisions in the Australian Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation Authority Act 2008 to allow DonateLife agencies, grant recipients and authorised family members to publish, distribute or disclose information about deceased donors and/or recipients. Clearly there are some privacy concerns. That's why the bill does have those concerns well catered for. This is the very important work of the Organ and Tissue Authority to get people aware of the great importance of organ donation. We have had members talk about their personal experience with organ donation. I have certainly had patients of mine who have had organ donations and done extremely well, really transforming their lives and the lives of their families.

I would also like to pay tribute to the pioneers in paediatric organ donation in this country—Robert Jones in Melbourne and the recently retired Albert Shun, a paediatric surgeon at the Children's Hospital at Westmead—for their work in promoting organ donation in the paediatric population in this country.

The amendments provided by this legislation will align with the sentiment of many families who have had members become donors and also recipients, as they support the idea of increasing community awareness about donation and registration and commemorating their family member who has given the gift of life. It's hoped this bill will lead to more successful promotional campaigns, resulting in increased donor registrations.

One such very successful campaign is Jersey Day. I and my electorate staff engage with this every year. It was inspired by the gift of life that Nathan Gremmo gave to six people when he became an organ donor at the age of 13. My staff and I regulate partake in Jersey Day, which is great fun but also raises awareness about the importance of organ and tissue donation and the DonateLife network. You wear a jersey of your favourite sporting team and post about the purpose of doing it to promote organ donation in our communities.

Organ donation is something that affects all of us in different ways. Most of us have experience of people who have received or donated organs. I pay tribute to them and their families. In my work as a paediatrician, I have dealt with many patients who have benefited from organ and tissue donation. One of my former patients was one of the first long-term survivors of a liver transplant in the paediatric age group in Australia. She is doing extraordinarily well.

I've had a long involvement in this space and I've seen how attitudes and technologies have changed for the better, but there's still much more work to do. I think in particular we need a national registration program. When we have digital licences throughout the country, I am hopeful to see this register allow licences in every state to be a donor. It's a simple thing we can do for our community. I thank the assistant minister and the minister, and I thank the Organ and Tissue Authority teams and DonateLife in particular for the work that they are doing in this space. I commend this bill to the House.

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