Sally Sitou (Reid, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I agree with the final line of the previous speaker, the member for Kooyong, at the very end of her speech. This is not just a women's problem because women's health is important for all of us. If we don't get it right not only do women pay the price but our whole society also pays a price. If we don't understand the unique challenges that women go through—if we don't do the research, if we don't care, if we dismiss their pain—then not only do women suffer but we all suffer.

It was something that my family suffered. My paternal grandmother—there was an unspoken story in our family for a very long time that after giving birth to my father she wasn't 'quite right in the head'. There was a period where my father was temporarily taken away from her. We never really spoke about it; we didn't really know why. It was something that was very much left undiscussed in our family. When I had my own son and I had the extraordinary care of early childhood nurses and GPs, they sat me down and spoke to me about the potential for postnatal depression and the symptoms to watch out for. It was then that I realised what my paternal grandmother had gone through. It is very likely that she had been suffering from postnatal depression. Instead of receiving the care and support that she would have been provided had she had my father a little later on or in Australia, her symptoms were dismissed, and she had her child taken away from her.

It is that story which really inspired me to have a women's health forum in my electorate. I loved having the Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, Ged Kearney, there. In this place, we are privileged to serve alongside some extraordinary members of parliament, but I have to say, if I were to have a favourite, the assistant minister for health is certainly right up there. She is an inspiration for the work that she does in this place but also the work that she did prior to coming here, and I think her nursing background has really guided the extraordinary work that she continues to do.

In that room, alongside the assistant minister, we had some extraordinary women panellists. Janu Dhayanathan, who's the ambassador for Children's Tumour Foundation, has neurofibromatosis. She shared some really personal examples of how she was dismissed in the healthcare system. Sue Advani founded Haathi in the Room, an organisation designed to help break down the stigma of mental health in the subcontinent community. I was inspired by these panellists and really appreciated the honesty and frank discussion that we were able to have that night. There were extraordinary moments. It was quite emotional as so many women shared their personal stories of how their pain was dismissed in the medical system.

So I'm really excited to be part of this government that is taking women's health seriously and putting it at the very forefront of our agenda, and I thank the minister for health and the assistant minister for health for doing that. We have put significant funding into ensuring that women's health is improved at the research and data collection level and improving women's health outcomes when it comes to maternity care and research into miscarriage and pregnancy loss so we have a greater understanding of why that's happening and how we can prevent it, as well as things like longer consultations for patients with complex gynaecological conditions. There is so much work that has been done in this space, and it's something that I'm extraordinarily proud of.

At the very local level, I have convened a women's health reference group, and it is full of wonderful local GPs, physiotherapists and gynaecologists who really want to do things at the local level. I'm inspired by the words of a local physio who said, 'There is no reason that women should have to live with pain,' and, Georgina Claxton, I think that is a motto that we all ought to live by.

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