Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Hansard source

First of all, welcome everybody who's here from JDRF. Many of your faces look very familiar to me. Thank you for being so attentive during the speeches. That has been a hard slog. You will be thankful to know that I am the last speaker on the JDRF motion, and then you can relax and do other things. But it really is a delight to have you here. I would echo many of the other members' words. The advocacy that the JDRF network does, in sharing your stories and spending time with members of parliament, is very powerful. Stories are very powerful.

I thank the member for Moreton, who put forward this motion, because it is so incredibly important. I know that kids in the House—I've seen many white trench coats over the years. Do you have the white trench coats here? Excellent. Very good. It's spectacular to see. Over the years in my electorate, I have met with many children and young people who are living with type 1 diabetes and I have heard their stories. That has been a real driver for me as the federal member to then, over the years, go and advocate to various health ministers about the needs of people who are living with type 1 diabetes, what we can do to make life better for them and, as the member for Grey said, not give up until we find a cure.

I'd like to mention a family from my electorate of Mayo: Dwayne, his wife, Belinda, and their gorgeous daughter Emily. I met Emily, who is living with type 1 diabetes, around her second birthday. She was about 2½, and that was in July 2021. I recently met with Emily again, and now she's six years of age. She is just doing so fabulously well. She's loving school and loving life.

Emily's story and stories like hers are what made me go and meet with Greg Hunt, the former health minister, who was incredibly supportive of making sure that we could make constant glucose monitoring affordable. To me, it was a game changer when we were able to get that, particularly for children, and then have it expanded. At that time, the NDSS subsidy for constant glucose monitoring was only available to young children and there was a real concern when people aged out about what that affordability would look like. I was pleased to see that the then minister and the then government said that they would be looking to make it accessible for everyone. When Labor was in opposition, they agreed to that, and now we have that as policy.

That's powerful. Your work did that, not us in this place. It's your work and advocacy that made that happen. As Emily's father said to me:

'Affordable access to diabetes technology will truly change lives. Type 1 diabetes is a challenging and relentless lifelong disease that requires constant management. Committing funds to CGMs and technologies will positively impact thousands of Australians in both the short and long term.'

As the member for Macarthur mentioned, I too look forward to the government's response to the report of the Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Sport, ably chaired by that member. I note the member for Lindsay's great work in this space too.

We need to make sure that we are constantly looking forward and working with you on new projects—that we don't ever give up. We have to make sure that there is research and funding, because that's how we're going to see change. We can't just assume it's not going to happen, and we can't, as a nation, just expect the rest of the world to do this lifting. In particular, I lend my support to recommendation 21, which is:

… that the Australian government takes steps to manage diabetes research efforts through the Australian Centre for Disease Control (CDC) by coordinating with the peak bodies such as JDRF and Diabetes Australia research priorities with an emphasis on equitable access and prevention … and considers increasing funding for Type 1 diabetes research and clinical trials.

I thank all of the people who are here today in the Chamber for coming to parliament, particularly at this busy time, as we're coming up to Christmas, and during this crazy week which is the last week of parliament. You will always be so very welcome here, and I look forward to joining you tomorrow.

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