Sharon Grierson (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Human Services and Minister for Social Inclusion. What is the government doing to bring sound into the lives of Australian babies who are born with hearing impairment?

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Newcastle for that question. This is an issue that I am sure both sides of parliament agree on. Too many Australians either are born with hearing loss or develop hearing loss during the course of their lives. About 160,000 Australians are unable to work because of their condition and the economic cost of this is estimated to be around $11 billion a year. With an ageing population and increasing exposure to damaging noise levels in our everyday lives that problem is expected to increase. It is with great pleasure that I report to the House today about a new invention, another terrific Australian invention in this area.

Australia has been at the forefront of research and development in this area for many years, and all Australians are proud of the Cochlear implant that is an Australian invention. We are recognised around the world for the Cochlear implant. It has brought the gift of sound into the lives of many tens of thousands of Australian children. It is done at an increasingly early age because we know that the development of language skills is stronger and much better if we are able to get children hearing from a much earlier age. The neural pathways are laid down in the brain and children learn to speak and to hear much better.

I am very pleased to inform the House today about another very important advance in this area made by Australian researchers to improve the use of Cochlear implants and to judge at a much earlier age whether babies need a hearing aid, whether it is properly fitted and working or whether they perhaps need a Cochlear implant. This new invention produced by Australian Hearing in their laboratories with the help of the HEARing Cooperative Research Centre is trademarked as HEARLab.

HEARLab is about the size of a briefcase and it works by putting little sensors on the skull of a baby. By applying those sensors to the baby's cranium, scientists are able to measure whether the sounds that are being played through the machine are registering in the baby's mind. It is very important because when you are fitting a hearing aid you cannot ask a baby: 'Can you hear that? Is it loud enough? Are you missing some sounds or are you picking them all up?' It is a terrific Australian advance to have this device, which registers whether the baby is picking up those sounds and, if the baby is not picking up those sounds, means being able to amend the hearing aid so the baby can hear or to recognise that a Cochlear implant would be more appropriate for that child. Knowing that from an early age allows us to treat a hearing impaired baby properly. It means that the baby will learn to differentiate sounds much earlier, learn to hear better and learn to speak much better than if we wait even six months or even a year or two. It is an absolutely fundamental breakthrough that will not just be terrific for Australian babies but also be applied to other people who cannot tell an audiologist whether their hearing aid is working appropriately—for example, someone who has been the victim of a stroke, who will need help with their hearing aid but cannot express whether what they are hearing is registering properly. It builds on the terrific extra resources that will be available for early intervention for children with a hearing impairment that were previously announced by this government. I think all members are proud of this new Australian invention that will make a huge difference to the lives of Australian babies and babies around the world.