Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Most of us have children, and we want them to do well. We want them to inherit the best possible nation a generation from now. But, in reality, about one in four kids do not have that opportunity at all, and that is because in the first five years they fall behind and stay behind.

We have a developmental census that we do every year, starting with the first year of education, identifying vulnerability and at-risk kids, but we do not have a system that actually responds. It really is time for the Medicare Benefits Schedule, our health networks, our Health Care Homes that are under trial and, of course, the early education sector to come together with allied health and have absolutely real-time intervention to pick up these children and give them every opportunity they can to do well. There are three decades of evidence that say it is by far the best time to invest. We do not want to discover, when we have high levels of incarceration, teen pregnancy or unemployment, that we are two decades too late.

That is why I am delighted that ARACY and the college of physicians have come to this building to say that it is time to act early, and that people like John Eastwood, working in Sydney and bringing the best health pathways out of New Zealand and other countries, is starting to reformulate our thinking. We cannot wait until the year before school. We must grab every moment we have with young parents and their children—typically at a vaccination visit at general practice—and make sure that, if there is any suspicion or concerns amongst practice managers and health clinics, those children get the interventions they need.