Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I know the chair made a speech yesterday on the tabling of the report of the Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Sport entitled Still waiting to be heard: Report on the inquiry into the hearing health and wellbeing of Australia, but I also rise today to speak on the committee's report. Yesterday, the chair of our committee, the member for North Sydney, said 3.6 million Australians experience hearing loss and balance disorders. I'm one of those people who has experienced and is still experiencing hearing loss, and I have a very deep and passionate interest in this inquiry because of my own hearing loss. I was very proud of the bipartisan work that was done by the committee, on both sides, including the 22 recommendations that the committee saw fit to table yesterday that we commend to the House. I'd like to thank all those who gave evidence—the many witnesses across the country that we saw, who provided evidence and submissions during the committee process—but I would like to especially thank the chair, the member for North Sydney, the members of the committee and the wonderful secretariat, including Stephanie Mikac and all the staff who did tremendous work in putting this report together and supporting us during the inquiry. Our committee received evidence from around the country, from stakeholders, constituents and many others to produce this report.

Just before my election—my second election—as a member in 2007, I suffered an acute ear infection. Little did I know that this would lead to a nearly complete loss of hearing in my right ear. One of the groups that gave evidence was the Can:Do Group in Adelaide, which look after a whole range of things for people with hearing loss, speech loss and many, many other things. It's located in my electorate. I met with Judy Curran, the group general manager, and many others there who attended hearings and gave evidence. This is how fantastic some of the organisations that give support to people with hearing loss are. Even though I had been checked out completely by doctors and specialists who told me that nothing would work in my right ear—no hearing aid would work because it was the cochlea—they put together an amazing little piece of technology that has made such a difference to the quality of my life and that of many other people's lives. They came up with a little transmitter that transmits to the good ear to pick up things from the right. This is how amazing these people are. That's why this inquiry was so important. Can:Do and others who gave evidence are making a real difference to people in the community on a daily basis.

I was particularly moved by some of the evidence provided by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. I sincerely hope the committee's recommendations can be implemented to make a real difference. We heard that, in some remote areas, classrooms had been fitted with particular technology so all the children could hear well, because a lot of our Aboriginal communities have ear infections and suffer from hearing loss. Where classrooms were fitted with this particular technology, such as speakers placed all around the room, the education levels went through the roof over a very short period. So you can see how putting some resources into the schools can improve the lives of some of our Indigenous communities. That was one of our recommendations.

All of the recommendations are important. I would like to go through a couple of them here today. The first recommendation is that the Department of Health, in collaboration with others, develop a national strategy to improve Aboriginal health in a coordinated way. We found out in this inquiry that, in some of our remote areas where people don't have access to services and have high numbers of Indigenous Australians, hearing loss was much higher as a percentage compared to the people in the rest of Australia. We really need to have a coordinated approach where those services, with follow-ups, are provided to those communities.

The committee also recommended increasing resources for regional and remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. I just spoke about the technology that's required. This should include support to deaf Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children to learn sign language as well. In the cities, there is access to learning how to sign, but in some of the remote areas there isn't the ability to have someone come in and teach the children who can't hear how to sign.

Recommendation 6 is for the Department of Health to develop and implement an education and awareness-raising campaign focused on national hearing. You cover all the remote areas, all the schools, and have regular checks so you can pick up when someone is having a problem with hearing. Sometimes in children it's not picked up. We find there are checks done in the hospitals when they're first born, but hearing loss can come on a bit later. We heard stories from all around the country where parents couldn't quite work out what, but there was something not quite right, and then, at the age of two, three or maybe four, they discovered that the child had hearing loss. One of the things that the inquiry told us was that the sooner it's picked up the more quickly you can start putting services in place to ensure that that child has all that is required to be able to sign, and can get all the technology that is required. You find that, the earlier that happens, the better off that child's future will be. There was proof in the evidence we received from all over Australia that early intervention was very, very important.

So, one of the recommendations I just spoke about includes ensuring that we have programs in place from very early on, monitored continuously throughout their school life, to pick up any issues or problems and tackling them to ensure that the child gets the services required for them to go on leading a normal life and that they do not fall behind in education because of a hearing loss. In addition, some of the prevention recommendations were that the Hearing Services Program and the National Acoustic Laboratories focus on the causes of balance disorders and potential treatment options, genetic and stem based treatments for hearing impairment, and research on the experiences of adults undergoing treatment. I'm also very proud of the recommendation to add hearing services delivered by the internet to the Medicare Benefits Scheme, an important step. A lot of these services now come through the internet. You can put earpieces on and do a test to see whether there are any problems with your hearing. Many people go to these apps, and if there's a problem they'll pick it up.

Something I was shocked to learn, through our many meetings and from listening to people, is that sign language is not part of basic translation services under the new scheme. You can imagine that if you needed an interpreter when you were in hospital or going through the courts, for any language—Vietnamese, Chinese, Greek or Italian—they'd all be available. But if you say, 'I want Auslan,' those services are not available. So we have a recommendation to ensure that the federal government works with state governments to provide interpreting services, which is very important. We take it for granted that if you can't speak English or you don't have a good command of the language then you get an interpreter and they tell you all about the health problems you're having when you're meeting your specialist in the hospital or having an operation. But what's the difference with Auslan? There is no difference. That is these people's language. They need interpreting services, and we made that clear in recommendation 20, which says that Auslan should be implemented immediately and that the government should work closely with state governments to ensure that it is implemented throughout the states for health and court cases, legal issues et cetera.

I want to make the point that a consortium of groups had withdrawn a proposal for purchasing Australian Hearing, and I suspect that was one of the reasons we had this particular inquiry—to look into a view that the government had about privatising Australian Hearing. I just want to make it clear that the committee remained concerned about the intentions in this area. One of the recommendations was to ensure that the government rule this out, and it has been ruled out, and I'm very pleased about that. But I'll certainly be keeping a very close eye on this and sincerely hope recommendation 21 is adopted. That recommendation talks about the government now not looking at privatising Australian Hearing.

Debate adjourned.