Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on an issue that many constituents in my electorate of Higgins have raised concerns about with me—that is, the early years. I rise to speak on it because I have many mothers in my electorate, as I'm sure all the members in this parliament do. They are a group who sometimes can get lost in the melee that is our healthcare system and in the response to our crisis that is the COVID pandemic. We know that Australians are incredibly resourceful and that we are an incredibly resilient country. I'm very proud of what the federal government has done in response to the health crisis that is the COVID crisis. One of the most important things we've done is to roll out telehealth. This has been incredibly important because it has allowed medical practitioners and allied health practitioners to provide services that have not been face to face. This has been good because it is an innovation we've been able to use right across Australia for rural and remote healthcare provision. But now, with the COVID pandemic, the Minister for Health, Greg Hunt, has rolled it out for all healthcare interactions. This is something we as Australians should feel very proud of. It is something I believe we can lead internationally with. In fact, we could in theory become the healthcare providers, from a knowledge point of view, for the Asia-Pacific area.

What I want to address is an issue which is clearly in deficit when we look at the provision of services for child and maternal health. The child and maternal health services in the state of Victoria are provided by the state government and by local government. What I'm hearing from my local constituents is the fact that these services are not being provided in the short term. I understand the concerns that local services have around providing face-to-face services, but it is very important that new mothers are given the opportunity to have the support of peer-to-peer networks. In the state of Victoria, child and maternal health services routinely provide peer-to-peer new mother groups, which are incredibly important in those very important first weeks of life.

I'm very pleased to tell you that there is a new and innovative company called Mama You've Got This. Two young mothers, who live locally—in fact, they live in the seat of Macnamara—approached me. They are doing a fantastic job of setting up Zoom meetings for young mothers. They have 450 mothers participating across the whole of Australia. It's an innovative solution to a problem that has occurred very quickly. Mums right across Australia have been in this virtual mothers group. The mothers have been able to share stories, share the ups and downs of being a new mother and work out some solutions together, because there's nothing like more than one mind making a problem a lighter load but also coming up with great solutions. More recently, Mama You've Got This started to offer free and live question-and-answer sessions with experts through Instagram Live. You'll be interested to know that one of the paediatricians that they have as their live experts is none other than Dr Lexi Frydenberg, who is also a local constituent but, more importantly, is the sister of the Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg. Lexi has been a wonderful expert who has helped the mothers with expert advice using Zoom. That is a great creative way to make sure that these mums are getting what they need.

But what I am concerned about is that it seems—and we're now hearing this through the group—that the two-week baby check is not happening across Australia. That's something I'm very concerned about, being both a trained paediatrician and a mother of four. The two-week baby check has to be face-to-face because it has a very important component. Child and maternal health nurses in Victoria go to the parents themselves and they weigh the babies. Sometimes babies have more than 10 per cent body weight loss in the first two weeks of life. When that happens, it can be a red flag that the child has an underlying problem or that they need to seek support and advice.

We know that, during the COVID crisis, in the last two months there have been up to 50,000 births across Australia, and this two-week check is clearly not being delivered in a uniform and standard way. I'm very concerned about this for young mums, particularly first-time mothers. I call on the state governments to review these processes, because as a federal member I'm hearing this from my constituents, and the group that I just talked about is also hearing it from the people who are participating in their Zoom meetings. I call on the state governments across Australia to make sure they think about this carefully. This is a vulnerable group of people. Young mums are very prone to postnatal depression. They're dealing with the struggles of a COVID pandemic and have fears of going to see health services. We need to reach out and wrap them in services and support.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 17:11