Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

World Sickle Cell Day was on 19 June, with this year's focus on the need to include newborn screening for sickle cell disease in Australia's healthcare system. I'd like to acknowledge the work of the Australian Sickle Cell Advocacy group, and I welcome my constituent Agnes Nsofwa, who is ASCA's founder and executive director and is here in Parliament House today as part of her advocacy on this issue. I'm a proud patron of this organisation, and I'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate Agnes on her tireless efforts and dedication, which has seen some welcome progress in recent times. ASCA's work towards connecting a network across the country and with their international counterparts has made very real headway as it reached a certain frequency among particular ethnic groups. It's a major issue predominantly among the African community locally and across the world.

A couple of weeks ago the Australian government Department of Health announced that sickle cell disease has become one of the nominated conditions proposed for inclusion in newborn bloodspot screening, the NBS program. While this is a welcome first step towards having the NBS for sickle cell disease implemented in Australia, I want to today call on the government to fully implement its inclusion with funding and implementation in states and territories across Australia.