Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This week is Multiple Birth Awareness Week. It was fabulous to see the Australian Multiple Birth Association in Parliament House yesterday. I am proudly the mother of twins, James and Nicholas. I acknowledge my federal colleagues the honourable member for Boothby, who is the mother of triplets, and the honourable member for Werriwa, who is also a mother of twins. I also acknowledge all the parents of multiples within my electorate of Hughes, particularly my good friends James and Melissa Caroll of Como. We first met at the prenatal multiple birth clinic when Mel and I were pregnant. We sustained and nurtured our friendship when my boys and her girls, Alicia and Jessica, were babies, then through their childhood. They are now good friends and, coincidentally, attend school together. Both Mel and the Southern Sydney Multiple Births Association, known as SSMBA, were integral to me maintaining my sanity when our twins were young and, as a first-time mum, I really had no idea what I was doing. I probably still don't know what I'm doing, but don't let my sons know that!

I also recently met with the new president of SSMBA, Lauren Smith, and I commend her for her leadership of this important community organisation. Multiple Birth Awareness Week's theme this year is equality for multiple birth families. Multiple birth families need more support than they currently get in Australia. Multiples are more likely to face greater challenges in their earlier years, necessitating additional dedicated support. In Australia, families with multiples receive no additional support, notwithstanding the modest multiple birth allowance afforded to higher-order multiples and subject to rigid means testing.

I speak from personal experience on this. As I said in my first speech in this place, the swings and roundabouts of life are borne out through my return last year to Canberra in winter following my election. In 2006 my husband, Michael, and I were flown by emergency air ambulance—thank you, Royal Flying Doctor Service—to Canberra Hospital, as I had slipped into labour at 26 weeks pregnant and there were not a sufficient number of neonatal intensive care beds in my home state. Our twins, James and Nicholas, arrived 13 weeks early, with one weighing one kilo and the other weighing 930 grams—or two pound two and two pounds, respectively, in the old system. At the time, we had no idea what lay ahead. Very premature babies, many of whom are multiples, face significant challenges throughout their lives. We remain eternally grateful for the care the boys received from the Canberra Hospital neonatal intensive care unit as well as the support given to Michael and me during the many months we were living down here.

Other costs faced by parents of multiples include much larger prams and parents often having to take earlier leave than expected. In my case I left work at nine weeks earlier than I had anticipated. Our twins are now almost 17 and we could not be more proud of them—although they could keep their bedrooms cleaner!