Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am delighted to get up this morning and discuss the Parliamentary Friends of Organ Donation. I have just finished a particular event with my very good friend Dr Mike Freelander to have people who have received organ donations standing amongst us this morning and those who have donated organs. It is possible to be a living donor, to donate a kidney and still live. We met with a couple this morning where the husband had provided a kidney for his wife, who has also had to have a liver transplant. She was a very bubbly, wonderful woman, and it was delightful to meet her.

Mike and I started the Parliamentary Friends of Organ Donation back in 2019, and that was the first event where I brought my granddaughter, who has received a liver transplant. She's now 11 years old and thriving and doing very well, but it was a traumatic period of time. I'm fully immersed in how hard that journey is. I want to give a shout-out to every family who has lost a family member and who has donated organs to others so that they might live. In fact, I have a staff member who is in that position, whose child very sadly died and has donated organs so that others could live. That is an incredibly courageous and brave thing to do. This morning we stood in the courtyard of the Speaker and discussed how wonderful humanity can be. That we can reach out and provide and give and share so that others can live is just mind-blowing and extraordinary, and it makes me very proud to be part of the human race. It's not often we can say that these days. There are so many challenges that we face, but I think organ donation is just one of those things.

The Australian Transplant Games will be held here in Canberra from 1 October to 6 October. I had the privilege of being at the World Transplant Games in Perth in March last year, and it was a significant and wonderful event to see a pool of swimmers who all had experienced organ transplants and were competing in events. It's not an easy journey. There are so many challenges that people with organ transplants have to live with to manage their lives, and here they are on the world stage, coming from all over the world to compete together. It was incredibly encouraging to see that human spirit that we share together. So I just want to give a shout-out to that. I am in my—no, I'm going to have to leave it to another speech, but I will be back.