Judith Adams (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise to speak on our Senate Community Affairs References Committee report, Hear us: inquiry into hearing health in Australia. When we started this inquiry I wondered how it was going to turn out, but it was absolutely incredible how the public embraced it. I would like to thank all those who contributed to our inquiry. We had an enormous number of submissions and the further we went the more we learnt as a committee.

I would like to focus on the issue of Indigenous people. Otitis media is a very common problem amongst Indigenous communities. It just goes to show, with the evidence that we heard later on, that 90 per cent of all incarcerated Indigenous people have some sort of hearing loss. Think about this: a child with otitis media that has not been able to be rectified has to somehow be educated. But because the child cannot hear and cannot communicate with its parents or peers, it moves through society being a little different and probably rejected in the community. I think that through the inquiry we have come up with something that really and truly must be worked on very hard.

As those children grow up, if they are rejected, they become loners. They are not educated because they cannot hear, and they become frustrated. They, unfortunately, often end up in the justice system. It is much easier for them when they do not understand to nod and say yes. I do wonder just how many of them end up with the wrong sentencing and move backwards and forwards through the justice system. That to me is one of the most important issues that we have to deal with. Somehow we have to ensure that those children, when they are babies, can be treated properly and then they can be educated.

We found a great example at Hermannsburg. There are a large number of children at the school with some type of hearing loss. The school there is very proactive with children with hearing loss. They have acoustic classrooms with hearing loops. The teachers use lapel microphones. Those children are really doing very, very well. Several months ago there was a photo of the principal of the school with a number of students on the front page of the Australian to show what can be done in a remote Indigenous community as far as education goes. A lot of that was to do with the fact that those children had the ability to hear what the teachers were saying and so the teachers were able to communicate with the children.

Once again, the solutions lie in being tested as a baby to pick up any problems associated with hearing and sorting out any behavioural problems which may develop and mentoring these children through their education. I know that time is limited, so I would like to thank the secretariat. They have been very good in travelling with us, coping with all the issues we had to cope with and with the large number of submissions that we had. I would like to commend the report to the Senate and I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.