Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to move a motion in relation to the response by the Minister for Health to the Senate resolution on World Health Sight Day.

Leave granted.

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

I am pleased to see this timely response by the Minister for Health to the Senate resolution on World Health Sight Day 2012, which was on 11 October this year. The theme of the day this year was 75 per cent. That is because they wanted to highlight the fact that approximately 75 per cent of blindness and vision loss that occurs is actually preventable and treatable. The idea of the day this year was to raise awareness of that and to encourage people to get eye health checks.

Vision loss costs $16.6 billion. That is a lot of money lost in terms of productivity and lost to this country. If we spent $35 million on eye health promotion, it would be a pretty good investment. In relation to eye health promotion and helping people deal with that 75 per cent of blindness and vision loss that is preventable or treatable, the Minister for Health has said that 'increasing early detection of treatable eye conditions to preserve vision is a key action area under the National Framework for Action to Promote Eye Health and Prevent Avoidable Blindness and Vision Loss'. She also said that the government 'supports activities aimed at raising awareness about eye health and vision care to prevent avoidable blindness in the community'.

It is my understanding that Vision 2020 Australia were not necessarily critical of the current approaches but they feel more needs to be done because there is such potential in our community to avoid that 75 per cent of vision loss. Let us look at some at-risk communities. I cannot talk about eye health without also focusing on Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders because we know there are still vision issues as well as hearing issues in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Giving additional expenditure now for health promotion that is focused specifically on eye health would significantly reduce blindness and vision loss due to poor eye health.

I am pleased to see that the government has responded to this. I acknowledge the work that has been done, but I am encouraging them to go further. As I said, an investment of $35 million in funding eye health promotion seems to me to be a very good investment in dealing with that 75 per cent of preventable blindness or vision impairment. Also if you look at the cost of vision loss—$16.6 billion—it seems like a pretty minimal investment and, overwhelmingly, it would improve people's lives significantly if they did not have to suffer either blindness or vision impairment.

I am pleased the government have tabled this response. I congratulate them on the speed of the response and encourage them to consider that very small investment of $35 million in eye health promotion.

Question agreed to.