Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Mental Health) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of the very important and timely report from the Senate Select Committee on Health. I know that my colleague and chair of the committee, Senator O'Neill, will speak more fulsomely about the report, but I really just want to go to the recommendations about the proposal of the government to amalgamate the Organ and Tissue Authority and the National Blood Authority. This was a recommendation that was made originally in the Commission of Audit report. When I saw it I thought, 'Goodness me, that shows that they really just do not understand what these two organisations do.' I honestly thought that the government would say 'No' and that the Commission of Audit just do not really understand these two organisations.

The Organ and Tissue Authority was established by the Labor government in recognition of the fact that Australia did not have very good rates of organ donation in our country. There was strong community activism when we were in government to encourage the government to do more, and so we did. We established the authority, which was tasked to do a range of things: to improve community understanding, to improve community buy-in to donating, and, most importantly, to work with our states and territories and our public hospital systems to make sure the processes to deliver effective donation occurred as well as to fund that process. That is the role of the Organ and Tissue Authority. Quite differently, the National Blood Authority was established and has been in place for many, many years. Its task is essentially to manage the contract with Red Cross Australia, to make sure that the blood supply is provided and that the work that the Red Cross does—the marvellous work that the Red Cross does to ensure that the blood supply is of a quality that we expect—is done.

They are two quite separate activities that these two organisations do. Simply because they deal with parts of our bodies is not a reason to say, 'That's easy; we'll just amalgamate them.' We took evidence from both of those authorities. We asked them where the savings were. When you look at the budgets of both of them, they are very lean organisations. They are organisations that do not have excess activities that can be trimmed. Frankly, the only evidence we really received is that the two CEOs would turn into one. In my view, that would diminish the activity of that CEO, whomever it might be if the government gets its way, to be able to make sure that those different tasks are done properly.

The committee has taken evidence not only from the two entities but it also talked to others. When we were in Moruya we talked to a gentleman who was the recipient of a donated kidney and his evidence to us was quite strong that the authority would not gain. In fact, he was concerned that there would be a diminished effort around the amalgamation of those two organisations. We say this in the context of the fact that this year organ donation rates are not tracking where they were 12 months ago. We do not have an answer for why that is happening, but it is of concern. So I say to the government very clearly: this is mistaken; there are no savings in this proposed amalgamation. There are very good policy reasons why we need two separate entities. They do not cost that much. Amalgamating them will potentially impact on our organ and tissue donation rates. Hopefully it would not impact on the contract management with Red Cross, but I do alert the government to the fear that is in the community. We cannot undermine the great work that we have seen done by the authority and the organ and tissue donation authority under their current leaders. Our recommendation is: cease the merger, cease this happening and make sure these organisations get on with their jobs of making sure that their activities are continued.

I will finish my comments now and pass over to the committee's very excellent chair, but, in doing so, I do want to pay tribute to the staff who have provided us with excellent support. It has been a difficult committee to run, so to Mr Palethorpe and Miss Reardon: thank you very much for all your support.