Kristina Keneally (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Two hundred and fifty-two days ago, the Senate voted to establish the Select Committee on Stillbirth Research and Education. In that short period of time—in just the eight months that have passed since the Senate inquiry began—1,512 babies have been stillborn in Australia. The report we table here today is a first. It is the first national investigation and report into the impact of stillbirth on Australian families and the Australian economy and the first national set of recommendations on what we as a nation can and should do to save babies' lives.

Six babies a day are stillborn in Australia, and the key finding from this report is that we can do better. Our rate of stillbirth is significantly higher than similar nations such as New Zealand, the UK, the Netherlands and Scandinavian countries, and while the rate of stillbirth has declined over the past 15 years in countries with similar levels of economic performance and educational achievement as Australia, the rate in Australia has stayed the same.

I will confess: there were times I grew incredibly angry as we undertook this work. The anger resulted from frustration because there are some clear, simple and relatively inexpensive steps that we can take in order to prevent and reduce stillbirth in Australia, and we have simply not done so. I didn't grow angry in any partisan way. This has not been a partisan inquiry. The Senate voted across all parties to support the Senate stillbirth inquiry, and I'm pleased to report that this is a report with multiparty support. I pay tribute to my colleagues: the committee chair, Malarndirri McCarthy, who led us with wisdom and grace; the deputy chair, Jim Molan, who was a pleasure to work with, and, strangely enough, whose military experience at times actually gave us great insight; and Senators Janet Rice, Lucy Gichuhi and Catryna Bilyk, who brought great patience, understanding, compassion and intellectual rigour to this work. I also note we were incredibly well supported by Sophie Dunstone and the committee secretariat, and I thank them for their thoughtful efforts.

The anger I felt wasn't directed at anything other than just grief that babies had died in this country when we could have saved them. And why didn't we? It was because for so long we have been understandably hesitant to speak about stillbirth. It's a particular sadness, a singular grief; one so hard to fathom that I can understand that, collectively, as a country we have considered stillbirth too sad to talk about as a public health problem.

This inquiry marks a significant moment. It means the country can no longer stay silent about stillbirth. It also marks a point at which we can no longer say that we don't know what we can do to help reduce stillbirth and save babies' lives. Broadly speaking, this report makes recommendations in three key areas. First, prevention: there are several recommendations that go to how we can help families and clinicians reduce the risk of stillbirth and know when we should intervene to save babies' lives. This includes national education, community campaigns, continuity-of-care models, and education and training for clinicians. Second, investigation: this includes investigating and understanding why stillbirth occurs, in order to better advise families in subsequent pregnancies and to recommend changes to clinical practice. These recommendations include investigating stillbirth properly, which we do not do, and that includes pathology and with autopsies. As a nation, we need to record information about stillbirths consistently and fully in the national dataset and make sure that data is made available to individual families, as well as in aggregate form to healthcare providers and researchers, as quickly as we can. Our recommendations also speak to the need for longer term funding certainty for research. Third, supporting families and clinicians after a stillbirth occurs: this includes care after a stillbirth to support families emotionally and, importantly, to ensure parents have access to paid parental leave and to help co-workers to support these parents when they return to work. Importantly, this report calls for a national stillbirth action plan that starts us on this effort by aiming to reduce the rate of stillbirth over the next three years by 20 per cent. This would be a remarkable achievement after 20 years of stagnation and inertia that has meant that so many lives have been lost and many more irreversibly changed.

Finally, I want to thank every person who made a submission, everyone who participated in this inquiry. I especially note the Centre of Research Excellence in Stillbirth, Stillbirth Foundation Australia, Still Aware, Maternity Consumer Network and SANDS and Red Nose Australia. I also want to thank the pathologists, the doctors, the midwives and the nurses who appeared before us. I particularly want to thank the parents and the grandparents who shared their grief so openly and bravely in public submissions. I honour all the parents who came before us to tell their stories in public hearings. Each one of you showed such generosity and love. To those parents who made submissions, to those parents who gave public evidence and to those parents who are here today: your children—Sandy, Annabelle, Elliott, Leilani, Patrick, Hope, Grace, Matilda, Evelyn, Harriet, Austen, Soraya, Lia, Rose, Coralie, Liam, Jonah, Hamish, Lincoln, Kayla, Jordan, Emma, Henrietta, Bethany, Archie, Angelo, Daniel, Senator Bilyk's son Timothy and my daughter Caroline—are lost to us, but this report is part of their legacy. Thank you. So much sadness, but today we begin to hope that things will change. I commend the report.