Jim Molan (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

On Wednesday last week, my stillborn granddaughter Emily Charlotte Sutton would have turned 14, but instead we commemorated the 14th anniversary of her shattering death. On Friday last week, her mother—my daughter Sarah—turned 40, a milestone birthday. It wasn't celebrated with family and friends, but only because of COVID health orders in all states.

Today I stand in this place as a former soldier not unfamiliar with death and violence, as a senator for New South Wales who has devoted much of my time to national security and as an ordinary Australian returning to the workplace after a five-month period of medical treatment in which the magnificent healthcare professionals and health services of this nation essentially saved my life. For the good wishes I received from you, my colleagues, I thank you most sincerely. However, I am absolutely incapable of thinking of any sentiment more important to me today, or of any commemoration more significant, than to mourn the cherished children whose loss through miscarriage, stillbirth and infant death is suffered each year by thousands of Australian families.

I was honoured to be a member of the Senate Select Committee on Stillbirth Research and Education, which, in 2018, examined in great detail the significant and far-reaching impacts of stillbirth in Australia. I welcome the National Stillbirth Action and Implementation Plan, published in December last year and developed under the oversight of the National Stillbirth Project Reference Group—again, established by the then Australian Health Ministers Advisory Council. This plan has ambitious goals, but, with the commitment and support of the many Australians invested in the recognition of stillbirth and pregnancy loss as a public health issue in need of a strategic approach, I am hopeful that these goals will be met and that, when we meet again, we will see rates reduced, equity gaps abolished and respectful support extended to all. (Time expired)