Malarndirri McCarthy (NT, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to speak about rheumatic heart disease and bring this disgraceful disease to the attention of the Senate, and to pay tribute to families who are fighting against this disease in our remote and regional parts of this country. It's a disease that should have been eliminated a long time ago. I pay tribute, in particular, to the families of Doomadgee, in Far North Queensland, but also to families right across the Northern Territory and Western Australia—to Mummum Alec Doomadgee, to Weenie George and to others. Many would have seen their stories on Four Corners.

The most important thing we need to know about rheumatic heart disease is that it is preventable. Rheumatic heart disease is a disease of poverty, and the chief cause is poor living conditions and overcrowded housing. It develops because of repeated untreated episodes of acute rheumatic fever. Acute rheumatic fever is itself an immune response to a strep A infection. When it's undiagnosed or misdiagnosed, acute rheumatic fever eventually causes damage to the heart's valves, and this is rheumatic heart disease. Acute rheumatic fever can be treated, but rheumatic heart disease is incurable. People with rheumatic heart disease need ongoing complex medical care to minimise any further damage to the heart's valves and may eventually need surgery. This is a lifelong, chronic health condition. It causes chest pain, shortness of breath, weakness and fatigue, palpitations and swollen legs and face.

This morning we heard from Kenya McAdam, who is a Jaru and Kira woman from Halls Creek in Western Australia currently living in Katherine in the Northern Territory. Kenya spoke frankly about her experience of having rheumatic heart disease. She suddenly experienced a heart attack when she was just a teenager. She didn't even know she'd had a heart attack until she was admitted to ICU in Darwin. She experienced breathing difficulties, pain and difficulty walking. She was later diagnosed with rheumatic heart disease. At such a young age, she had to make challenging decisions about what her heart surgery would look like. Kenya has kept up with 100 per cent of her penicillin injections to keep on top of her condition, a very hard feat considering the regularity and pain involved in taking those injections.

Our health practitioners across the country, our Aboriginal health workers—people like Kara Rudkin and Greg McAdam, to name a couple—are very much involved with trying to educate, communicate and prevent this disease. We've also got the Snow Foundation, and I thank the Snow Foundation for its commitment to eliminating rheumatic heart disease. And I commend the ongoing efforts of the Deadly Heart Trek in raising awareness and preventing the disease. And I certainly thank all the practitioners.

But we do have a long way to go. We are an incredibly rich country, and we should be able to eliminate this disease. The Australian government is committed to eliminating it as a public health issue by 2030. That's just a few short years away. I'm pleased to say that the Albanese government's first budget, in October last year, made a solid commitment to the task, with an additional $14.2 million directed to combat acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease, specifically in First Nations communities. Much of this increased investment will go towards an existing partnership with the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, NACCHO, to deliver Australia's Rheumatic Fever Strategy.

I want to personally reach out to all of our health professionals who are on the Deadly Heart Trek. You know who you are. I really appreciate the work that you're doing. I look forward to getting out to a lot of our communities—in particular, to Doomadgee—at some point to be able to talk to the families and communities there and wherever I travel in my role as Assistant Minister for Indigenous Health, to ensure that the health of Indigenous people is maintained as an absolute priority of this parliament and of our government.