Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before I start my contribution tonight I just want to place on record my congratulations to Senator Sterle and those involved who helped the Make-a-Wish event a truly memorable time for two very precious children. It was a job very well done.

It is with pleasure that I rise tonight to talk about the Prime Minister’s recent announcement of the creation of the DonateLife Family program. The DonateLife Family program is a new national initiative designed to help educate Australian families about organ and tissue donation, and it comes as a result of the government’s Australian Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation Authority Bill 2008, which was passed in November last year. As a long-time advocate and supporter of organ and tissue donation, I have spoken in this place a number of times not only on that bill but also about the importance of organ donation, and I know full well the power of organ and tissue donation can have in helping to save lives.

As the Prime Minister outlined at his announcement, the new DonateLife Family public awareness campaign will encourage Australian families to talk about their views and wishes regarding organ donation. This is of course extremely important because the average Australian donor rate in 2008 was only 12 donors per million people. And even though my home state of Tasmania did fare slightly better than the national average, recording 16 donors per million people, there is still much work to be done, with these levels far too low. The new program will encourage Australian families to sign up and become a DonateLife Family. It is only through this process that I believe we can begin to raise Australia’s current low levels of organ donation.

It was indeed pleasing to see at the announcement of the new DonateLife Network that the Prime Minister and his family took the lead on this crucial issue and became Australia’s first DonateLife Family, which is a family that has had discussions and knows each others’ wishes about organ donation. It is indeed very important for families to have these discussions, because 40 per cent of Australians do not realise that consent is always sought from families before an organ donation can proceed. So, to raise organ donation levels, Australians need to ensure that their family is aware of their wishes. Currently 30 per cent of Australians do not discuss their wishes regarding organ donation with their family and consequently the family consent rate is affected, as it currently sits at just 56 per cent.

These figures are considerably low, especially when you think that public support for organ donation in Australia is around 90 per cent. However, even though public support for organ donation is high, last year our organ donation rate left a lot to be desired. Over the course of last year just 259 people donated their organs, and this year’s organ donation rate is heading in a similar direction, with just 213 people having donated their organs by the end of October. To lift these low levels of organ donation rates we must lift the family consent rate, and this is at the core of what becoming a DonateLife Family is all about—that is, providing your family with information so that they are able to represent your wishes regarding organ donation.

Lifting donation rates is so critically important, especially when you consider that at any one time around 1,700 Australians are on the organ transplant waiting list. These 1,700 people are often faced with the agonising and uncertain wait to receive the gift of life, because people on the organ transplant list usually wait between six months and four years to be given a second chance. In even more tragic circumstances, some people will never receive that second chance because that new organ will never come. Our poor donor rate means that last year we were unfortunately unable to match demand for organ donation. In Australia only one-third of organ donation demand was able to be met, and each week two people die waiting for a transplant.

As a longtime supporter of organ donation, I have spoken in this chamber a number of times about this important area, and I can only hope that the new DonateLife Network will help ensure that we meet this demand for organs in the future. I am currently a member of the Australian Organ Donor Register and have also made my wishes known to my family regarding organ donation. I hope that this initiative will encourage many more Australians to follow these steps to become organ donors and be prepared to give the gift of life to someone on an organ donation waiting list. It is my strong advocacy for organ donation that makes me extremely pleased to be part of a government which has made a significant investment to help lift the rates of organ donation around the country.

The Rudd Labor government’s $150 million organ donation reform package will deliver the newly formed DonateLife Network across 75 hospitals around Australia. The newly established network represents a most welcome and definitive step forward towards improving the rates of organ donation and transplantation in Australia. The DonateLife Network will have a team of specialised clinical staff in each state and territory to help increase Australia’s rate of organ donation, and I am indeed very pleased that in my home state of Tasmania we will receive our first dedicated organ donation office, based at the Royal Hobart Hospital.

The office will educate people about the donation process, encourage potential donors to discuss their wishes with their families and provide support to the families of donors. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Dr Andrew Turner on his appointment as the state medical director for organ and tissue donation. He will be assisted, I understand, by experienced nurse Rob Thornton, who will also be based at the Royal Hobart Hospital. The funding provided by the Rudd Labor government will also allow for a part-time position based both in the north of the state in Launceston and on the north-west coast at Burnie. Together these staff will be charged with setting up Tasmania’s first organ and tissue donation agency.

It is vitally important that Tasmania has its own organ and tissue donation agency because currently clinicians have to travel from Victoria to examine possible donor patients. That is why I am pleased that on announcing this new Hobart office the Australian Organ and Tissue Authority national medical director, Dr Gerry O’Callaghan, said:

… it was hoped that within two years those functions could be fulfilled by the Tasmanian donation agency.

Dr O’Callaghan also said that the Tasmanian organ and tissue donation agency:

… will provide expertise to the state and their clinical colleagues in hospitals to provide support to families.

It is indeed very pleasing that Tasmania will have its own dedicated organ and tissue donation office, because this will give us our own dedicated team of medical professionals located in Hobart. I hope one day that this will eventually prevent the need for clinical staff to travel from interstate to Tasmania to conduct organ donation consultations and operations.

In the days following the announcement I was touched by stories of two families who had both been in the sad and tragic situation of losing their sons. These two families had discussed organ donation with their sons so, whilst they were faced with the heart-wrenching situation of losing a loved family member, they knew the wishes of their sons regarding organ donation and were able to give the wonderful gift of life to people on the organ donation waiting list. It is stories like these which have inspired the DonateLife Family program. It is of course sad when a loved one passes, but we want to encourage families to have the discussion so that more Australians inform their families that they want to give the gift of life to people who sit on the organ donation waiting list.

Whilst watching the news in the days after the announcement I was able to fully comprehend the preciousness of the gift when an organ donor recipient described this gift as being ‘golden’. It is with these inspirational stories in mind that I will end my remarks tonight by urging Australians to have this discussion with their families and consider becoming a DonateLife Family. Giving the most precious gift of all, an organ and second chance at life, to someone is important. Organ donation saves lives, and I hope that this significant investment of some $150 million by the Rudd Labor government will go a long way to help lift the rates of organ donation in Australia.