Lisa Singh (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

  (i) 14 November 2018 is World Diabetes Day,

  (ii) the theme of World Diabetes Day 2018 is 'Family and Diabetes',

  (iii) Australia has one of the highest rates of Type 1 Diabetes in the world, with around 160,000 people affected,

  (iv) Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus is one of the most common chronic diseases affecting children in Australia,

  (v) children diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes require insulin for life to manage their diabetes and live with the reality of hypoglycaemic fits, diabetic ketoacidosis and even death, along with the long-term health impacts, and

  (vi) Type 1 Diabetes is responsible for significant financial and emotional burdens on those living with the disease and their families; and

(b) calls on the Federal Government to:

  (i) consider extending National Diabetes Services Scheme subsidisation to flash glucose monitoring technology – which enables people with diabetes to detect their blood glucose levels without a blood sample and track their blood glucose trends on their mobile phones, following the Department of Health's review, and

  (ii) extend the provision of free continuous glucose monitoring devices, which radically improve diabetic health and safety, to pregnant women and adults with severe hypoglycaemia and limited awareness of their condition if they cannot afford the technology.

Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute.

Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Liberal-National government provides considerable support to people of all ages with diabetes, including the subsidy of essential medicines like insulin through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and of diabetes-related products through the National Diabetes Services Scheme. Expenditure on PBS medicines for the treatment of diabetes was $545 million in 2016-17 and expenditure on products for the management of diabetes supplied through the NDSS was over $200 million in 2017-18. In addition, the government is investing $54 million from 2016 to 2020-21 to provide fully subsidised continuous glucose-monitoring products to eligible children and young people under 21 years of age living with type 1 diabetes. The Department of Health is undertaking an evaluation of the FreeStyle Libre product to consider its suitability for subsidisation through the NDSS, and the government is awaiting the outcome.

Question agreed to.