Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to make a contribution and put on the record something important that happened here in the chamber today. I know you, Acting Deputy President Walsh, have had great interest in this matter as well, which is the use of genetic testing results in the life insurance and underwriting sector. Importantly, today a consultation paper was released by Minister Stephen Jones for further consultation with the Australian people about how these genetic tests are actually being used and the intersection with people's access to the critical commodity of life insurance. I also want to congratulate my former colleagues who, in 2018, were with me on the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services and delivered this report, Life insurance industry, of March 2018.In chapter 9, we made four critical recommendations. One of those was to engage in not only adoption of a moratorium, to make sure people could get life insurance and still get genetic testing, but also to continue to watch the developments in genetic testing and see whether legislation might be necessary. The colleagues who were with me on that journey were Mr Steve Irons, Ms Terri Butler, Mr Jason Falinski, Senator Jane Hume, Mr Matt Keogh, Senator Chris Ketter, Mr Bert van Manen, and Senators Peter Whish-Wilson, John Williams and Nick Xenophon.

That good work that we did has now come to fruition, and it is vital that Australians who want to be part of testing, who want to be part of understanding genetics, who want access to services and who want the prevention that comes with proper testing, may have their say between now and the end of January about what we actually do. It's your family, it's my family—it's everyone that we care about who benefits from proper genetic testing. It's time for us to have a really close look at this and deliver the best outcome for Australia.