Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tomorrow, the ninth day of the ninth month, is Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Day. The nine is deliberately symbolic of the nine months of pregnancy when you should not drink alcohol if you want to protect the mental health and brain of your baby. This international reminder is designed to ensure that every pregnant woman knows that it is not safe for her baby if she drinks any alcohol when she is pregnant. FASD is the largest cause of non-genetic, at-birth brain damage in Australia.

People born with FASD or FAS, foetal alcohol syndrome, have an observable abnormality in the structure and size of the brain, a physical condition which changes and disables brain function. The National Rural Health Alliance explains that this can include a baby, a child or an adult with an inability to plan, learn and control impulses. FAS or FASD affected children are often regarded as wilful or undisciplined, when in fact they have little control over their behaviour. Youth end up in jail—often a lifetime in jail. Too often suicide is a result of the lifelong frustration as well as lack of employment for the victims of FAS or FASD.

Australia has in some of our remote communities the highest rates in the world of diagnosed FAS in children. This is a national tragedy. We do not have to have a single child born with this condition as long as no woman drinks when she is pregnant. I commend knowledge of this day to the chamber.