Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a)

notes that:

(i)

Thursday, 11 March 2010 is World Kidney Day,

(ii)

World Kidney Day is a global health awareness campaign focusing on the importance of our kidneys, and on reducing the frequency and impact of kidney disease and its associated health problems worldwide, and

(iii)

the focus of World Kidney Day is diabetes which, along with high blood pressure are the key risk factors in chronic kidney disease;

(b)

recognises the early detection of kidney disease can reduce the risk of complications and thereby dramatically reduce the growing burden of disability and death from chronic renal disease;

(c)

acknowledges that Type 2 diabetes is the fastest growing chronic disease in Australia, with on average 1 500 new cases identified every week and nearly one in four Australians having either impaired glucose metabolism or diabetes;

(d)

calls attention to the alarmingly high rates of diabetes, high blood pressure and renal disease within Aboriginal Australians, noting:

(i)

Aboriginal people are 3.4 times more likely than non-Aboriginal people to have diabetes or pre-diabetes,

(ii)

the Kimberly population has the 4th highest prevalence of Type 2 diabetes in the world,

(iii)

gestational diabetes is up to 20 per cent higher in the Aboriginal population compared with the non-Aboriginal population, and

(iv)

kidney disease is 10 times more likely to occur in Aboriginal people when compared with non-Aboriginal people;

(e)

notes the special ecumenical service for renal sufferers being held on 11 March 2010 in Alice Springs in recognition of the anguish experienced by Nura Ward and others like her who must leave their homelands forever to receive dialysis in a city far from their family and culture; and

(f)

calls:

(i)

on the Federal Government to put greater resources into education and prevention for diabetes and kidney disease, particularly targeting Aboriginal communities and others at high risk, and

(ii)

for a much greater commitment to planning to meet the emerging need for services and support for those with renal disease, particularly in regional and remote communities.

Question agreed to.