Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Primary Healthcare) Share this | Hansard source

I am happy to second the motion and I commend the member for Hindmarsh on his initiative in bringing forward this motion. It is an opportunity for me to speak just after the ninth anniversary of the 2002 Bali bombings. The 2002 Bali bombings were a tragedy which scarred this nation and they are something that Australians will never forget. On 12 October 2002, three bombs were detonated, two of which were in or near the popular nightclubs Paddy's Bar and the Sari Club in Kuta. Two hundred and two innocent people were killed, 88 of whom were Australians, and a further 240 sustained injuries.

There were a number of Australians who made significant contributions in the wake of those Bali bombings, including Dr Fiona Wood, a plastic surgeon and director of the Royal Perth Hospital burns unit and the inventor of spray-on skin for burns victims. In 2002, the largest proportion of Bali victims were transferred to the Royal Perth Hospital. Dr Wood led a team working to save 28 patients suffering from between two and 92 per cent body burns, deadly infections and delayed shock. She was recognised for her care by being named Australian of the Year.

From South Australia, Dr Bill Griggs AM ASM was the director of trauma services at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. He was present at both the 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings, helping to coordinate the evacuation of those injured in the attacks through Darwin to the major trauma and burns units all around Australia. There was Dr Peter Sharley, the current AMA President in South Australia and deputy director of the Royal Adelaide Hospital intensive care unit. As a retrieval expert he provided medical assistance to the Bali bombing victims. Someone who I studied medicine with, Major David Read, was on the first RAAF Hercules flight to Bali after the incident. He was awarded the Conspicuous Service Cross for his service. He helped set up this surgical facility at the airport and started operating before returning to Darwin with 26 patients. I have mentioned just four individuals, but of course all of their teams were involved in the care of the people who returned to Australia.

At the time of the Bali bombings, the Sturt Football Club, a local SANFL football club from Adelaide, were in Bali during this horrific incident. They were celebrating with an end-of-season trip after winning the premiership, their first since 1976. Tragically, two members of the Sturt Football Club—Josh Deegan and Bob Marshall—lost their lives during the Bali bombings and a number of others were injured. Julian Burton OAM, Sturt's full forward at the time, was one of those injured, suffering severe and life-threatening third-degree burns. Julian was in the Sari Club in Kuta when one of the bombs went off. After his long recovery, in 2003 Julian co-founded the burns trust with Dr John Greenwood, the director, and Ms Shiela Kavanagh, CNC of the Royal Adelaide Hospital burns unit. Julian received an OAM in 2006 for his contribution through the Julian Burton Burns Trust. He was named the South Australian of the Year 2010 for his work as the founder of the burns trust.

I have had quite a lot to do with Julian over the years. I well remember the Julian Burton Burns Trust and the Lions Club of Brighton serving 1,000 hot breakfasts to the workers at Mitsubishi just before Christmas 2007. That was probably the first time I met Julian, and I have had a bit to do with him in the years since. I admire very much his passion and drive in making sure that burns prevention and treatment is very much at the forefront of policymakers' minds here and around the country.

If we look at types of injury prevention, just to take one, think of road trauma. It is only by a prolonged effort involving state governments, federal governments, increased awareness, improved roads and improved cars that we have seen a dramatic impact in the road toll. Similarly, with burns we do need a coordinated national approach. The Julian Burton Burns Trust was founded to make a difference for burns survivors, their families, and the professionals who work in burns care. It is the first national community organisation solely committed to prevention, care and research associated with burns injuries. Through their BurnSafe program they educate thousands of students, teachers and parents each year across South Australia in burns awareness, prevention and first aid. The burns trust also provides grant funding for burns professionals to attend the annual Australian and New Zealand Burns Association conference each year. Its patient vehicle service, with the support of Holden and the RAA, transports over 2,000 burns patients each year across South Australia and Victoria. This assists burn victims to travel to and from hospital to have their outpatient treatments for their burn injuries. The trust has created a Bi-National Burns Data Registry between Australia and New Zealand which is designed to record data on a national level for work carried out in burns units around Australia to allow better research and targeting of prevention programs. These are substantial achievements that Julian and the burns trust team should be extremely proud of.

But, if we look at the national figures, over 220,000 Australians suffer a burn of some description each year. Of those, 22,000, or 10 per cent, will require hospital admission requiring major treatment and surgery. Almost two-thirds of all burns occur in the home environment, and burns are one of the top six injuries suffered by Australians every year. This is a very important injury, and it does not get the recognition that its seriousness deserves. Severe burns have a major impact not only on the patient but on their family and friends as well. Severe burns can require hospitalisation for anywhere up to three to four months and require ongoing weekly dressing changes for many months after a patient is released from hospital. Significant damage to the skin from burn injuries can cause, in more extreme cases, contractions of the skin and mobility restrictions, requiring further surgeries and skin grafts to correct. In addition, severe scarring as a result of burns injuries can make a significant impact on self-esteem and self-confidence, becoming a barrier to social interaction.

Burns injuries have not attracted the same public attention as some other preventable injuries have, and this is something that we as a parliament and a society need to improve. An adult patient with burn injuries to 50 per cent of their total body surface area will cost more than $700,000 to treat, with the total annual spend on burns treatment at more than $1½ billion. The majority of burns are preventable, and reducing the incidence of burns in Australia is something that requires more attention.

This motion supports the establishment of a national burn injury prevention plan to reduce the incidence of burns in Australia and improve research, treatment and outcomes for burns patients. The 2010 report by the House Standing Committee on Health and Ageing, of which I was a member at the time, supported this goal. It was also supported by the 2010 roundtable forum on burns prevention, which was convened by the standing committee. I call upon the government and the Minister for Health and Ageing to respond to this report. It was a bipartisan report based on expert evidence and some well-thought-through recommendations.

There needs to be a greater coordination of burns prevention activities within Australia. This could be facilitated through the development of a national burn injury prevention plan. The World Health Organisation in 2008 released A WHO plan for burn prevention and care, and any Australian burn injury prevention plan could be modelled on the WHO document. The issues which could be addressed through the national burn injury prevention plan could include advocacy, policy development processes, data collection and measurement, research, prevention and treatment.

Once again I would like to congratulate Julian Burton and the Julian Burton Burns Trust for their fantastic work in the areas of burn injury prevention and care and support for burns patients and their families, and for their constant focus on research into burns treatment. The vast majority of burns are preventable and, with the economic and social costs of severe burn injuries, we must consider better means of reducing the incidence of burn injuries in Australia.

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