House debates

Monday, 10 September 2012

Statements on Indulgence

Fred Hollows Foundation

4:47 pm

Photo of Michael McCormackMichael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

'Every eye is an eye. When you are doing the surgery there, that is just as important as if you were doing eye surgery on the Prime Minister or a king'. The philosophy of ophthalmologist Fred Hollows is exactly why the foundation is marking 20 successful years of eradicating avoidable blindness and improving the eye health of more than a million people. That was his philosophy.

Fred Hollows was born in New Zealand in 1929 and dedicated his all-too-short life—he died at the age of 63, and you sometimes wonder why it is that somebody with so much to offer, so much more to give, dies at such a relatively young age—to improving the overall health of Aboriginal Australians and the eye health of others in developing countries. He was a man with a vision: a dream to eliminate avoidable blindness by 2020. While much work remains to be done, 80 per cent of blind people can be treated for their condition, and the work of the Fred Hollows Foundation is going a long way to helping those afflicted people.

Fred Hollows was not only passionate about restoring sight and increasing eye health but was equally passionate about improving the health outcomes of Aboriginal people. According to Joy McLaughlin, who heads up the foundation's indigenous program in Darwin, Aboriginal people have six times the rate of avoidable blindness—six times—and vision loss as the rest of the population and a life expectancy is 10 years lower than other residents of Australia.

Fred Hollows wanted to see Aboriginal people help themselves to maintain the same level of health as the rest of the population. So in 1971 he set up the first Aboriginal medical centre in Redfern in Sydney. However, his wife Gabi feels her husband would be disappointed at the current status of aboriginal health. His widow says, 'I think he would have liked to see more improvement by now, but he would still be beside himself with joy to see how many Australians from all walks of life have made the foundation a success.' Since 1992 his foundation has restored sight to more than a million people and established intraocular lens factories in Eritrea and Nepal, where, according to the Fred Hollows Foundation website, more than five million low-cost lenses have been manufactured. That is a great achievement.

'The most expensive little bits of plastic in existence,' Fred Hollows was often heard to remark. However, as I say, he has made a great achievement.

The Rotary clubs of Australia also contribute to the Fred Hollows Foundation. I am proud to say that, in my electorate of Riverina, among those clubs which contribute largely to the Fred Hollows Foundation are the Wagga Wagga Sunrise and Temora Rotary clubs, whose members donate very valuable funds to helping eradicate and eliminate unnecessary blindness.

According to journalist Tony Magnusson, the Fred Hollows Foundation is now working to eradicate avoidable blindness in 19 countries. Just last year, they performed 300,000 operations and treatments, trained more than 10,000 staff, built or renovated 50 facilities and donated more than $3 million in equipment. The most common cause of blindness is the cataract. Fortunately, it can almost always be treated with a simple surgical procedure which utilises the intraocular lens. Just last year in Nepal, the foundation performed more than 8,000 cataract operations and 21,000 sight-saving or -improving procedures.

It was in the early 1990s when Fred Hollows realised that producing soft lenses in Asia and Africa would not only help to reduce eyesight problems in those countries and on those continents but would also help local economies—ever the businessman! He would be proud to know that the foundation was able to fulfil his dream of establishing lens factories in Nepal and Eritrea, which have produced millions of lenses which are distributed around the globe. Not only was this increasing eyesight outcomes but also, as Fred Hollows realised, it would improve the economies of these countries. He was also very keen to see that happen. He would be even happier that both those factories became locally owned and operated, exemplifying his belief that developing countries have to run their own shows.

Sadly, Fred never lived to hold a lens in his hand and say that it had been made in one of the poorest countries in the world. Former Deputy Prime Minister and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade special envoy Tim Fischer returned in June 2012, after visiting the eastern African laboratory in Eritrea. A longtime supporter of the Fred Hollows Foundation, as with so many other great causes, Mr Fischer described his visit to the laboratory and the importance of the work done there as an exemplar of the good things that can be done in very isolated parts. The former Nationals leader said the establishment was momentum-building, and that Fred Hollows would be proud, as it was something he had always envisaged.

Millions of people worldwide are also able to celebrate their health and eyesight, thanks to a man with an extraordinary vision. In the words of Fred Hollows, 'I believe that the basic attribute of mankind is to look after each other', and that is exactly what is being done.

I will conclude by quoting from the article by Mr Magnusson in the QANTAS in-flight magazine, the Australian Way, which really summed up the great work that Fred Hollows is doing:

Practical solutions were what Fred Hollows was about. "He wasn’t one to sit back and wait for the bureaucrats to decide what they wanted to do," says McLaughlin, who believes that if Fred were alive he’d be angry about Indigenous health status. "I think he would have hoped to have seen more improvement by now." Gabi Hollows agrees that there’s no silver bullet when it comes to Indigenous health. "Unfortunately, we still have third-world conditions in a first-world country." Even so, she says Fred would be "beside himself with joy" to see how Australians from all walks of life have made the foundation such a success. "He would have nothing but thanks."

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