Julia Banks (Chisholm, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I commend the member for Forrest on her important motion today and thank her for sharing her passion for eradicating this terrible condition, the chronic and progressive menstrual health disorder endometriosis, and for sharing the significant effect it can have on women, like her beloved daughter.

For many women in Australia like Kylie, endometriosis is a silent epidemic. For so many of our loved ones, work colleagues, friends, mothers, daughters and sisters, endometriosis has been an incredible burden, and a burden that is rarely discussed openly. For the one in 10 women of child-bearing age in Australia who suffer from endometriosis, that's almost 700,000 and potentially so many more; endometriosis is under-recognised and underdiagnosed. Indeed, delays in diagnosis and a lack of definitive research on the domestic burden of endometriosis suggest the number could be far higher. In fact, some research indicates that endometriosis is more common than breast cancer, prostate cancer and diabetes. The condition can affect all women and girls, regardless of our age, our background or our lifestyle. This is why the Turnbull government's first National Action Plan for Endometriosis is directly going to change hundreds of thousands of Australian women's lives.

Following the advocacy of the member for Boothby, the member for Canberra, the member for Forrest and the wonderful women's health advocates like Donna Ciccia, director and co-founder of Endometriosis Australia, who I hosted in Canberra recently, our government has outlined three important priority areas to help improve the lives of Australian women and girls who live with endometriosis: awareness and education, clinical management, and care and research. Our plan has been developed with endometriosis patients, who've lived and experienced the disease's tremendous burden, and researchers and clinicians from around Australia. As such, we've committed $1 million so that our doctors and nurses better understand endometriosis, as well as $2.5 million for Australia's world-class researchers to develop improved diagnosis and treatment for Australian women, meaning that the hundreds of thousands of women with endometriosis won't have to suffer in silence anymore.

I anticipate that the formal launch of the national action plan, due for release in July this year, will provide a strong outline of the government's commitment to improving the rates of diagnosis. Being able to diagnose endometriosis more quickly and often more sensitively will dramatically improve the experience of thousands of women. As the chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Women's Health, I'm particularly delighted and truly proud that our government is continuously striving to improve the health outcomes for Australian women and the thousands of women in Chisholm. It is fantastic that endometriosis will be a feature of this year's Women's Health Week in September, which will significantly raise the profile and awareness of endometriosis with women around the country.

I also rise today to acknowledge that I represent one of Australia's most culturally diverse electorates. I know that women's menstrual health in particular can be quite challenging for any woman to discuss, but the stigma associated with menstrual cycles and conditions like endometriosis can make seeking help almost impossible for some women with certain culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Our National Action Plan for Endometriosis will tackle and remove these barriers to treatment, meaning that every woman across Australia, including regional women, culturally diverse women and Indigenous women, can be empowered to understand their symptoms, know that they need to seek help and that, when they do, they'll be treated with respect, love and care.

The Turnbull government's National Action Plan for Endometriosis is a blueprint for tackling endometriosis in Australia. It will directly aim to improve the quality of life of Australian women and girls with endometriosis by improving awareness and education of endometriosis amongst the Australian community by pursuing medical research for new and improved diagnosis and treatment options. I'm grateful that our friends, our work colleagues, our daughters, our mothers and our sisters will no longer have to suffer in silence, that they will be diagnosed and that they will be able to seek treatment.

I would like to place on record my thanks to my colleague the member for Flinders, the minister for health, for his work on this personally to dismantle taboos that have undermined women's health policy, particularly women's menstrual and reproductive health, for far too long. Thanks to our government's national action plan, I look forward to a future where Australian women with endometriosis no longer suffer in silence and where treatment is sensitive and effective. I commend the motion.

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