Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I second the motion pertaining to technological advances in genomics, data analysis and artificial intelligence in health care, and I thank the member for Ryan for bringing these matters to the parliament's attention. I am greatly enthused by the possibility of such advances improving the outcomes of preventative and targeted medicines for many millions of Australians and their families. This is not something of the science fiction future; this is something that is upon us now. My belief is that this is the future of modern medicine.

Unfortunately, the government's botched attempts at developing the My Health Record have significantly impacted our ability to introduce some of these newer technologies and medicines. The government has also put limits on the availability of some of these new treatments in our future medical program because of its very patchwork approach to listing medications on the PBS. The government is very fond of making a big deal about its PBS listings, but the PBS is a program that was developed by the Labor government—the Chifley government in particular—and has bipartisan support. The government is politicising what should be a non-political issue.

I acknowledge the contributions of all our universities in the development of genomics and the treatment of genetic disorders. There are many institutions around the country that have been at the forefront of this work, including the Walter and Eliza Hall institute in Victoria. The Ingham Institute in the electorates of Werriwa and Macarthur has been instrumental, as have other great medical institutes around the country, such as the George Institute. There are too many mention. I believe the government should be congratulated on the National Health and Medical Research Council grants that have recently been announced, but there is much more that we can do.

The government is, for example, limiting treatments for spinal muscular atrophy for people who are over the age of 18 when diagnosed. I've sat in a room and seen patients suffering from type 2 spinal muscular atrophy being told that there's a genetic treatment available for them but that they can't receive it because they're over the age of 18, which is an arbitrary number. There's also the CAR T-cell treatment for advanced lymphoma that has failed to respond to conventional therapy. It can be curative in many instances, yet we know of only about 20 Australians out of 200 or 300 that have been able to access that treatment in the last two years, meaning that about 200 people, for whom that treatment was available, have died. Dupilumab is a new treatment for severe eczema, which can be a very debilitating disorder. That treatment is being denied to Australian patients with severe eczema. It's only available on a compassionate-access basis. It really should be listed by this government.

Our world-class healthcare system has the ability to lead the world in these treatments. I congratulate the government for listing the treatment available for cystic fibrosis, a genetic disorder that can now be treated with life-changing genetic medications, but the government has been very tardy in developing some other treatments. In particular, I'd like to mention the concept of mitochondrial transplant, where the fetuses of people who have mitochondrial disorders can receive the mitochondria from unaffected females, enabling those families to have healthy babies. This has been very long in coming to the fore, and we need to legislate to make that available.

The government is watching waiting times blow out for a number of treatments. Recently I met with Bowel Cancer Australia, which is recommending more frequent screening for bowel cancer. Yet, the waiting times for colonoscopy in my electorate have blown out tremendously. While our treatments are getting better, and we can target specific cancer treatments to specific genetic markers, the government has been very slow in allowing these treatments to be made available to all Australians. According to the government's own figures, about 1.3 million Australians per year skip or delay services due to cost.

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