Patrick Gorman (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is a difficult motion to speak to, but, among the many things we do in this place, the difficult things we do are the important things. I want to thank the member for Werriwa for moving this motion and for her speech. I'm sure it was very difficult for her, but I was so pleased to be here for it. Similarly, I thank the member for Ryan for his speech and for outlining the number of support services that are available to people who might be listening to this debate and feeling either that it has triggered something or that at some point in the future they may need assistance.

In moving this motion, the member for Werriwa has extended the hand of understanding and friendship to thousands of Australians, showing that there are people in this place who care about what they are going through. It's a time when even your best friends struggle to find the right words to say—they speak slowly, carefully; there are a lot of silences—but people do want to help one another. If you think about 2020, this is yet one more thing which the coronavirus has made more challenging for many thousands of families. For families separated by hard borders, international borders, virus suppression efforts have made it all the more challenging. I want to note again my thanks to health professionals. The member for Werriwa just outlined how important they are. Often—it's just one of those things—you don't get the chance to say thank you at the time they are assisting you or a loved one, but they do an amazing job and can provide a very good friend to your family instantly when they are helping you with something this difficult.

Every family's loss is different and every family's loss is real. 'Welcome to the world's worst club' was the message my wife and best friend, Jess, received—a club that some 150,000 Australian women join every year, a club you never leave, a club we joined in November last year when we were still unpacking boxes in our new house—the big new house, as my son Leo called it, necessary for our growing family.

When I found myself on the other side of the country in Townsville, on my way to Papua New Guinea, I got a phone call that no parent wants to get: that Jess was in hospital and things had not gone well. After the immediate grief, Jess and I believed it was important to share, especially as you discover that so many of your friends then share with you something that you'd never known had happened in their lives. I'll use some of Jess's words. She said:

It's an incredibly normal, almost boring thing for a family to go through. But it happens to one in four women — so it's really unpleasant and had some really challenging moments to it but…we felt as supported and loved and cared for as was humanely possible.

This is an ongoing grief that affects people in different ways. I took time off (in May) on what would have been the expected due date because I just decided that I didn't want to have to soldier on that day.

It is important that you share and talk about these things. One of the things that 15 October reminds us of is that we do need to share and be open about all parts of people's health and families, not just those that are easier to talk about.

We now have another bub due in December. We thought we would go and do the story—Polly has a baby, a very exciting time, talk to a journalist. We came to the conclusion that that would have been false. That would not have been telling the full story. I want to thank Lanai Scarr from TheWest Australian for enabling us to tell some of our story with our community in Western Australia. I also want to note that this place is sometimes more supportive than people recognise. On that, I want note the kindness of many of my colleagues, including the Leader of the Opposition, and on the other side the kindness of the member for Fisher.

That brings us all to the question: what can we do in this place? We can invest more in mental health support, knowing that depression, anxiety and other health issues can often follow. We can do more to expand telehealth, protect Medicare, invest more in remote and regional health services and more in Indigenous health services, invest in research—how we actually help people, what actually works in the space, because, again, as others have noted, sometimes people just soldier on.

In my home town of Perth, we need a new women's and babies' hospital. It's an urgent health priority for my electorate and for Western Australians. It's a project that should be bipartisan, should be being built and is well and truly overdue. We should also ensure that women's health services are available at all hours for all communities and for people of all backgrounds. We need to do more on parental leave and compassionate leave. I want to commend the leadership of Senator Keneally on this matter. We need to speak, share, understand and offer that hand of support when people need it.

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