Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I join other speakers in supporting the changes that are proposed in this legislation, the Australian Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation Authority Amendment (Governance and Other Measures) Bill 2021. I have previously spoken in this place about organ donation, so I won't cover all of the ground that I covered in previous speeches. But, like others, I accept that organ donations can not only change lives but give life. I recall when the first heart transplant was successfully performed in South Africa by Dr Christiaan Barnard, assisted by his bother Marius, in December 1967. At the time it was a major news story around the world. It was a medical breakthrough that gave so much hope to people right around the world, because if heart transplants could successfully be performed then all kinds of other transplants could equally be done. Whilst the recipient of that first heart, I understand, only lived for about 18 days, as time progressed the operations became more and more successful, and millions of people around the world have since benefitted because of that breakthrough. Five decades later, according to figures that have been released, I was able to ascertain that about 145,000 organs are transplanted around the world each year, with kidney and liver transplants being the two most common.

As other speakers have also noted, currently there are about 1,800 Australians on transplant waiting lists here in our own country, and some 12,000 additional people are on dialysis. In 2020, 1,270 lives were saved by an organ transplant through the generosity of some 463 deceased organ donors. That meant 1,270-plus lives were changed, because the lives of all of the family members of those people whose lives were saved were also changed because of those life-saving operations. Organ donation affects not only the recipient but many other people as well. Those figures are encouraging. However, again, as other speakers have highlighted, we can and should do more. In 2020, because of the COVID situation, I understand the figures declined a little, so it's perhaps not the best year to try to analyse the figures. However, the 16 per cent drop in 2020 means that a review of the causes of that decline needs to take place so that we can understand what was happening and why it happened. Was it just simply because of COVID-19? The governance structures proposed in this legislation will hopefully facilitate that review. With Dr Mal Washer as chair of the board—and, like others, I know that Dr Mal Washer has a passion for this issue—I have every confidence in the board's oversight and its encouragement of more people to donate organs.

Regrettably, whilst organ transplants save lives, organ transplants can also take lives. I refer to the black market for human organs and the lives taken in the harvesting of organs for resale at lucrative prices to desperate people, including some from Australia. Over the years, there have been several credible investigations into organ harvesting and organ transplants. I don't intend to name any particular country, because by all accounts it happens in several countries that people's lives are taken for their organs. People disappear without trace. Many years ago, an Australian sportsperson disappeared without trace whilst overseas representing Australia in an international sporting event. To my knowledge, that person was never seen again. One theory about his disappearance was that, being a healthy, fit athlete, he was murdered for his organs. He was never found, and so we will never know. What we do know is that the reports of organ harvesting are credible and that healthy organs are valuable. Indeed, a parliamentary inquiry into organ transplant tourism only three years ago suggested that the value of the trade in those organs ranges somewhere between $840 million and $1.7 billion.

The Australian government, regrettably, does not maintain good records of how many Australians travel overseas for organ transplants. According to one submission made to that parliamentary inquiry into organ transplant tourism, in the 13 years to 2017, 176 Australians had an organ transplant overseas, with half of them allegedly being illegal. The same submission noted that the World Health Organization estimates that around 10 per cent of all transplant procedures involve organs that have been bought on the black market. Australia should join other countries, including the European Union and the USA, in taking a more-proactive approach to stamping out the black market for organ trafficking around the world. That would include trying to establish more-accurate information about all organ transplants on Australians, including those performed overseas.

The report referred to, which was put together by the Human Rights Subcommittee of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, had 12 recommendations within it. Most of the recommendations go to the issue of trying to manage the issue of organ harvesting and organ trafficking much better. There is a lot more we could do here in Australia to be part of a world movement to do just that. The recommendations, which I have read through, although I wasn't a member of that committee, make eminent sense. I draw them to the attention of the minister so that, perhaps, the government can review the recommendations and, in addition to the changes it is making with this particular legislation, look also at the recommendations of the committee.

I join with colleagues in encouraging more organ donation amongst our own people in Australia. I trust that the administrative changes that are proposed in this legislation will ultimately lead to that. That is obviously the intent of the changes. Increasing organ donation rates here in Australia and, indeed, across the world will not only save the lives of recipients but, importantly, by reducing demand in the black market for organs, it may well save the lives of many innocent people around the world who, every year, are killed for their organs.

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