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

Member for Melbourne, thank you for sharing that deeply personal story. Absolutely, condolences go out to you, and it brings home the fact that it doesn't matter the years that pass, it still cuts deep; the loss is still deeply felt.

My late mother, Eileen, carried a baby to full term, a beautiful little boy, and lost him the night before she was due to give birth. His little grave marker in the Wagga Wagga lawn cemetery simply has on it 'Baby McCormack 15.7.72', the date he was born, the day he obviously didn't make it. Mum carried that pain for all of her life. It actually changed her. My mum was a good person; unlike me, she was a really, really good person. I know how deeply it cut into her. She had two other children following this little boy, but my three sisters and I never forget 15 July. We always text each other, message each other, on that day because it is a special day in our family.

Thank you to the member for Werriwa for bringing forward this important discussion, and it is important. October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month, and no-one feels this more than the mums who've lost bubs. It is deeply tragic. It is deeply personal. As a bloke, I want to say that we share your pain too, but no-one knows how profound is the loss in a woman who has indeed gone through that experience.

I want to also share with the House a couple I know well—they're only young—Sam and Maddy Armstrong. They live near Marrar, where I come from, and they lost a little girl in January 2024, Joy. They were supported through this loss by an organisation called Vilomah Community. This organisation provides help and wraparound services that assist particularly mums but also parents through the loss, healing and recovery—not that you ever recover, not that you ever properly heal. I would really like to see this organisation, which is under the umbrella of the Murrumbidgee local health district, properly funded so that it can enable referrals to become compulsory after a stillbirth, should the parents need it, want it and expect it, so that every family that suffers grief and loss has the opportunity to access a 12-month support program. It would be really good for mums right across the Riverina district.

Before Joy was born, Vilomah, knowing that they were going to go through this experience, reached out, talked about the services offered and explained in a very deeply personal and emotional way what was going to happen and what to expect. It didn't take, as Sam and Maddy explained, long to realise stillbirth is common in the Riverina, and we've heard it's common right throughout Australia. It's all too common. Sam and Maddy were shocked by the amount of people they knew who told them that they'd lost a baby through stillbirth. When you do talk about this thing—the member for Melbourne is right—it wasn't always talked about. Back in the early 1970s, it probably wasn't talked about at all. We're much more open now as a society. But people still find it hard—choking back tears—to even tell these sorts of stories, particularly in the federal parliament but also even to their own family members. I do commend you for your bravery and courage. Thank you for sharing that story.

As Maddy and Sam explained, a lot of these people have no support, no opportunity to grieve properly and no memory making. That's important, too. They are still babies. They are still parts of your family. Even though they don't make it, they're still very much part and parcel of your family. Also, mental health issues come as a result of this, as Maddy and Sam explained to me. Thank you, member for Werriwa, for bringing this important motion. Again, member for Melbourne, all our love and support to the important motion and again members of Melbourne, all our love and support go out to you.

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