Arch Bevis (Brisbane, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Homeland Security) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On a number of occasions I have risen in this parliament to talk about the plight of the many thousands of sufferers of diabetes in this country, particularly type 1 diabetes, otherwise known as juvenile diabetes. Over the years in which I have made speeches about that I think far too little has been done by all of us in this place. I think the government, the parliament and all of us have failed thousands upon thousands of Australians who, as sufferers or those who live with sufferers, await some genuine action on the part of this government and this parliament to inject some serious commitment and funding into the research needed to help alleviate the pain and suffering that goes hand in glove with diabetes.

It was in that context that I was heartened by press coverage this weekend in the Brisbane Courier-Mail referring to new advances that provide some hope in that respect. One of those articles, headlined ‘Diabetes breakthrough’, reported that Queensland scientists are developing a drug that could prevent people from becoming diabetics. Professor Ian Frazer, surely one of the great Australians we are privileged to have as an Australian citizen, said that initial tests had been carried out and researchers were planning overseas clinical trials of the drug. If successful, it could be used to treat patients at risk of developing type 1 diabetes. It quoted him as the former Australian of the Year. In a separate article—it was not clear whether it was referring to the same drug—the media also reported advances associated with a number of drugs with which Ian Frazer has been involved. We are all familiar with his groundbreaking research in providing a vaccine to prevent cervical cancer. One of those articles went on to say in effect that Professor Frazer says that the drugs could change the body’s immune response, preventing it from attacking cells which produce insulin in the case of diabetes or destroying the joints of arthritis patients.

This is indeed good news, to know that our researchers are undertaking world-class groundbreaking research in a very important field that goes to the quality of life of so many Australians. Unfortunately they are doing it on the smell of an oily rag. It was only three years ago, prior to the last election, that both parties committed to fund the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation to the tune of about $25 million over about a four-year period, and that funding has commenced. But I have to say that it is an appallingly small amount of funding. We are talking here about five or six million dollars a year.

The Howard government are about to spend $2 million a week to tell people that they should not talk about Work Choices anymore and that they should brand it as something different. The government can find $2 million a week on average between now and the election day to fight a political campaign on industrial relations, on their Work Choices legislation, but they cannot find half that or a quarter of that to fund medical research. Many members of parliament on both sides have honestly and sincerely participated in the Kids in the House program that the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation conducts and it is a tremendous lobbying exercise. I say to the children who have come to me that it is the most powerful lobbying exercise I have ever had to confront as a member of parliament in 17 years. I have certainly found it to be the most moving. It has been a great privilege for me to work with some of the families and to meet with some of the children affected over the number of years that they have been involved. One in particular who has been kind enough to keep me informed is Gareth Eldershaw. Gareth wrote to me last year just before they had the kids in parliament activity. Amongst other things in his letter he said this:

I need a cure for Type 1 diabetes, all the kids in Australia who have Type 1 want a cure and so do their parents and families and friends ... Do you know there are still so many people who don’t know the difference between Type 1 and Type 2? Even with all the advertising about Type 2 diabetes lately, people still say dumb things like—“Do some exercise”, “Shouldn’t have eaten so much sugar”, “It’s OK. You’ll grow out of it.” Or worse still—“I hope I don’t catch it from you.”

I will digress from his letter. He has told me of the reaction sometimes in the playground from other students who think that this is a contagious disease that will strike them down and the social difficulties that imposes on top of the physical difficulties that diabetes imposes. His letter went on and said:

My first 10 years of having diabetes has passed and all I do is hope for a normal life like my friends—SOON. It’s a drag doing all the test and injections—they still HURT. So far I’ve put up with over 22,000 blood tests and 12,000 injections. It’s a pretty horrible total number of jabs. I’m old enough to really understand and fear complications that might come later. What’s worst is my life now. I had a bad hypo a while back and my brother thought I was dead and now my parents are even more protective.

He says in brackets, ‘not cool’.

My only glimmer of hope is a cure. I was honoured to meet and speak with Prof. Ian Frazer (Australian of the Year) at the Queensland Parliament’s ‘Kids In The House’ recently. He truthfully didn’t promise a cure anytime soon but he feels confident it will come. There are lots of scientists just like him furiously working for a cure, but their research needs so much money. It’s nearly 2 years since the Government and the Opposition all promised funding for a research centre. Still I wait. Two years is a long time in a kid’s life—2 more years of needles and pain. For me it’s like the disease will never go away ... Please keep helping. Please keep remembering me. Please promise.

From your friend, Gareth Eldershaw.

Now, I suspect other members of parliament have had similar letters from the Kids in the House program from their constituents that they have met. You cannot help but be moved by the genuine honesty and decency of these kids, the plight they confront, the difficulties their parents confront and the way they stoically and with a smile deal with all of those issues. Most of us have our hands full just being parents with children who do not have health problems. When you have children with severe health problems as well—and diabetes can certainly be one, although it need not be—it must also pose real stresses and strains on the family. Gareth is lucky he has a loving family that are very supportive. Those people have come here to this parliament on a few occasions now and many members of parliament have met with them. We all say the right things when we are with them: it is about time we started doing the right things after they walked out the door. It is about time we actually started to invest in the research that is bearing fruit. We are fortunate in this country to have world-class scientific research capability. We are fortunate in this country to have people like Professor Ian Frazer. It is about time we started to reward them seriously.

There is something fundamentally wrong with the way the government allocates its funding when it could find $55 million a couple of years ago to promote its Work Choices legislation. It is now going to spend millions of dollars over the next few months telling people about a different version of its Work Choices. In fact, I am sorry: the $50 million, the $2 million a week I referred to before, was not for Work Choices; it was actually for the government’s water plan. The government is going to spend $2 million of taxpayers’ money a week to promote aspects of its water plan. It is about time it put the same money into medical research.

I do not care what side of politics people are on: we have all met with those kids and we have all given them undertakings. Three years ago, just before the election, we were all moved to give a commitment about providing some funding. We did—both sides of politics—and that is a good thing. But let us put this into perspective, let us get serious about it, let us improve the quality of life and let us make the breakthrough. Let us not make kids like Gareth have to wait another two or three years for the next election before there is another serious commitment from both sides of politics to do something significant and meaningful to assist the research community in Australia to find that breakthrough for type 1 diabetes.