Michael Johnson (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australia is poorer after the budget that was delivered last night by the federal Treasurer. The people of Ryan are poorer after the budget was delivered last night, as well. In particular, I want to speak in the parliament tonight on behalf of those tens of thousands of couples who would be feeling immense pain and immense sadness tonight. The reason for that is that the Rudd government will introduce a cap on Medicare benefits payable under the extended Medicare safety net for a range of items with excessive fees, including to all assisted reproductive technology items, items for treatment to varicose veins, the injection of a therapeutic substance into the eye, hair transplants and a cataract surgery item. The caps will take effect from 1 January 2010. I specifically want to speak on behalf of tens of thousands of couples who will be feeling terribly sad this evening because they will be affected in relation to IVF treatment. The safety net was brought in by the Howard government in 2004. It pays 80 per cent of Medicare related out-of-pocket costs above $555.70 for families and concession card holders and above $1,111.60 for others.

In the parliament tonight I want to quote the words of two very brave and courageous constituents in the Ryan electorate, Casey and Karen Pfluger. They gave me permission to read out their email to me on Saturday evening. They have been in contact with me in recent weeks, and we have developed a friendship over the email and over the telephone. I know that they are listening this evening. I want to thank you two, very much, from the bottom of my heart, for your courage in allowing me to quote your words and to quote your names for the parliament to hear and, I hope, for thousands of Australians across the country to hear. I quote:

For couples such as ourselves IVF is the only way we can have children. Karen has a blocked fallopian tube and the other one probably doesn’t function after two years of attempting to conceive naturally with no pregnancy. She has regular ovulation, regular periods, correct hormone levels, and a healthy normal uterus, and my sperm is very healthy. Our IVF doctor said that after two years of attempting with all of those factors and our ages (29 and 31), we should have been pregnant. He believes Karen’s tubes are our only impediment to conception, and IVF will bypass that. After all, IVF was invented for couples with our problem: married, otherwise healthy but with blocked fallopian tubes.

As you see, our infertility is purely medical and beyond our control, yet the Federal Government is considering discriminating against us. We have a lot of love and attention to give to our future children, and are very committed to each other. Next month it will be our ninth wedding anniversary, and we have been together for almost eleven years. We don’t drink alcohol, smoke or do drugs. We don’t speed or drive dangerously. We pay our bills on time. We have no debt. We have no criminal records. We lodge our tax  return on time each year. We both have Bachelor degrees. We have private health insurance with hospital cover. We love animals. Surely the Government wants people like ourselves to be having the children Australia will need in the future to care for the aging population, and to pay tax once they are old enough to have jobs. What we don’t have is unlimited funds to pay for IVF. If the Federal Government changes the Safety Net for IVF, we will only be able to afford a few more attempts, especially stimulation and egg retrieval. Our first embryo transfer was unsuccessful last month. We only had one frozen embryo from our egg retrieval, and it was transferred yesterday. We have everything crossed that this embryo implants and we finally get to meet our first child.

We need the Government to continue funding IVF treatment. Please do everything you can to make this happen. You are in a unique position to understand the heartbreak of infertile people across Australia because of your own experience.

My heart goes out to you, Casey and Karen. Infertility is not something that you wanted. Infertility is not something that you chose. Thousands of others across Australia do not choose infertility. I say to all those in this parliament and in particular to those in the government who are parents and who have the privilege of being a father or a mother: why should we prevent those who, through no fault of their own, cannot have children?

Prime Minister, you have three beautiful children. Treasurer, you have children. I am the father of a 2½-year-old. Why cannot some of our fellow Australians, who do not have the finances and who depend on IVF treatment, have children or have the chance to be parents? In God’s name, why cannot they have the greatest blessing and the greatest privilege it must surely be, to be a father and a mother? (Time expired)