Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to raise awareness in the House that tomorrow, 11 October, will be World Sight Day. This is an important day that reminds people that eye health and eye care are very, very important.

One of the key messages for World Sight Day is that 75 per cent of blindness is avoidable. That is a huge statistic that suggests that for so many people getting an eye test and engaging in preventative and early intervention work when it comes to eye health can have a profound impact on someone's life. Vision impairment can have a devastating effect on people's lives. It can reduce their capacity to earn. It can reduce their quality of life and their functionality. Avoiding it if we possibly can is incredibly important, and World Sight Day tomorrow will be focusing on getting your eyes tested.

As part of World Sight Day, I had the great pleasure to visit a local optometrist, Margaret Kirkman in O'Halloran Hill in my electorate, who showed me some of the new technology that is being used to identify problems in eye care. There is a machine that can take a picture of the back of your eye and look at all the little blood vessels to see if there is any degeneration that can affect your vision. Not all the technology is that sophisticated. For some people it is simply having an optometrist or eye specialist look into the back of your eye for any early signs of degeneration.

The important message tomorrow that will be spruiked on World Sight Day is: go and get an eye test. I regularly get my eyes tested. I have very poor short vision and I know that when I put glasses on when I was 11 years old I finally realised that there were leaves on trees—it was not just a big mass of green—and grass had blades, which I could see for the first time. For me, it had an important effect.

For those people who experience vision impairment, it is important that we are also ensuring that they have a fulfilling and good quality of life by providing aids and equipment and that buildings are set up so that they can reach their potential.

It is important that we do not forget those who have not been able to prevent their vision impairment and that we ensure that they too are having a good quality of life. I would encourage all members of this place to get involved in World Sight Day—get your eyes tested—and ensure that vision impairment affects no more lives than it has to. (Time expired)