Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to talk about palliative care, an important issue for my own electorate, but also an important issue for the country. Last week I was down in Tasmania, in Longford, discussing elderly Australians' health issues. It was good to be down there with Senator Carol Brown, who hosted the forum with local candidate Brian Mitchell and local councillors Michael Polly and Dick Adams, a former member of this place—and it was good to see Dick. Some of the things we talked about were the importance of palliative care, the importance of retaining Australian Hearing in public ownership, aged care and GPs. But palliative care really did dominate that forum, and it certainly dominated my trip.

The previous government announced a package of some $63 million over four years for Tasmanians to receive better palliative care, and that package does point the way for the country. It was interesting to go out to Mersey hospital to attend, for a short period, a palliative care workshop, which was being run to educate health professionals and volunteers in the community. I think that program does have merit for the rest of the country. It was particularly interesting to go out to the Hobart District Nursing Service to look at the hospice@HOME program. That was a very interesting visit. We got a lot of feedback about that very important program with Rebecca White, the Tasmanian shadow health spokesperson, Fiona Onslow, the state-wide director of operations for the Hobart District Nursing Service, and Kim Macgowan, the chief executive. My thanks go to Kate Pendlebury, who organised the event.

It was good to chat to the staff, but it was particularly good to talk to families, including Api and Vince Bocchino about how they cared for Vince's father, Pasquale Bocchino, in the last stages of his life. It was particularly interesting to get Pasquale's life story. Coming from Italy, a musician, he could not speak English, so he ended up working in the building trades. He made a great contribution to the country, but one does wish that he could have gotten a go as a musician in Australia. It was tremendous to hear how this program helped Vince and his family look after his father and gave Pasquale the same dignity at his death that he had during his life. That is what palliative care is all about. It is a very important program being conducted in Tasmania that has very important lessons not just for my electorate but also for every one of our electorates across the country.