Nicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) recognises that 120,000 Australians live with type 1 diabetes, and the:

(a) cause of the disease is unknown; and

(b) majority of people with the condition are diagnosed before they are 19 years of age;

(2) acknowledges the many Australian families raising children diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and the incredible efforts they make to support their loved ones;

(3) supports the important work of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) in raising awareness and funds for vital research and prevention of the disease, which includes $152 million invested in Australian research to date; and

(4) notes that:

(a) 1 October 2020 marked the beginning of the JDRF One Walk Step Challenge, encouraging participants to raise funds by walking 120,000 steps in October for the 120,000 Australians living with the disease; and

(b) 14 November 2020 is World Diabetes Day, promoting the role of nurses in the prevention and management of diabetes.

Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak

Nicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Over 120,000 Australians currently live with type 1 diabetes, a condition which requires careful lifelong management, cannot be prevented, has no known cure and can be fatal. Type 1diabetes is an autoimmune condition causing the pancreas to create very little or no insulin at all. Formerly known as juvenile diabetes, the majority of people with the condition are diagnosed before they reach the age of 19. With such a high proportion of those impacted at such a young age, there is a clear and significant burden on these individuals and their families with children affected by type 1 diabetes. In response, these families undertake incredible efforts to support their loved ones.

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, or JDRF Australia, is one organisation that provides families with the necessary tools to support and care for people living with type 1 diabetes—and I am wearing my very best JDRF blue jacket here today. Formed by a small group of families in 1982, JDRF Australia is a not-for-profit organisation with a mission to accelerate life-changing breakthroughs to cure, prevent and treat type 1 diabetes and its complications through a variety of fundraising efforts. They collaborate with academic institutions, policymakers and corporate and industry partners to develop and deliver a pipeline of innovative therapies for people living with type 1 diabetes. To date, JDRF Australia has raised $152 million, which has been invested in type 1 diabetes research across the country. This is an incredible effort.

I recently met with local Boothby residents Andrew Supple and his son Hayden, along with Kylie Greenfield and her son Ethan to catch up on the valuable work that JDRF Australia does. Ethan and Hayden both have type 1 diabetes and, since their respective diagnoses, the two families have become fierce advocates for all those living with the condition. Both families are regular visitors to my office, letting me know what life is like for members of our community living with type 1 diabetes and what policy changes they would like to see in this area.

Becoming ambassadors for JDRF Australia, the Supples and the Greenfields have been assisting in fundraising drives and advocating for new and emerging treatments for Australians with type 1 diabetes. The JDRF One Walk Step Challenge forms just one part of their many fundraising efforts. This year, the challenge began on 1 October and it runs for the entire month. Participants are challenged to walk 120,000 steps, raising awareness for each of the 120,000 Australians diagnosed with the condition and raising funds for research into type 1 diabetes prevention, improved treatments and working towards a cure. Kylie Greenfield is one of the many participants in this challenge, walking for her son Ethan, and, as at this morning, Kylie had already reached 144,000 steps. So she is absolutely overachieving. Rose Supple is walking for her son Hayden Supple. Rose is fast approaching her target steps and has already smashed her fundraising target of $500. JDRF Australia also plays an important role by providing a range of support services to parents and families who may have a child newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.

The federal government has long recognised the importance of type 1 diabetes research and the need to support sufferers and their families. In 2016, we initially committed $54 million to subsidise continuous glucose monitoring and $35 million to diabetes research. Our investment in CGM now totals more than $300 million, and in 2019 we committed a further $56 million of funding towards research. Of this, our government has allocated $31 million worth of funding to JDRF to support its type 1 diabetes clinical research network. In 2018-19, the government also provided $690,000 for JDRF to administer the Insulin Pump Program. This program provides fully subsidised insulin pumps and subsidised insulin pump consumables for financially disadvantaged families who have children aged 18 years and under with type 1 diabetes. In the 2018-19 budget, additional funding of $6.2 million was provided so that 280 children with type 1 diabetes can access fully subsidised insulin pumps each year.

The Supples and Greenfields have raised with me the potential for other new, improved technologies. We know that there is always more to do. I will keep working with them to do whatever we can to support all families with type 1 diabetes in our communities.

Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Around 120,000 Australians live with type 1 diabetes. For every moment of every day of their lives, these people, from infants to adults, live a much more difficult life than most other people, constantly having to make choices about food as well as having regular health checks, insulin injections, associated health conditions, social exclusion and so on. Diabetes is a life-limiting condition that burdens the people affected and their family members. Their likelihood of developing other serious medical conditions, including eye problems, kidney damage, cardiovascular disease, loss of limbs, damage to their nervous system and so on, is many times higher than for most other Australians. Worst of all, they have a shorter life expectancy than others, by some 12 years.

For these people and their families, their hope lies in medical research—research that has already made a difference to giving them a better quality of life. This research is being critically supported by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's type 1 diabetes clinical research network, with around 250 researchers across Australia in 65 institutes. The ongoing work of the clinical research network is vital to ultimately curing this debilitating and life-threatening disease and, in the interim, improving the quality of life for all of those impacted by diabetes. Research, however, is dependent on funding. The total yearly cost of people living with type 1 diabetes is estimated to be about $570 million. It therefore makes sense for governments to increase the research funding that is currently available.

In my electorate of Makin there are over 700 people with type 1 diabetes. One of those people is young Julian McLeod, who is a national advocate for JDRF. Julian was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes before he was two years old. Julian and his family—dad, Damien, mum, Angela, and siblings, Felicity, Gabriel and Elliot—know what it's like to live every moment of his life with diabetes. They also know that research holds the key to a better life, and they have all enrolled in the ENDIA research program. Two years ago, Julian came to Canberra with his dad to the JDRF's Kids in the House event. I have been so inspired by his courage and positive attitude to life. But we could and should be doing more for Julian and every one of the other 120,000 Australians with type 1 diabetes. The government should consider raising the carers allowance for young people from 16 years of age to at least 18 years of age. At 18, these young people are still very likely to be in their families' care. Ketone strips, which cost around $14 for 10 strips, should be subsidised just as blood glucose test strips are. When your blood sugar level rises above around 15 parts, it's important to have the ketone test. It's just as important as the blood glucose test, and yet those strips aren't made available. In Julian's case, he's also now under a mental health support program—and I suspect most other kids are—which has helped him immensely. There's an ongoing list of other support measures that these young people need that are not subsidised or, if they are, aren't subsidised sufficiently. Again, the needs are there, and governments should be doing much more.

I note that 14 November is World Diabetes Day. It's a day when we focus on diabetes around the world and the people who provide support. The focus of this year's World Diabetes Day is the nurses in our society. In fact, more than half of the medical workforce around the world is comprised of nurses. They are the people who, in most cases, are the direct connection between families and the care that the patients need. They are the ones who most patients, including diabetes patients, often have the greatest interaction with. I say to those nurses: thank you for all you are doing, each and every day, to not only support people who need all kinds of health support but, in particular, support those who are trying to manage diabetes. It's an illness that affects so many people each and every day of their lives, as I said. People can live with diabetes so much better if they know that they have that kind of support there for them when they need it and have people with them who have the expertise, and many of the nurses do, to give them the guidance and care that they need as they live through this terrible illness.

John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to thank the member for Boothby for bringing forward this important debate. I spend a lot of time here talking about preventable disease and about how getting out and keeping active helps people be healthier and connected, leading to longer, happier lives. Type 2 diabetes is exactly one of those conditions which is eminently preventable by a healthy lifestyle. But type 1, which we are talking about today, is not. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that destroys the body's ability to process sugar by attacking the beta cells in the pancreas that produce the hormone insulin. While we don't know why people get type 1 diabetes, once it is diagnosed in young people it is with them for life. There is no cure. But there are treatments. Some are tried and true; some are new and cutting edge. The best known of all is coming up for a significant birthday. Next year will be 100 years since insulin was discovered as a treatment for diabetes. It was first developed by Frederick Banting and Charles Best, who took insulin from a dog's pancreas and treated a diabetic dog with it, keeping the dog alive until their limited supply of insulin ran out. From there, a purer form of insulin was developed from the pancreas of a cow. In 1922, a 14-year-old Canadian boy named Leonard Thompson became the first person to receive an injection of insulin, which rapidly saved him from a certain and imminent death. This led to the 1923 Nobel Prize for developers and, soon after, one of our local Bennelong companies, Eli Lilly, started making insulin. Later, in the early eighties, they also developed a biosynthetic human insulin.

Bennelong is Australia's capital of innovation. Local Bennelong firms, like Sanofi, have continued in this tradition, with continuing investment and innovation in medicines to help overcome type 1 diabetes. Their efforts are giving hope to thousands around Australia. They have been joined in this effort by the Australian government, which continues to fund initiatives to make life better for those with diabetes. Continuous glucose monitoring, or CGM, is one such area. The government has invested more than $300 million to ensure over 58,000 people have free access to continuous monitoring. CGM replaces the arduous finger pricking and provides reports on their condition, even when sleeping. I'm pleased to say, from 1 March, the FreeStyle Libre flash glucose monitoring system has been added to the range of products subsidised by the CGM initiative. I am even more pleased to say that this is made by Abbott, another company based in Bennelong. Further benefits are added with an insulin pump which automatically provides insulin to the body as needed. This is subsidised to the tune of some $6.2 million, and locally based Medtronic are one of the companies that makes them. I have mentioned a lot of local companies. They are helping to make life better for those with type 1 diabetes, but more important than local business are the local residents they do this for.

Maddie Minard, an 11-year-old who is in year 5 at St Gerard's primary school, has lived with type 1 diabetes, a chronic illness, through no fault of her own for six years. Maddie uses an insulin pump and the government funded CGM program and other technologies have changed the way Maddie manages her diabetes. Kids like Maddie need to be constantly monitored. No two days are the same, and her type 1 diabetes can have devastating complications if not managed correctly. Ultimately, Maddie's mum, Catherine, looks forward to the day that her daughter used to have type 1 diabetes. Maddie and her mum have become dedicated JDRF advocates and fundraisers, and this year they are participating in the JDRF One Walk Virtual Step Challenge. I started this speech noting that people with type 1 diabetes can't prevent it through exercise, but through this challenge we can all exercise to support JDRF's wonderful mission: treat, prevent and ultimately cure type 1 diabetes. Maddie and her mum have completed 80,000 steps so far, raising $784 and hope to reach their personal goal of $1,000. It's inspiring to see businesses, individuals and the community coming together to help people like Maddie. I wish Maddie all the best with her campaign, and I look forward to meeting with her once she has completed her step challenge. Thank you, everyone, for pulling together for this important issue.

Anne Aly (Cowan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like to start by commending the member for Boothby for bringing the attention of the Chamber to type 1 diabetes and, in particular, World Diabetes Day on 14 November, as well as the work that the JDRF, the juvenile diabetes research fund, does. It's very easy in this time of a global pandemic to forget about the families that are living with ongoing conditions, including type 1 diabetes. Even through the pandemic, JDRF and other diabetes foundations are continuing the work of their research and their fundraising. While we don't know what causes type 1 diabetes, researchers are currently looking for triggers, such as viral infections or molecules within the environment and foods. It's important to note that 90 per cent of people living with type 1 diabetes have no family history; it doesn't appear to be a genetic disease, and the majority of people diagnosed with type 1 diabetes are diagnosed before the age of 19.

I'd like to pay heed to Mike Wilson, the CEO of the JDRF, the juvenile diabetes research fund, and Richard Goyder and the Goyder family. Richard Goyder is the co-chair of the JDRF. Normally around this time of the year, my husband and I would be attending the JDRF gala in Perth, lending our support to the JDRF and their mission to continue their research into juvenile diabetes and to find a cure for juvenile diabetes. Normally at this time JDRF would be doing a number of fundraising activities, and COVID hasn't stopped them in their efforts. Last year, I attended the JDRF walk in Perth; I MCed the event as well as completed the walk with a team. This year the walk is still going ahead, but people are welcome to join the walk from their own home. The JDRF note that diabetes doesn't stop for a pandemic, so they've got to keep fighting in the most COVID-safe way. People are able to join the JDRF One Walk online. It's a global movement of over a million people with the goal of raising $85 million for type 1 diabetes research. So far, 5,765 soldiers have enlisted in the JDRF Blue Army. They've raised $1,017,637, and a total of—I hope I get this right!—271,597,321 steps have been marched across Australia in support of JDRF.

I also want to make mention of the Type 1 Diabetes Family Centre in Perth, which is staffed by volunteers. It gets no government funding. It's a facility to support families of children and people living with type 1 diabetes. This year I'm really, really proud that they awarded their Superstar Siblings award to Kaitlyn Reynolds, who lives in my electorate of Cowan. The Reynolds family is just such a beautiful, loving family. Their son Lachlan was only recently diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. It's a really proud moment for Kaitlyn to be awarded Superstar Sibling for 2020 by the Type 1 Diabetes Family Centre.

I want to read a little bit about why Kaitlyn got this award. The Type 1 Diabetes Family Centre states that Kaitlyn, who is 16 years old, has shown an enormous amount of strength with the recent loss of her father. She has stepped up and helped with her little brother Lachlan's care through his type 1 journey. Lachlan has significant needle phobia and sensory issues and she has been his support person with every set and sensor change. She holds his hand, hugs him tight and reassures him when he feels like he hates his condition. Lachlan loves his big sister. He calls her his best friend. Kaitlyn is constantly researching and learning about type 1 and how she can help her little brother, whether it's by preparing simple healthy snacks or sensory toys, which she uses her own pocket money to buy, to make him feel comfortable throughout his journey. She goes without so many times so that her little brother never feels left out. Congratulations Kaitlyn, Patricia and Lachlan, and to the Reynolds family.

Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There are many thousands of people across Australia that carry the burden of type 1 diabetes. It is estimated that more than 463 million people live with diabetes around the world, including more than 1.1 million children. The Commonwealth government appreciates the difficulties that type 1 diabetes imposes on a person's daily life. That is why the coalition continues to fund a range of initiatives to provide support and assistance to people with type 1 diabetes. In 2015-16, around $2.7 billion, or 2.3 per cent of total disease expenditure in the Australian health system, was attributed to diabetes, and this support has continued to grow. In February 2019, the Australian government announced $56 million for research into type 1 diabetes through the Medical Research Future Fund. Half of this will be dedicated to diabetes research under the $125 million Medical Research Future Fund Targeted Translation Research Accelerator program to help progress—

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 11:57 to 12:31

The other half will support JDRF Australia, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, to advance its Type 1 Diabetes Clinical Research Network with an additional $6 million over four years, to be provided to further assist with the strategic vision and national leadership of the Australian Type 1 Diabetes Clinical Research Network.

I recently caught up with a young man from Birchip in my electorate, Blair Gould. Blair has been living with type 1 diabetes since the age of 10. Now 18, Blair has started an organisation called Mallee Kids T1D and is a strong advocate for people living with diabetes. At Blair's request, I met with Mel from JDRF Australia to discuss the foundation's ongoing work to cure, treat and prevent type 1 diabetes. Mel told me that there are 980 people living with type 1 diabetes in Mallee, with 120 of these people being under the age of 18. To these people, I say that I am with you, I appreciate the challenges you face and I offer my support in every way possible. Mel also told me about the foundation's environmental determining factors study, which currently has 1,500 participants. The study is an example of the foundation's world-leading research and is looking at people with a family history of type 1 diabetes, aiming to discover if there are environmental factors that cause the disease.

One of the challenges facing the foundation is how best to translate their laboratory research into clinical trials. I understand there is a gap between the research conducted in the lab and that which is conducted on people with the disease. One of the foundation's main aims is to identify talented young researchers to help bridge this gap and lead the research into the future. The $31 million funding being provided to JDRF Australia over four years will help to improve the lives of people living with type 1 diabetes. Mel told me that she is confident we will see significant advancements in JDRF's research over the next four years, which I am really excited about.

The Commonwealth government also continues to support eligible people with fully subsidised continuous glucose monitoring products, which equates to a $300 million investment over four years. Eligible people include people under the age of 21 years; other children and young people with conditions similar to type 1 diabetes who require insulin; women with type 1 diabetes who are pregnant, planning for pregnancy or immediately post pregnancy; as well as people over the age of 21 who have concessional status. Currently, approximately half of all people living with type 1 diabetes have free access to continuous glucose-monitoring products. I know that access to these products has been a life changer for Blair. He said, 'With CGM products, type 1 diabetes is much easier to manage, making it easier overnight and helping out when it comes to physical activity and sport. I hope the other 120 young people living with type 1 diabetes in Mallee are being supported as well.' Whether it's through funding for world-leading research, or support for people with type 1 diabetes, the Commonwealth government is committed to reducing the burden on people living with this disease. I support this motion and commend it to the House.

Fiona Phillips (Gilmore, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Type 1 diabetes is indeed a common disease, one that most people have heard of. While it's true that the majority of people are diagnosed before they are 19 years of age, that by no means makes this a children's disease. Type 1 diabetes is a lifelong condition that can be very difficult to manage, and can be deadly, as well as having serious complications like kidney failure, nerve damage, heart disease, stroke and blindness.

Organisations like the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation are doing great things in our communities, raising awareness and funding for research into this terrible disease. They are also inspiring young locals to do their bit to help. Last year, Nowra's Ailssia Hughes started raising money for the foundation with a pledge to hike the Kokoda trail. Ailssia is an inspiring woman who, after experiencing a severe hypoglycaemic episode, wanted to make a difference in the lives of people living with diabetes.

The truth is that we need to understand this disease better, but we also need to fund the treatment of it better. There have been a number of advancements in the technologies available to treat diabetes, but, for many people, the costs are prohibitively expensive. Continuous glucose-monitoring devices are small, wearable monitors that measure and display glucose levels throughout the day and night. They send alarms and warnings if your glucose levels are outside the set target range, and let you know if your levels are rising or falling. The National Diabetes Services Scheme does provide some subsidies for CGM products for those under the age of 21 years, those with concession cards and pregnant women. If you aren't receiving a subsidy though, these products can cost $4,000 to $5,000 every year.

As I said, diabetes might be diagnosed in childhood, but it is far from a children's disease. I'm regularly contacted by local people who are struggling with the costs of treating their diabetes, or that of their children. Three years ago, at the age of 20, Kia's daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Kia's daughter is studying to be a nurse—absolutely fantastic news!—but, because of her age, she could only receive funding for CGM for eight months, until she turned 21. Since then, Kia has had to find $250 a month to pay for this critical piece of equipment, which she sees as vital to keeping her daughter alive. Sadly, that wasn't the end of it for Kia and her family. This year her son was also diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Unfortunately, he was four days short of qualifying for the government's subsidies under the National Diabetes Services Scheme. Kia's son is an apprentice, something we all should be encouraging in today's world, but he earns just too much for a low-income healthcare card. Now, Kia's family is looking for $500 every month to help her children manage their health conditions. Due to COVID-19, Kia was stood down for six weeks. Both she and her husband have had their hours reduced, and they are struggling. As Kia said in her email to me: 'Unfortunately, the risk of fatal hypos do not diminish the moment you turn 21. But our priority will always be with providing the best care we can for our children.'

Helping local people manage chronic health conditions like diabetes actually saves the government money in the long run. When chronic health conditions are managed, it keeps people out of doctors' surgeries, out of emergency rooms, out of our hospitals. It means people can go to work and contribute fully to our economy, instead of spending time away from work trying to manage the complications of their condition. We know we can manage diabetes and we know that, when it is properly managed, people living with diabetes can live full and healthy lives.

Another constituent I spoke with was told by her doctor that she should say she wants to have a baby, that way she could get help. At 21 years of age, this was unsurprisingly an upsetting and inappropriate thing for a young woman to have to do. So, while we are seeing great things in the private sector from organisations like the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, there is a huge gap being left by government in this space. We need to be helping and supporting our community to deal with their diabetes, not only to help them but also to help our health system. The government has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for real reform. This is just one area where they could be focusing their attention to help people like Kia and her family.

Gladys Liu (Chisholm, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the member for Boothby's motion highlighting the continuing public health challenge type 1 diabetes presents to many people across Australia, including in my own electorate of Chisholm. This year has been a challenging one for Australians at large as well as for the health sector in particular. COVID-19 has taken up much of the energy and resources that would in normal times be directed elsewhere. But we must not forget the many other serious conditions that haven't gone away, the many other Australians who still need and must get our help. At least 120,000 Australians live with type 1 diabetes. The cause of the disease is unknown, and most sufferers will be diagnosed before they turn 19 years old. This government acknowledges the quiet, diligent, inspiring efforts made, day in, day out, by families and loved ones in supporting those affected by type 1 diabetes. Having always being deaf in one ear, I understand how much of a difference it can make to have the understanding and support of friends and family in dealing with a permanent health condition, and this is even more the case for those suffering from type 1 diabetes, a condition that necessitates consistent and careful management. I know I join my colleagues in praising and supporting the vital work being done by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, an organisation devoted to the kinds of therapies, treatments and policy initiatives that make such a difference in the lives of those 120,000 people living with type 1 diabetes.

Like so many across Australia, I am taking part in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's One Walk Step Challenge this month, helping to raise money for research into type 1 diabetes prevention, treatments and eventual cure. But it is not just the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation that we support, vital though their work is; this government has already committed to $56 million in research funding for type 1 diabetes through the Medical Research Future Fund. This includes $31 million towards the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation as well as a further $25 million dedicated to broader diabetes research under our $125 million chronic disease fund. This backing is essential for progressing early stage health and medical research discoveries and moving them forward to clinical trials.

This government continues to fund Diabetes Australia to administer the National Diabetes Services Scheme, and that funding, we are proud to say, will total over $913 million over the 2019 to 2023 financial period. This government is dedicated to responsible increases in funding each year for the continuous glucose monitoring initiative. Indeed, changes spearheaded by Minister Hunt this year mean that half of all people with type 1 diabetes will have free access to CGM products, again helping those who are most vulnerable. And, of course, this government will continue to fund the life-changing Insulin Pump Program, providing fully subsidised insulin pumps as well as subsidised insulin-pumped consumables to those disadvantaged families with under-18 diabetic children who have no other means of securing the funds for insulin pumps themselves.

Finally, I join the member for Boothby in looking forward to World Diabetes Day on 14 November, celebrating the indispensable work done by nurses on the front line in preventing and managing diabetes.

Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like to congratulate the member for Boothby for bringing on this motion. It's a very important one. Indeed, I thank her for the details in her motion that support the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, of which I have been a longstanding supporter.

I have a little bit of a history lesson. It's 99 years since Frederick Banting and his colleague Charles Best were able to purify bovine insulin for the first time, in 1921, and then subsequently use it for treatment of type 1 diabetes. Frederick Banting was somewhat of a medical hero of mine. He was a polymath, a fantastic artist, a poet, a writer, a promoter of indigenous health of the Alaskan people—he pointed out that the lifestyle factors that were impacting upon them and their children were having lifelong health effects—and a painter; some of his paintings that I have seen are absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, he was tragically killed in a plane accident, in his 40s. I think he would have had a lot more to contribute in medicine if he had survived. He also had a longstanding interest in aviation medicine. He was, with his colleague John Macleod, the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Prize in medicine, at age 32, and he remains the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Prize in medicine. His discovery of bovine insulin led to the treatment of type 1 diabetes. Before that, people with diabetes died a slow and lingering death, as there was really very little treatment other than diet and fluids. Now, of course, they survive for many, many productive years.

Frederick Banting should be remembered as one of the greats in world medicine. In fact there is the Flame of Hope, opposite the Frederick Banting House in London, Ontario, in Canada. It was lit by Queen Elizabeth II in 1989, and that flame will not be extinguished until a cure is found for type 1 diabetes. I hope to live long enough to see that cure and see that flame extinguished.

There have been many, many changes in diabetes management over the more than 40 years I have worked as a paediatrician. When I started medicine, diabetes was managed using pork or beef insulin. The testing was done by urine testing; people with diabetes used to have their urine tested rather than their blood. When I first started work as a resident in a children's hospital in 1979 was when they first developed home blood glucose monitoring; this is now standard practice. Some years ago bioengineered human insulin became available, and this led to a lot fewer side effects, less development of insulin antibodies and much better management of childhood diabetes.

I remember incredibly well the hardships that families faced in managing their young children with diabetes. I have seen newborn infants with type 1 diabetes and even toddlers presenting with type 1 diabetes. I have seen the trauma that this has put families through. I remember a little girl, Renee. She was just a gorgeous little toddler who, at 15 months, presented with type 1 diabetes. People who have toddlers know the difficulties of trying to get a toddler to eat regularly, to have their blood tested regularly and make sure they get their insulin regularly without screaming; it is incredible. With this family I went through the traumas of having a toddler with type 1 diabetes. She is now, I am pleased to report, a young woman with a family of her own and is very healthy, thanks to the advances of the insulin pump and flash glucose monitoring. She is really doing fantastically well and it was an absolute delight to see her, but I remember the traumas that those families used to go through.

I would also like to pay tribute to my nursing and medical colleagues. I helped set up a diabetes clinic at Campbelltown Hospital, in my electorate. This was a way of giving comprehensive overall care to those with type 1 diabetes in childhood. My colleagues did a fantastic job. In particular, I would like to pay tribute to our diabetes educator, who for over 20 years ran the clinic almost by herself: Sister Terri O'Sullivan. She is still doing it now. I pay huge tribute to her and the support she gives to families. I support this motion and I thank you for listening. It really is a great story.

Debate adjourned.