Vince Connelly (Stirling, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm pleased that I'm the first coalition speaker today because I have some wonderful news to report to parliament. Yesterday saw the listing of a drug called Oripro. Oripro is to prevent the premature labour of women and, in so doing, prevent premature births. Premature births are those prior to the 37-week mark. We know that these little babies require a lot more specialised care. We know that this places a great deal of stress on the parents in particular.

Just this weekend, I had the wonderful opportunity to meet for the first time my newest niece, little six-month-old Victoria, or Vori, as she's called by her parents as a nickname. She's a beautiful little baby to my brother, Steve, and his wife, Katie. She's now six months old and in wonderful health, but she did come prematurely. I know that placed a lot of stress on Steve and Katie, in particular. The listing of Oripro means that parents like Steve and Katie right around the country can now benefit from having that confidence that these instances of premature births will be greatly reduced.

Indeed, on budget night, the Treasurer announced $353 million in support of the health and wellbeing of Australian women. A really important part of that package is the listing of Oripro on the PBS. The rate of premature births, I was surprised to learn, is around eight per cent for non-Indigenous women and around 16 per cent for women of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Island descent. So that means that now for all of those women across Australia this drug will be able from 16 weeks through to gestation, saving up to around $300 per treatment. I note also that Oripro has actually been supporting Australian women for over 30 years now, but this listing on the PBS will help an additional over 14,000 women to access this really important medicine. Oripro is also plant based, so it's halal and vegan friendly, making it even more accessible.

In a further connection here, Oripro happens to be manufactured in my electorate of Stirling, in the suburb of Balcatta. I spoke with Stuart from Oripro yesterday and congratulated him and the company on the listing of Oripro. I'm really looking forward to getting out there to Perrigo, the manufacturer of Oripro, talking with Stuart and the rest of the team and congratulating them on the hard work that they do which is, indeed, supporting local jobs, manufacturing and, of course, this wonderful outcome where we can reduce the instances of premature births and alleviate a lot of that stress on parents at the same time.