Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to speak about an important issue impacting Australians: heart disease and the need to focus on heart health to prevent disease and improve quality of life. I want to acknowledge my parliamentary colleague Senator Wendy Askew, who has joined me as co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Heart Health in this 47th Parliament. The group will provide a non-partisan forum for parliamentarians to educate and advocate for the prevention and better care and management of cardiovascular disease in the community. I look forward to working with colleagues to help bring awareness to this area and increase advocacy for important reforms impacting in this space.

I want to touch on some important figures from my own electorate of Calwell relating to people living with cardiovascular risk factors and who carry an increased chance of developing heart disease. There are 105,908 individuals who are overweight or obese, 35,799 individuals with high blood pressure, 2,526 individuals with atrial fibrillation, 20,427 individuals with high cholesterol and 20,889 individuals who smoke. Data from the Stroke Foundation's report No postcode untouched: stroke in Australia2020 highlight that Calwell ranks 13th in the nation for the number of people who are overweight or obese. Furthermore, these data highlight that, in 2020, 35,799 people in Calwell had high blood pressure, with my electorate ranking 16th in the nation. While the overall standardised ratio for premature mortality for Calwell from any cause is proportionally less than the national rate, the standardised ratio of premature mortality due to ischaemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease and colorectal cancer are proportionally higher than the national rate.

Within the short space of time it will take for tonight's adjournment debate to begin and conclude, up to three Australians will have died from cardiovascular disease. Despite being a major killer of Australians and a reality which many will ultimately experience at some point in their lives, heart disease has long been understated as a problem and undertreated within our healthcare system.

I say 'undertreated' because one of the most concerning things today is that most people, and especially men, probably can't recall the last time they saw their GP wearing a stethoscope or seeking to do a heart test. Auscultation, where a doctor listens to your heart with a stethoscope, should be included as part of a health check—it should be a routine health check. This measure, which is the only measure a GP has at their disposal within a clinic, must return to being standard practice once again, as a routine, non-invasive test that takes mere seconds.

Health promotion charity and peak body hearts4heart has recently joined with a group of major cardiac groups to put forward a series of proposals to the Australian government to improve cardiovascular treatment across the country. The proposals range from simple practical measures to more wide-reaching changes in the background of the Australian healthcare system—approaches that range from adding a stethoscope to the Medicare Benefits Schedule's heart checks to the revision and permanency of heart health checks within the benefits schedule. These changes will strengthen heart health care by improving early diagnosis capability. As we well know when it comes to health, prevention is always preferable to treatment. It will ensure that those who require treatment and access to life-saving technologies do not face barriers which could endanger their health, by ensuring effective reform of medical technology regulation and assessment. I am pleased to provide my endorsement of and support for this proposal, and I thank the organisations which came together to propose these changes for their joint efforts.

I want to close with the words of hearts4heart CEO Tanya Hall, who lost her father to heart failure when he was just 59, and who herself has heart disease:

Unfortunately, dangerously low levels of awareness about heart disease are leaving Australians vulnerable. Not everyone experiences symptoms and the most common ones are often dismissed, either as other health issues or just signs of getting older, but they shouldn't be ignored.

And with delayed diagnosis and upward trends in Australian heart disease as reasons for concern, including a stethoscope in the MBS Heart Check is a simple ask but we can disrupt the cycle resulting in thousands of cardiac related deaths and hospitalisations each year.

The Parliamentary Friends of Heart Health look forward to working with hearts4heart, the Heart Foundation and other organisations and associations in advancing— (Time expired)

House adjourned at 20 : 00