Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Aged Care, Disabilities and Carers) Share this | Hansard source

I want to indicate that I will be supporting both amendments (2) and (3) when they appear, but I thank Senator Nettle for separating them and I think she has enunciated quite clearly why it was important to do so. I am also appreciative of Senator Nettle’s amendment to the amendment as printed. I think that will be useful as well.

In 2002 we moved an amendment to the legislation we dealt with then in order to start this train along the track. As a result of the amendment that Senator Stott Despoja and I moved, Lockhart reviewed the usefulness of having a national stem cell bank in Australia. If you look at Lockhart’s commentary on the question of stem cells, it is pretty evident that he was of the view that there was real potential for their use in Australia. He particularly cited the United Kingdom model. I do not think that he or his committee was clear about how it might be achieved, and I think that is why the wording of his recommendation—a very bald recommendation, just recommending that we have a national stem cell bank—is framed in that way.

We are now four years down the track, and I think it is timely to start putting some time frames around it. The time frame that the legislation currently identifies is that, within six months, the minister will report to the parliament. I think that is another step down the road of achieving this outcome. Then there is a two-year requirement—that a minister should bring legislation to the parliament within two years—and I think that is quite achievable. There are a lot of issues in the establishment of a stem cell bank that we have to go through. We have to go through the question of public and private. There is a question of intellectual property but also of personal genetic information that needs to be ensured. I think you have covered off most of it in your amendment, but let us make sure that we ensure that people’s personal, private information is kept that way.