Kristina Keneally (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is not my first speech. Six babies a day in Australia are stillborn. Those are six lives lost every day in Australia due to stillbirth. One in 135 births in Australia will be a stillbirth. Surely we, as a nation, can do better than this. Stillbirth is an often overlooked, underinvestigated and ignored public health issue. It has significant economic impact. Surely we, as a country, can do better than this? There are things that we know that we're not telling parents that could help them prevent stillbirth, and there are things we could know better with better data collection and more coordinated and better funded research. I'd like to note the strong bipartisan support this motion has, and I thank the Senate for its support in setting up the select committee inquiry.