It is a pleasure to rise today to speak on this very important motion, which is about our government’s support for Victorians starting or growing their families and in those critical early years of their children’s lives. Can I say that the day that we start taking advice from those opposite about health investment will be a very peculiar day indeed.
Starting or growing a family is an enormous life-changing decision. From the moment that decision is made your entire world shifts and is never the same again, because you are no longer just a ‘you’; in a very existential way, whether you have a child or not, you are something beyond yourself. There are many parents in this chamber, and I have to say that while we all appreciate our roles as parliamentarians and those are important, we know that our roles as parents are even more so. As someone who was elected almost at bursting point with my second child and with a one-year-old in tow as well, I have been incredibly heartened by the changes in this institution of the Victorian Parliament in embracing members with young families.
We are soon to mark a major milestone in gender equality with the member elect for Mulgrave the wonderful Eden Foster bringing us to gender parity across the Parliament. The significance of that cannot be overstated. In tangible terms this shift in demographic has led to real improvements and strides towards the way that our Parliament recognises and supports families with children. I note for the benefit of new members who might be here from the 2022 cohort that when I was elected in 2018 to Parliament, the Parliament had no family room to feed or nap a newborn and there was no pram parking to make it easier to get a baby bundled out of the car and into the chamber. These were some of the challenges and the changes that were made early on. I was incredibly grateful for them, and I am heartened that other parents since then have benefited from them too, because I have incredible respect for every single member of this place and working parents across the board who manage that very difficult balance between work and family commitments.
The journey to parenthood is not always straightforward, and indeed it is different for everyone. I believe that our role as legislators and as a government is to give Victorians genuine choices, whether that is the choice to adopt, the choice to terminate or the choice to access IVF. Empowering people with options is what we have an obligation to do, because when the choice to conceive naturally is limited or taken away it is not just disappointing; it is devastating, it is frightening, it can put pressure on relationships, it can leave us in a state of uncertainty and it can erode our self-worth. All too often it also evokes centuries of painful stigma around the worth of women’s bodies as child bearers and that corrosive feeling that so many women relay about not feeling like a woman. Moments of joy, like seeing nephews and nieces or celebrating a friend’s pregnancy, turn into moments of quiet unspoken sadness. In the days before modern medicine those moments could stretch into lifetimes – lifetimes of longing, of self-doubt, of depression. Many of us would have family members for whom that loss and that longing for what could have been never faded. Many of us know people now who are on that difficult journey, except the difference is that now we have the extraordinary option of IVF.
While IVF is no guarantee and the journey of IVF itself can be emotionally and physically gruelling, it is hope, and no person should have that hope taken away from them simply because they cannot afford it. That is why I am incredibly proud of the investment the Allan Labor government is making in public IVF for couples with fertility challenges, single parents, LGBTIQ+ families and those with illness impacting fertility, such as those who have gone through chemotherapy, for instance. IVF can be the difference between being able to experience the joy of parenthood and not, yet too often and for too many these services have not been within financial reach, costing in some cases tens of thousands of dollars. That is why we are making assisted reproductive treatment fairer, more affordable and easier to access for all Victorians through our nation-leading public fertility care program and egg and sperm bank.
I join my other colleagues today in extending my heartfelt congratulations to the parents Erin and Anthony on the birth of their little Felix in October, the first baby to be born through our public IVF program. For those who have seen the picture of Felix, he is a beautiful little boy, and I understand he is doing very well. Already over 1100 Victorians have started their treatment journey out of sites led by the Royal Women’s and Monash Health, and partner sites are up and running in Epping, Mildura, Bendigo, Warrnambool, Geelong and Shepparton, with further sites set to open in Sunshine, Ballarat and Heidelberg in the coming weeks.
Thank you very much. Once fully operational, this $120 million program will support up to 5000 people each year, enabling more Victorians to realise their dream of having a family and saving families up to $10,000.
Earlier today the member for Dandenong spoke with eloquence and heart about her own IVF journey and her appreciation for the sperm donor who had made that birth possible. What we know is that in Victoria the demand for donor gametes has increased substantially, and access through the private system is often incredibly expensive and has long wait times. Our public egg and sperm bank is helping to change things for the many people who rely on the generosity of egg and sperm donors, and we are incredibly proud to see this state-of-the-art laboratory staffed with highly qualified fertility experts open at the Royal Women’s Hospital, the first of its kind in Australia. For those who may be considering becoming a donor, please do. You can give the most generous of gifts – the chance at having a family.
There are many aspects of this motion that I could explore, and there is never enough time to follow all the threads that you want to follow, but I want to acknowledge that growing a family is about so much more than birthing a child. As parents soon realise, the challenges only expand and become more complex once we are thrown in the deep end of actually caring for little humans. Supporting families and children in those early critical years – those days and months – is critical. It is why ever since I was first elected, I have made it a priority to push for more services locally for families in the inner north. As we went about that work in advocating for these services, countless parents in my community came forward to tell me about their experiences, so I have heard stories of social isolation, of postnatal depression, of birth trauma, of insomnia, of incontinence, of struggles with breastfeeding and of family violence – tragically. There is so very much that some parents endure in those early days, and yet, it is those early days – those first 2000 days – that shape and sometimes transform the trajectory of children’s lives. In the whirlwind of that haze and that urgency of being a primary caregiver for the first time, reaching out for help can be so hard. But what is critical is that help is there when you do reach out. It is why one of my proudest moments as the member for Northcote was being able to tell my community that they will have an early parenting centre (EPC) to service the inner north.
These centres are designed to feel like a home away from home. You and your family can come and stay overnight and be in the care of skilled practitioners and get the advice and hands-on skills that you need to help you on your unique parenting journey. Sleep and settling is a common reason to access an EPC, but there is also support for feeding and latching, behavioural issues and perinatal mental health, and these centres also provide tailored support to children with additional needs.
The Northcote EPC will of course be part of an expanded network that our government is committed to, where we are upgrading two existing centres and committing to additional new centres right across Victoria. As the Parliamentary Secretary for Women’s Health, I have had the pleasure of visiting some of these centres with my colleagues in Footscray, in Dandenong and in Canterbury and can I say that the staff at these centres have literally hundreds of years of experience caring for parents and babies. They are the best of the best, and our Labor government is doing the work to ensure that even more of these centres open across our state so that even more children and families can benefit from these programs.
There is so much I have not mentioned, from baby bundles to our booster maternal child health care, but I am very proud of our government’s work and proud to speak on this motion.
