Page 488 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 21 March 2023
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These figures alone show why being on the register and having that conversation with your family about your wishes is so important, and they are further underlined when we know that there are so many people in the ACT and around Australia who are on a waitlist for a transplant—at least 1,800, not including people who are on kidney dialysis and may also require a transplant.
One of the not-for-profit organisation Gift of Life’s major functions is to create community awareness-raising campaigns and events to help increase those rates. Their annual walk is known to many of us and is now in its 17th year. Of course, like everything else, it has been affected by COVID over the past few years. In 2021 and 2022 the event moved online, being held virtually over a week in both those years, encouraging people to walk five kilometres in their bright Gift of Life or DonateLife t-shirts in their own time. While this is not the same as gathering all together and creating a sea of white and pink at Lake Burley Griffin, it did result in the walk attaining a reach that is now national. There has been a ripple effect, if you will.
This year is the first year back in a big way, with hundreds of people gathering at Rond Terrace. It is also important to note that this was just one of 80 walks being organised around the country this week, including many being held at schools in the ACT.
Thank you to all the volunteers who made this morning’s walk and this week of promotion so successful, especially to the Gift of Life board and the president, Catherine Scott. It takes an enormous amount of effort. I acknowledge that all of the Gift of Life board members are volunteers themselves and also have lived experience of organ donation.
It is easy to sign up and join the register at donatelife.gov.au.
Of course, in the ACT we are very proud—and I think I can speak for Minister Stephen-Smith and myself here—that we have led the way with some reforms in the organ donation space, particularly with recognition of organ donation to assist families and also so that families can share the stories of their loved ones’ gifts of life. We were very pleased to hear the commitment from the federal minister this morning, reaffirming that they are looking at addressing that through the national harmonisation of laws as well.
In the final few moments that I have left, I can say that coming up in May is the National Donor Heroes’ Night, which is another quite simple but very effective way that has also attracted national reach. You simply need to leave a light on at your doorstep or at your window to acknowledge our donor heroes. I encourage people to sign up to that and to share that across social media in May.
Shepherds Lookout—Brontë Haskins tribute
MR CAIN (Ginninderra) (4.47): It was my great honour and privilege to attend the unveiling of a memorial bench at Shepherds Lookout on Saturday, over lunch time,
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