I acknowledge the First Australians on whose land we meet, and whose cultures we celebrate as among the oldest continuing cultures in human history.
I thank you all for your support in being here today to launch Organ Donor Awareness Week, and I can assure you that the Australian Government is absolutely committed to increasing the rate of organ and tissue donation in Australia and achieving world's best practice outcomes.
In July 2008 I announced the $150 million World's Best Practice Approach to Organ and Tissue Donation for Transplantation.
The national reform plan has three core elements:
* a coordinated, national approach to organ donation and transplantation;
* dedicated clinical staff on the ground in all our major hospitals; and
* increased community awareness about the importance of organ and tissue donation and the difference it can make.
I can tell you that the Australian Government is firmly committed to the full implementation of the Plan and increasing Australia's donation rates. We are working with governments in every state and territory, who are also committed to the plan through the Council of Australian Governments. Over the past 12 months we have laid the foundations of the new national system.
In order to spearhead the national reform process, we established the Organ and Tissue Authority on 1 January last year, and DonateLife agencies in each state and territory were formally established as a national network on 1 July last year. State medical directors are overseeing the clinical network in each jurisdiction and are linked back to the Organ and Tissue Authority.
The DonateLife network now has over 150 people on the ground, including new medical and nursing staff devoted to organ donation working in 76 local hospitals across the country.
Clinical triggers to underpin and improve the recognition of potential organ donors have been endorsed by:
* the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society
* the Australian College of Emergency Medicine
* the Australian College of Critical Care Nursing, and
* the College of Intensive Care Medicine.
And these triggers are being implemented throughout the hospital system.
In addition, around 50 organisations have signed up to the National Communications Charter to enable consistent and coordinated community awareness and education activities.
The challenge of lifting Australia's organ donation and transplantation rates was never going to be an easy task, but the pieces of the jigsaw are now being carefully slotted into place and we can begin the work in earnest.
While we still have a long way to go before the levels of organ donation rise to where they need to be in this country, the early signs are encouraging. Many passionately committed and highly professional people are now working together to implement the national reform plan.
It is now time to ensure that the resources and systems which are being put in place equate to what matters most - more organ donors and more life-saving transplants. Now is the time for all elements of the new national system to pull together and focus on achieving world's best practice outcomes; to make sure that every potential donor is recognised within our hospital system and that their family is given the opportunity to have their loved one's intention to donate carried out; to promote the "discover, decide, discuss" message so that every family is clear about their loved one's wishes if a tragedy does occur.
Groups like Gift Of Life - who work tirelessly at the local level to raise awareness of organ donation within the community - have an important role to play, but each and every one of us also has a role: to lead our friends, our workmates or our families in a conversation about organ donation.
A conversation that encourages them to: Discover. Decide. Discuss, three simple words that can literally be the difference between life and death. While it is up to all of us to discover, decide and discuss, families also have a responsibility to respect each other's wishes, because the families of potential donors always make the final decision about whether organ donation can take place.
Glenys Cody had to make that decision, but luckily she had discussed organ donation with her family.
As a mum, she had that conversation with her boys Lachlan, Hayden and eldest son, Angus, and because of that conversation, there are at least three people out there who will be forever thankful to Angus, yet they never even met him, because when 14-year-old Angus died after an accident in 2008, Glenys was able to say with 100 per cent certainty that organ donation was what her young son wanted.
Glenys and her boys talked about how once you're gone, you don't need your organs anymore. The boys agreed wholeheartedly, so when Angus was on life support, Glenys did not hesitate for a second. She wanted to make sure that, despite the tragedy of Angus's death, it would not be a waste.
Donating Angus' organs helped with the grieving process because as, Glenys said:
"We didn't get the miracle we had hoped for...but somebody else and their family did."
Nobody wants to be in the situation of having a loved one die, and nobody wants the added pressure of 'guessing' their loved one's wishes about organ donation - and no doctor or nurse wants to add to that pressure.
Deputy Director of DonateLife ACT, Dr Greg Hollis, said, and I quote:
"Explaining and normalising the end-of-life process, with a focus on dignity and respect for the individual, is key to reassuring the family of the integrity of the process."
And Nicole Coleman, the Clinical Nurse Consultant for Organ and Tissue Donation for Hunter and New England Health, said that the new funding has reinvigorated performance and boosted morale, bringing new ideas and new enthusiasm. Ms Coleman said, and again I quote:
"That means the message getting further out into the community and that has already translated to more notifications of people willing to donate."
At this moment, there are more than 1,700 Australians on official waiting lists - people hoping and praying that someone out there had a conversation about organ donation with their family, just like Glenys and Angus did. People just like Dean Jobson who we saw with Chris in the session a little earlier today.
Dean is just your average knockabout bloke, but this average knockabout bloke has been waiting for a heart transplant for 19 months and while he waits he can't work. His dad has had to retire from his job to be Dean's carer and Dean can't get out and play the cricket and hockey that were such a big part of his sporting and social life.
Dean could wallow in self-pity, but he doesn't. He has this fantastic attitude. He said, and I quote:
"You'd go nuts if you thought about it too much. You've just got to live with the cards you've been dealt and I'd prefer to be alive and on a transplant waiting list than the alternative. I've still got a chance."
Dean and his family are registered donors because, in Dean's words "it's just the right thing to do."
It is the right thing to do.
Research consistently tells us that the vast majority of Australians support organ donation, but we need to make sure that this translates to people making their wishes known to their families. We need a cultural shift where discussion about organ donation becomes commonplace.
If someone makes an informed decision to not become a donor, they will not be condemned, but fear and a lack of knowledge of organ donation will condemn many of those on waiting lists to an uncertain future.
When we launched DonateLife last November, my family and I made the decision to become a DonateLife family: a family who discovers the facts about organ and tissue donation; a family who makes informed decisions about whether to become organ donors; a family who discusses each other's wishes.
I implore all Australian families to do the same.
One in two Australians don't know the wishes of their family members, and one in three Australians don't know that their family's consent is required for donation to proceed. The fact is that even if you are registered as a donor, your family will be asked to give consent for donation to take place. If all Australians knew their loved one's wishes, we would have a much higher family consent rate and we could save more lives.
Today I am pleased to launch a new resource to support families in having what can be a challenging conversation. The Family Discussion Kit is a practical guide to help families have that conversation. It:
* provides facts about organ and tissue donation;
* dispels some of the more commonly-held myths; and
* shares stories of donor and recipient families.
The Family Discussion Kit is available as an online resource at www.donatelife.gov.au
If more Australian families discuss and accept each other's wishes about organ and tissue donation, we can achieve a higher family consent rate that our current rate of just 56 per cent. We can do better.
I want to emphasise again that the Government is committed to delivering major improvements to organ donation rates across Australia. With the national reform plan well and truly underway, we look forward to realising the benefits of this united effort.
I know that will be a great achievement for everyone involved in this cause - community groups, such as Gift of Life, doctors, nurses and governments alike.
To all those here today who are travelling their own journey with organ donation or transplantation, I wish you well, and to those who wish to help raise awareness for organ donation, you can start by joining me on the Terry Connolly ORGANised walk tomorrow morning at 7am.
I thank Anne and Gift of Life for organising the walk tomorrow and this event today, and I thank all those with a passion for this cause for your year-round commitment to increasing awareness of organ donation.
It is now my pleasure to officially launch Australian Organ Donor Awareness Week.