Global MND Awareness Day 2022

Mr HAWKE (Mitchell) (13:30): Today I want to thank all my colleagues who are wearing their cornflowers in observance of Global MND Awareness Day 2022, which fell on a date in June when we weren't sitting. It recognises all sufferers of MND and people who have lost their lives to MND in the past year. It's my privilege today to join Senator Carol Brown as a co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Motor Neurone Disease—it's the first time we've formalised this group—to support MND sufferers in Australia, advocate for better research and funding and, of course, do whatever we can to fight this insidious disease. I thank all colleagues in both the House and the Senate who have joined our group and will join us in that fight and advocacy. I particularly pay tribute to Judith Durham—who passed away this year and who was a patron of MND and a significant fundraiser over many years—and to her contribution and effort to get better research into and a cure for MND.

I want to also thank Jason Smith, who suffers from MND and spoke powerfully today on the NDIS and some of the improvements that we need to make in the treatment of MND, MS and other neurological diseases inside the NDIS. I call on the government to join us in advocating, as a group, as a committee and as a parliament, for improvements to the NDIS and the treatment of people with serious neurological conditions, and I know the government will do that. I also want to pay tribute to Tania Piper, a carer who spoke powerfully on behalf of her mother, who has MND as well. And I want to pay tribute to all of the sufferers this year, the MND associations around Australia and the state and federal organisations for the work that they do every single day for the sufferers and carers. We will find a cure, and, as a parliament, we will assist them.