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It is a pleasure to rise today to speak on the Legislative Assembly’s Legal and Social Issues Committee report, that report being Register and Talk About It: Inquiry into Increasing the Number of Registered Organ and Tissue Donors. Through reading the inquiry’s final report I have learned a great deal on this topic. Although I had some limited understanding of the issue, this inquiry – as all inquiries do – allowed us to unpick further the challenges and the opportunities of a particular issue, in this case organ donation.

I learned that despite 81 per cent of Victorians supporting organ and tissue donation, Victoria still has the lowest registration rate in Australian states and territories at just 23 per cent. And among young people that statistic is even lower: just over 10 per cent of Victorians aged 16 to 25 have registered to be an organ or tissue donor. Therefore it really was an important part of this inquiry to understand why registrations are so low and what can be done to encourage more Victorians to register to become a donor.

Organ donation is one of the most selfless acts a human being can probably perform. When we decide to become an organ donor we do decide to give someone a second chance to live. It is a gift beyond measure. I had the absolute pleasure of meeting a constituent earlier this year who came and saw me. He was a recipient of a heart. Ross openly shared his journey with me and described his life before and after the transplant, and Ross has given me permission today to speak a little bit about this in order to raise awareness and understanding of organ donation. I must say that Ross is one of those people that when you meet them you will remember forever, and it is something that stays with me. There was something about his outlook on life – his sense of humour but his seriousness about raising awareness of organ donation and his gratefulness at being able to have a second chance of life. In September 2022 Ross had a heart transplant after a disease that he had had caused his health to rapidly deteriorate. The surgery for a new heart, as you can imagine, is very taxing on the body mentally and physically. Ross had to be in an induced coma for a couple of days, and he spent time in an intensive care unit to recover. He is, a few years on, very well but now is on a lifetime of anti-rejection medication. When I spoke to Ross he made it very clear that he had concerns about the low uptake, the barriers faced with organ donation and the need for all to be involved, including government, to do all that we can to improve the process and registration rates. He read this final report and made a few suggestions, including to improve the data captured by the Organ and Tissue Authority once someone has registered to be a donor, including that what conversations have taken place with family members or next of kin and on what date ought to be recorded. Ross believes that this would actually have a significant impact in improving those consent rates.

I would like to thank the Legislative Assembly Legal and Social Issues Committee’s work in providing recommendations for the government to consider. After reading this final report, it talked to me about the importance of organ donation. It really is a call to action for us to take part in that collective commitment to save lives. The recommendations laid out in the report are more than guidelines; they are a call to action. Signing up to be an organ donor is a simple process. It only takes a few minutes. This inquiry found that donors can help up to seven people through organ donation or 200 people through tissue donation. But the success of these recommendations does depend on one thing, and that is all of us. Each and every one of us has the power to register as a donor and have conversations with our loved ones to spread the message that organ donations are a profound act of generosity.

I would like to finish on Ross’s incredible words. He said:

Being a recipient now has allowed me many things for which I am forever grateful to be donor hero and donor family.

I have seen my son go on his first overseas holiday to Europe in which he loved and now wants to travel more. I have supported my other son turn professional in golf and is now playing on the Australasian circuit And I can fully support my wife.

All is possible because of the donor. The more we spread awareness can only be a positive.