Wednesday, 4 February 2026

 Anthony CIANFLONE (Pascoe Vale) (10:35): In rising I would just like to begin by echoing the words of the member for Preston in respect to the late Tim Picton, who was a great friend to all of us. I rise to speak on the Legal and Social Issues Committee inquiry into increasing the number of registered organ and tissue donors that was tabled in March 2024. In doing so I acknowledge and commend the Victorian government for its official response to the report on 4 December outlining its support for the report’s 41 recommendations. As a result of the committee’s good work and of course the Victorian government and the Minister for Health, whom I acknowledge and thank for her work, we will now be making it easier for Victorians to register as organ and tissue donors because every registration can help save a life.

In Victoria the number of deceased organ donors and lives saved was the highest in the nation in 2024, reflecting the generosity of Victorians and their families and the dedication of specialist staff who facilitate compassionate conversations to save and transform lives across our community. However, in the past three years the proportion of Victorians registered as donors has decreased, with the state’s registration rate on the Australian Organ Donor Register now lower than the national average, reaffirming the need for urgent action to increase these numbers. It also tests the efforts of donation specialist staff at the Victorian health services engaging with donor families and facilitating compassionate and meaningful conversations, ultimately driving those successful donation outcomes. However, increasing the number of registered donors has been a challenge since the COVID-19 pandemic, with a downward trend persisting in Victoria and most Australian states and territories over the last three years. Without the gift of organ donation, many Australians would simply not get that second chance of life. The Victorian government is absolutely committed, through its response to this report, to improving health care and saving lives through increased organ and tissue donation registration rates. The government’s response outlined support for 17 of the inquiry’s recommendations in full, with a further 24 supported either in principle or in part, to boost Victoria’s registered donation numbers.

I would like to draw the house’s attention to a couple of those significant parts of the responses that the Labor government will take immediate action on to expand donor registration pathways, including updating Victoria’s drivers licence system to prompt and direct people to sign up to the Australian Organ Donor Register. We will be providing links to the registration website. It also will be added across several Service Victoria cards, including for those applying for a digital drivers licence from mid-2026 this year. This is in addition of course to the recent launch of a dedicated information page on the Service Victoria app and website to connect users directly to DonateLife’s registration website.

The government has committed to boosting community awareness in areas where there are low donor rates and supporting specialist staff to facilitate those compassionate and culturally appropriate conversations with Victorians. The government will, in principle, work to help keep building capacity for DonateLife and the Donor Tissue Bank of Victoria to continually improve the recruitment and retention of organ and tissue donor specialists. The government supports Victoria’s Department of Health and DonateLife Victoria to work with the Organ and Tissue Authority to improve public reporting of donation specialist training, including by publishing jurisdictional level data about attendance and effectiveness of family donation conversation workshops. The government will advocate to the Australian government for additional Organ and Tissue Authority funding to increase awareness campaigns about organ tissue donation that use postcode data to target localities with low registration rates and tailor messaging based on that demographic data. The government has said it will support in full and will consult with DonateLife to undertake targeted awareness campaigns about organ and tissue donation using Victorian registration and demographic data and publicly reporting the effectiveness of the activities undertaken. The government will support and ensure that all avenues it uses to promote organ tissue donor registration include, where possible, personal stories from donor recipients and donor families as well as content to dispel myths and misconceptions about donation and encourage people to discuss donation with their family.

The government’s response is part of the ongoing work to improve donation and transplantation outcomes, which also includes the organ and tissue authority strategy 2022–2027. The government’s response also builds on and responds to the work of the Parliamentary Friends of Transplant Australia’s work and advocacy, which has remained committed to supporting and advancing the bipartisan recommendations from this parliamentary inquiry to increase the number of registered donors across respective Victorian communities. I was very proud to co-found that with the member for Euroa from the other side. I acknowledge the Minister for Health for her fantastic support of the parliamentary friends group as well as the member for St Albans and so many other colleagues who are members of that organ donation group – Transplant Australia, Organ and Tissue Authority representatives, DonateLife, Dr Raj Khillan and Dr Preeti Khillan, who do magnificent work with our multi communities, and Aayushi Khillan from Body Buddies too.