Tuesday, 18 February 2025

 Sarah MANSFIELD (Western Victoria) (13:34): Last week I had the pleasure of visiting the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. The work they do is absolutely fantastic, such as groundbreaking genetic and stem cell research, capacity-building initiatives to improve paediatric access across rural Victoria and the world-leading cohort study Generation Victoria, or GenV. Recently data from the ABS showed a slight dip in life expectancy for babies born between 2021 and 2023. In other words, life expectancy for a child born today is going backwards. Whilst the decrease was quite small – around one month for males and just over two for females – the data has researchers concerned because it reflects broad trends around growing inequities in the early experiences of children. Adverse childhood experiences in the early years is linked to chronic disease, poor mental health and developmental delays that follow children into adolescence and ultimately adulthood. But there is plenty we can do and should be doing to reduce these inequities and ensure that our children have long but also good lives – adequate housing, equitable access to services like child and family health nursing, family income support and childcare subsidies and community-wide initiatives to bring down the cost of living. It was inspiring to hear of the work that the dedicated team at the Murdoch Children’s Institute are doing every day, and it is our job in this place to ensure that families and children are properly supported to do the rest.