Page 4516 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 31 October 2018
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consultation will begin very shortly. It will be focused on the journey of mums and their partners and their babies right from early pregnancy, through the pregnancy journey, through birthing and, really importantly, support in those early days, weeks and months of having a baby. Women and babies are at the heart of the new approach to the way maternity services are delivered. That includes, as I mentioned, pregnancy, birthing and ongoing support as new mums make this important journey. As has been noted, breastfeeding will be an integral part of that.
In terms of the ACT government’s broad support for breastfeeding as an important public health issue, women—prior to giving birth in the public hospital system or through publicly delivered services, including the new home birth trial—are provided with information about breastfeeding through written materials, antenatal classes and access to a range of resources. ACT Health also provides funding to the Australian Breastfeeding Association to deliver education and information services. All ACT directorates and many local businesses are breastfeeding friendly workplace accredited. This accreditation demonstrates an organisation’s commitment to breastfeeding mothers by giving them the time and space they need to breastfeed or express during working hours.
Mrs Jones mentioned the breastfeeding strategy. That is a national strategy and is in the process of being updated. There was recent community consultation around the country on that. I understand that the commonwealth will be looking to finalise that strategy in the near future. Once that national strategy is agreed, there will be a specific ACT implementation plan for that. This is happening under the auspices of the senior officials who support all state and territory and commonwealth health ministers through the COAG framework and being led by the Australian government. The national strategy seeks to create a society supportive of breastfeeding so that breastfeeding is the first option for all mums. It also recognises that this is not always possible and that all mums need support regardless of how they may feed their baby. The consultation closed in June. I understand that this will be provided to ministers in early 2019 for formalisation.
You never know what might get thrown up on private members’ day. But this is not the first time Ms Cheyne has brought a private member’s motion into this Assembly which reflects, in my view, the very best of what the Assembly does. The story of doorknocking; learning from members of the community about their experiences; talking to other members of the community about what their needs are, what is currently being met and how we could do more; working with many members of the community and with advocacy groups; learning about the issue; doing extensive research; and then bringing a very well-formed private member’s motion to the Assembly is something we have seen Ms Cheyne do before and will see her do in the future. It is an outstanding reflection of how this place works best. It is also clearly supported by everybody in the chamber.
I know and acknowledge Mrs Jones’s unceasing efforts to promote breastfeeding right across the community but particularly in this place. I think Mrs Jones mentioned that the first milk bank was established in 1909. In not many places in the world, in fact very few indeed, women actually had the opportunity to vote at that point, and therefore there were very few women in parliament—and to think that we could have
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