Mrs MOYLAN (9:10 PM) —I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak tonight because tomorrow a number of events will take place in Parliament House to highlight the importance of World Diabetes Day on 14 November. This place will not be sitting on that day. The day, organised by Diabetes Australia and the Australian Kidney Foundation, with assistance from the Parliamentary Diabetes Support Group, will highlight the consequences of diabetes complications. Kidney disease is one of the serious consequences of diabetes, and the risk of damage to kidneys if diabetes is not diagnosed and treated is very high indeed. In fact diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure in the developed world and accounts for approximately 35 to 40 per cent of all new cases each year. The theme for this year's World Diabetes Day is, `Diabetes could cost you your kidneys: Act now!'. I would like to thank the executive group of the Parliamentary Diabetes Support Group: the members for Blair, Lyons—it is a bipartisan group—and Moore and, particularly, Senator Barnett, from Tasmania, who has done a lot of the organising to pull this event together for tomorrow.

The Canberra Hospital's renal unit have kindly organised for a person with end-stage renal disease to visit Parliament House tomorrow and undergo dialysis in the old Members Bar, adjacent to the staff cafeteria. We would like to thank, in anticipation, Mr Bob Huddleston, who is the patient, for his generous participation tomorrow. This is a wonderful opportunity to find out more about diabetes and the serious consequences of it not being diagnosed and treated. We would like to extend a very warm invitation to members, senators, staff and any visitors to Parliament House tomorrow to call in to the old Members Bar, adjacent to the staff cafeteria.

Tomorrow we will have many distinguished guests visiting Parliament House, including Professor Martin Silink. He will be the guest speaker at a lunch. He is a professor of endocrinology and diabetes at the Children's Hospital at Westmead. He was recently elected, in Paris, as president of the International Diabetes Federation—and we congratulate him as the first Australian to be elected to this position. He will be talking on the topic, `Australia on the world stage of diabetes'. We will also have in parliament house tomorrow Professor Robert Atkins, who is president of the International Society of Nephrology. He will be speaking on the topic, `The pandemic of diabetes and kidney disease'. We will also have the honourable Ernest Bridge OAM, JP, a fellow Western Australian, talking about Indigenous issues in Australia. The Indigenous population are very susceptible to diabetes and all of the health problems that go with it. Also visiting Parliament House tomorrow will be Mr Paul Gooding, the vice-president of Diabetes Australia.

In addition to these activities, the Australian Centre for Diabetes Strategies at the Prince of Wales Hospital has arranged a consultation forum. The purpose of this forum tomorrow, which will be attended by many distinguished health professionals, is to explore ways of ensuring high-quality outcomes for people diagnosed with diabetes. A great deal of excellent work has gone on in Australia to better diagnose, recognise and treat diabetes, and educate the public and people with diabetes about the symptoms and how to manage their health needs. We are very fortunate to have these kinds of health professionals. The activities in tomorrow's forum will contribute to a final project report. This will outline the barriers, solutions and resolutions to better treat and evaluate diabetes and to educate people in the community.