Senator SIEWERT (9:35 AM) —I move:

   That the Senate—

(a)   notes that:

(i)   14 November is World Diabetes Day which in 2008 is focusing on children and adolescents particularly,

(ii)   there are currently 250 million people worldwide who are living with diabetes,

(iii)   in Australia an estimated 1.5 million people have the disease,

(iv)   people with diabetes are at an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, foot complications, blindness, dental problems, kidney failure and amputations,

(v)   2 per cent of all Australian deaths are due to diabetes,

(vi)   Indigenous Australians are three times more likely to suffer from diabetes that non-Indigenous Australians,

(vii)   8 per cent of all Indigenous Australian deaths are due to diabetes, and

(viii)   the relatively low use of the National Diabetes Services Scheme by Indigenous patients; and

(b)   calls on the Government to continue:

(i)   its efforts to ensure that people in regional, rural and remote communities have adequate access to the National Diabetes Services Scheme, and

(ii)   to explore means through which the access of Indigenous people to the National Diabetes Services Scheme can be improved.

Question agreed to.