I rise to speak on the Assisted Reproductive Treatment Amendment Bill 2020. Like the member for Dandenong, this is a topic that is very close to my heart. I have been very open in this place about my experiences with IVF, and anyone who has had this experience understands the emotional and physical toll that it takes not only on yourself but also on your partner. It is not something you easily forget, nor is it an experience that you quite get over having to do.

None of us ever grew up thinking we would have to be injecting ourselves with needles and would need a roomful of scientists and fertility specialists to get us pregnant. And I have to say I was particularly moved listening to the member for Dandenong’s story about her own experiences with IVF treatment. It is something that certainly resonates with me and reminds me of just how important our stories and our experiences are when it comes to making positive change.

At its core this bill is making positive change by making it easier and more equitable for women and couples wanting to start a family. It is about removing the invasive requirement to undergo police background and child protection checks, making the process just that little bit easier and less stressful for people wanting to become parents. It is about removing a process that would unfairly discriminate between people who can conceive naturally and those—and there are a lot of us—that need to access IVF. This is the right thing to do. It is the fair thing to do.

IVF has become a vital service for so many women and their partners wishing to start a family. Over 25 000 women a year—and I find that number staggering—in Victoria undergo IVF treatment to help them conceive. In 2018 our government initiated a 12-month independent review of the Victorian assisted reproductive treatment framework, and it became very clear through this review that background check requirements, behind the cost of the treatment itself, was the most raised concern during consultation sessions with women and their partners.

Now, when I look back at my own experiences with IVF, it makes me realise that as a society we still do not talk enough about infertility and how it affects women in our community. In a society that can be extremely sexist and places value on childbirth for women, infertility is seen as such a source of shame and disgrace. Most certainly when I first started undergoing IVF treatment over 10 years ago now no-one ever talked about infertility. No-one certainly ever admitted to going through IVF. There were so many myths and misconceptions and stigmas associated with it. I remember the only support I had, or support I felt like I had at the time, was an online group of women going through the same thing, and back then, over 10 years ago, chat rooms were actually not the norm. We were people that felt very isolated, very afraid, but we were very, very desperate to get pregnant. We had to hide all of this, and we had to just go about our daily life within the community as though nothing was wrong and the world around us was not falling apart.

I underwent IVF treatment in Queensland all those years ago and I certainly do not remember there being a police check. There were of course a lot of other invasive procedures that were quite horrifying to me as a young 27-year-old newlywed, but most certainly not a police check. After coming to Victoria I remember having a conversation with my husband about whether we wanted to try to have another child, and what that meant for us was that we would have to open a Pandora’s box and do IVF again. I remember being astounded that I would have to undergo a police check. I mean, I had had three full IVF cycles, numerous transfers, three children. I had spent tens of thousands of dollars in the process. It had caused strain on my marriage, and now, having crossed the border where procedures were no different because the science remained the same, I suddenly had to have a police check.

That seemed wrong, like I was being discriminated against for something that was not my fault. It is not like I woke up at 27 and thought IVF seemed like a fun way in which to have my children. God knows, like so many women, I cried my heart out. I screamed in anger and frustration at the unfairness of the situation, because when you are told that you will never be able to conceive a child naturally, the world around you is suddenly filled with babies and couples that fall pregnant at the drop of a hat. ‘The smell of an oily rag’ is the term I guess I hate most after spending years and years listening to women tell me that is how quickly they got pregnant. To this day I am not even sure what that term or that saying actually means or where it came from. But my point is this: being told that you are not part of the herd, that you will need IVF to get pregnant, well, that feels enormously unfair. Then being told that you will have to undergo a police check to prove you are a decent person, well, that is just entirely unfair. It is no secret in our society that parents who did not go through IVF are not all decent human beings or great parents. What I have learned over the past 11 years since starting IVF is that life is not necessarily fair and does not work out the way you would want it to.

But I am standing here in this place today happy to contribute to this bill debate because what it shows is that despite life not being fair and working out the way you want it to, policy and legislation like this bill can be. This is something we have the power over, in which we can make positive change because, have no doubt, women across this state will be grateful that they do not have to suffer the humiliation of having to fill out the paperwork for a police check. You can never actually underestimate how significant that is and what this change will bring in. In some ways times have changed with the feelings and the emotional roller-coaster for couples, but, as we have just heard in the contribution of the member for Dandenong, with the feelings you go through with IVF when you are told you will need to go and do such treatment to conceive a baby, I do not think much has changed at all. Those feelings, that roller-coaster, remains the same.

The bias against infertile women was certainly on display at the end of last year when the Queensland opposition leader decided to shame Premier Palaszczuk for not having children, as if it was some indicator that she was actually unfit to be Premier. Now, Premier Palaszczuk has opened up about her diagnosis of endometriosis and her struggles with infertility. Even before this we saw the same toxic nonsense levelled against our first female Prime Minister for the same reasons, with right-wing pollies and shock jocks calling her ‘deliberately barren’. It is very unfortunate that these attacks on female politicians are nothing new, and it is even more disappointing when it is women bringing each other down. Knowing that and still making those types of comments is absolutely appalling and incredibly offensive to the thousands of women in this country who struggle with infertility or simply do not wish to have children.

I had a phone call recently to my office from a wonderful young woman called Tegan. Tegan lives in Tarneit and she heard that our government was seeking to remove these barriers with the police checks. She was very excited. She called my office immediately to share her own experience and express her joy that we are doing this. Tegan, when she was five, was diagnosed with a very rare blood disorder, similar to cancer, and underwent extensive chemo treatment, which left her medically infertile. Tegan was lucky that when she decided to access IVF treatment to have a baby she had already been through police and child protection checks due to the nature of her employment. But even then she felt that having to go through another round of them, on top of all of the other tests which she has already had to do—the cost and the emotional journey that the process creates—was extremely unfair and unnecessarily upsetting to her. Tegan hopes to start IVF in May, and her younger sister—bless her—has offered to be an egg donor. She asked me to share her story with you because she believes that by being open and talking about her experience she will not only cut through the stigma that still exists around IVF but most importantly it will help her family and her friends to offer her the support that she and her partner need to get pregnant on this journey that they are about to undertake. So to Tegan, thank you for sharing your story with us, and we wish you the best of luck on your journey to parenthood that is ahead of you.

To the many couples out there undergoing IVF and the many more that will need it, I say to you that there are many, many women here in this chamber, and, I dare say, men, who understand your struggles. We have walked in your shoes. Keep your chin up, keep going and never, ever forget that we have got your back, because this is just the beginning. It is for these reasons that I commend this bill to the house.