I have spoken so many times in this place about my own experiences with IVF and how it helped both me and my husband have the family that we love and that we cherish today. I cannot be clearer when I say if it was not for IVF – and that was some 15 years ago when we started our journey – I would not be standing here as a mum and my husband would not be sitting over there across the road in the Fair Work Commission as a dad. IVF and fertility services and equal and fair access to them mean everything to people in Victoria, and there are many of them across this state who are struggling to get pregnant and struggling because of the cost – and the cost can be incredibly high – to access reproductive healthcare services.

It is a sentiment that I hear from so many women because I talk so publicly about our journey, the IVF journey, that roller-coaster journey to get pregnant. It is a sentiment I hear from so many women in my electorate who seek access to IVF treatment. I have to say in the time that I have been sitting on this side of the chamber this morning, I have not heard those opposite mention the many, many women in their electorates who are desperately trying to seek access to IVF and get pregnant. The fact that this government has made public IVF free has been absolutely groundbreaking. It is something that this government should be commended for.

I have said it time and time again – I said it 15 years ago, and it is just as relevant today as it was back then – that you can never underestimate the desire of a person to have a child, especially when there are complications or issues and challenges that may require fertility or reproductive care. Fifteen years ago, when Scott and I started undergoing the treatment, it was not something people talked about. It was hidden away. There were very few support groups, and the support groups did not meet face to face. They were little online chat groups, not these sort of WhatsApp groups or instant messenger groups and things like that. It was really private. It was not talked about and there was a sense of shame and stigma attached to it. But fortunately for women nowadays who are requiring fertility services to get pregnant and who are undergoing IVF, it is something we talk about. It is one of the reasons why I stand here and I talk time and time again in this place about the importance of making access fair and equal and not just based on how much money you have in your bank account at the time.

Before I continue, I do want to give a big shout-out. On behalf of this side of the chamber, I want to give a big shout-out of support to all the women and the families who are undergoing IVF treatment and reproductive services to try and get pregnant right now. Keep going. It is a really tough journey. We will stand here alongside you. There are many of us here on this side of the chamber who have also had to walk that journey. It can be very isolating. There are services that you can reach out to for support, and I would recommend anyone undergoing IVF reach out to those support services. I am happy to say that Scott and I reached out to receive counselling while undergoing our IVF journey, and that was really helpful to get us through that journey to finally find ourselves pregnant thanks to IVF, but it was also something that was really helpful for our relationship during that really challenging time to stay on track and for us stay together. Services are available.

I am really proud to say that we are the first state to have an IVF baby, born all the way back in 1980. As someone who was born in 1980, that first IVF baby would be turning 44 this year, which is just such a remarkable achievement. Four years later, after that in 1980, we were the first state to implement legislative safeguards for this treatment.

It is also a good opportunity to remember the incredible strides that this government, the Allan Labor government, has made in this space in the course of nearly 10 years. It was this government that initiated the Gorton review back in 2018, which has actually informed so many of the reforms that we have made here in this place to make it easier and more accessible for folks to undergo IVF. We removed the requirement – this is such a ridiculous requirement; I remember the debate that took place here in this place – for women to get police checks to undergo IVF treatment. We removed the requirement for women who were separated from their spouse to obtain permission to do IVF. Can you believe that? We made it easier for existing families to use the same donor, so that their children can be 100 per cent biological siblings. That is something that if you have not had to sort of make these decisions in your journey to get pregnant, you cannot imagine how important that would be for families who are facing those decisions. We also allowed for a deceased person to attest in their will to how their gametes – sperm, eggs and embryos – can be used by their spouse or partner in accordance with their wishes. I mean you really hope that that does not happen to you, but for the people in this state that it has, we have changed the laws to make it easier to be able to determine what you want to do with sperm, eggs and embryos after the very sad death of a spouse or partner.

Most importantly, in 2021 our government funded the establishment of Victoria’s first public IVF fertility care service. That was groundbreaking, absolutely groundbreaking. This has been extended as an opportunity to thousands and thousands of families right across Victoria. I really cannot overstate my support for this service and the benefits it is bringing to so many families, saving them up to – it is just revolting how much it costs to do IVF if you are having to pay it upfront –10 grand, $10,000 in IVF costs. It really is a game changer for so many families across Victoria, so many couples or so many individuals who are wanting to become a family and have a child. Even more recently, just last year in fact, we opened the first public egg and sperm bank in Australia, right here in Victoria, at the Royal Women’s Hospital. This means, on the flip side, that it has never been easier for people to donate sperm and eggs. For people undergoing IVF, who do need access to sperm or do need access to eggs, you cannot underestimate what an incredible groundbreaking thing this was to do for folks seeking to become a family.

What we wanted to do was to make IVF even more accessible for families in Victoria, and that is what this bill is about. That is why I am so excited to stand here in my proud Labor colours – or uniform as some have mentioned to me today. It makes me so proud to stand here and say what we are wanting to do is to make IVF more accessible for families in Victoria. That is why it is so important to speak on this bill, and that is why I know I have so many colleagues alongside me on this side of the chamber – noting that across the chamber it is quite empty. That is why we are so excited to hear this debate, why we are so excited to speak for a whole 10 minutes on this, why we are so excited to get up and back in this incredible bill. It really is an incredible bill, it really is. I do have to commend the minister for time and time and time again bringing this kind of legislative reform before the house. Labor is all about making Victoria a fairer and more equitable state and making it more inclusive for everyone, regardless of how much money you have in your bank account. This bill, the changes in this bill, goes towards those principles that the Allan Labor government is so intent on, sprinkling and spreading the love right across Victoria. It is about equality, it is about being able to become the parent that you want to be, and I commend the bill to the house.