Yesterday I met with Megan Maack. Megan's a wonderful person who runs the Childhood Dementia Initiative. She has two children herself who have Sanfilippo syndrome, which is one of the causes of childhood dementia. These disorders are terrible. Children are born normally, but they eventually die of their diseases. I recently had a patient of mine, Laura, who had something called Rett syndrome. She had multiple seizures, was self-mutilating, eventually went blind, couldn't swallow, was fed via a gastrostomy and eventually passed away from her Rett syndrome.

Childhood dementias are due to a multitude of causes. All of them are rare, but together they are not uncommon. Over 90 children a year die from childhood dementias. Every electorate in the country has children with childhood dementias. As a paediatrician, they are really heartbreaking disorders. Many of them have no treatments, and the parents go through agony dealing with their multiple problems. Megan wants us to set up centres of excellence to help manage childhood dementias across Australia. She wants more research and more support for families who have children with childhood dementias. I give her my commitment that I will do my best while I'm in parliament to make sure her wishes come true. These are dreadful disorders. We must do more to support them. I commend Megan for her work.