Dr ALLEN (Higgins) (13:31): I rise to present a petition of more than 7,000 signatures from families affected by food allergies, calling on the Minister for Health to facilitate all necessary policy initiatives, legislation and administrative action required to establish an Australian program of food immunotherapy. Living with food allergies has been likened to walking a tightrope: living life in a perpetual state of hypervigilance that the next meal may result in a serious and life-threatening reaction called anaphylaxis. A new form of treatment, food immunotherapy, is being trialled overseas but is not yet available in Australia. The treatment takes many months, but in many cases it enables a child with a food allergy to live and eat food more safely, and it helps families to get off the allergy tightrope. I acknowledge the work of Melissa Mooney, Simone Albert and other parents with children suffering from severe food allergies who have presented this petition to the Petitions Committee. These families want to ensure that other families don't have to go through what they have. These families have travelled overseas to find a cure for their children and have spent many months and money being there to keep their children safe. If successful, the outcomes of this petition will negate that need. Trials for food allergies require government support in Australia because they involve giving a food, not a drug, and therefore pharmaceutical companies cannot profit. I present this petition to the House as approved by the Petitions Committee. The petition read as follows— Australia has the world's highest incidence of food allergies. One in ten infants, and one in 20 children in Australia have food allergies. Sufferers live with the ever present risk of life threatening anaphylaxis because there is no cure. While there is no cure, there is a form of treatment which is being trialled overseas which has transformed the lives of people living with food allergies. The treatment, called oral immunotherapy, involves planned and managed incremental exposure to an allergen under controlled clinical conditions. There are two types of oral immunotherapy. One that involves pharmaceutical products and one that involves the careful introduction of the allergenic food under clinical supervision. This latter type, known as food immunotherapy, is available overseas but is not yet offered in Australia. Increasing numbers of families are enduring significant financial and personal hardship in order to relocate overseas for many months to undertake the painstakingly slow and clinically supervised food immunotherapy program. Trials of food immunotherapy are not commercially funded as the treatment does not utilise pharmaceuticals. The petitioners therefore seek Government support to facilitate a trial of food immunotherapy in a practical, accessible form which would negate the need for Australians to relocate overseas for this treatment. Petition Request: We therefore ask the House to call on the Minister for Health to facilitate all necessary policy initiatives, legislation and administrative action required to establish an Australian trial of food immunotherapy. from 7,265 (Petition No. EN1040) Petition received.