PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS

Dr FREELANDER (Macarthur) (19:17): I knew Katie Allen in a professional capacity prior to her entering this place as the second paediatrician to be elected to the House of Representatives. I dealt with her professionally in her role as the head of the Centre for Food and Allergy Research in the Murdoch Children's Research Institute. She had a national and, indeed, a worldwide reputation as a paediatric allergist and paediatric gastroenterologist.

She specialised in allergy and, in particular, some of the rarer manifestations of allergies, such as eosinophilic enteritis and anaphylaxis. She had qualifications far greater than mine in an academic capacity. She was an inaugural fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.

She started the longest and biggest prospective study of allergy and anaphylaxis in the developed world, called HealthNuts, which is still ongoing. She had a PhD, and her PhD thesis was on liver cell transplantation using a mouse model of Wilson's disease, a very rare but well-known cause of liver failure. She, as has been mentioned, had an Order of Australia given posthumously, which was well deserved and only a small recognition of her talents.

I respected her greatly prior to her coming here, and, when she came here, I respected her even more. I was expecting a rather patrician, aloof person elected as the member for Higgins, but what I found was just a really decent, lovely person, willing to engage on all levels, even though we represented different parties and had different political views. She was a really deep thinker, a really decent person and someone—like many paediatricians—who understood the implications of the social determinants of health and was willing to work hard to make sure that Australia led the way in paediatric health care.

She was brave and she was steadfast. She was someone who stood up for her views. I well remember the fight she had in this place with one of my colleagues, where she stood her ground— An honourable member interjecting— Dr FREELANDER: Well, it was certainly one particular one, and she stood her ground very, very strongly.

I respected her views, and I think she respected mine. We were both placed on the national COVID-19 health and medical research advisory committee run by the NHMRC, appointed by Professor Michael Kidd, the then deputy director of Health. She served wonderfully on that committee.

Her insights and her views on the management of the COVID-19 pandemic were very well respected across the parliament, across the medical research group and across the state healthcare systems. She had some incredible input into that committee and did a lot to help manage the pandemic in its most acute phase. I think those in parliament at that stage recognised her contributions.

In the wider field of paediatric allergy, she provided a huge amount of input to our report delivered early in 2020, Walking the allergy tightrope. Some of her recommendations—part of our wider recommendations—are in place today and helping manage paediatric allergy across the country. It's just one of her many, many contributions to health care in this country.

I had many discussions with her about health care. We thought it was rather ironic that, of the two paediatricians in the place, I was the one that would have loved her family history of being part of the Morris family, famous in winemaking. Katie was a non-drinker, and I could have drunk the cellar dry, I'm sure, many times over.

She made a wonderful contribution while she was in this parliament and afterwards. She was incredibly brave. To her husband, Malcolm, and her children, Monty, Jemima, Arabella and Archie: I would like to let you know that I won't forget her, and neither will anyone who worked in health care during the pandemic in those years.

She was taken far too young.