Ms Megan Etherton:

l thank the Senator for his questions and I shall speak to the first one. We, in our campaign, are very aware that we are preaching to the masses. All of our Instagram followers tend to be female. Many men have signed the campaign once they became aware of it. The Senator has mentioned that it was his first instinct to hand this issue over to somebody else because it is not his area of expertise and he has no direct experience. I am delighted to see that he changed his mind because we need male champions of change. In the same way that the mother and baby dyad needs a partner to support them, and actually a whole village of support around them, to help the mother and baby achieve breastfeeding, the whole idea of breastfeeding and making a societal change needs everybody involved because, as we mentioned earlier, the knock-on effects of breastfeeding or not breastfeeding affect everyone. Breastfeeding is a health equity issue that is not just limited to the mothers and infants that we are talking about.

In response to the question, potentially, it is easier for people who have had some direct experience of breastfeeding, whether they are male or female, to engage with this and feel that they have either a right or a responsibility to engage with it. We have tried to make breastfeeding as accessible to anyone regardless of their experience, and regardless of whether they used formula, would like to use formula, did breastfeed, did not breastfeed, will not breastfeed, do not have children, plan on having children or whatever. Breastfeeding is a bigger societal issue so our goal is to make sure that it is accessible and to get people, like the Senator, on board and feel engaged in the issue, and feel entitled to speak about the issue.