Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness, but there are many myths and misconceptions about them. Whether it's anorexia nervosa, bulimia, binge eating disorder, pica or avoidant or restrictive disorders, or any other range of conditions, they are serious health issues affecting people of all ages and genders.

Eating disorders spiked during the pandemic and remain high, and the minister has rightly described it as a crisis. As our new Parliamentary Friends of Eating Disorder Awareness launches this week, co-chaired with my parliamentary colleagues the member for Goldstein and the member for Fisher, I acknowledge the work by the previous government in this space. I urge the states to create the extra hospital beds they've been funded to, and I welcome the recent $13 million in federal funding for the InsideOut Institute at Sydney University to increase understanding and translate research findings into practice.

But we all know that that is a start and there's more to do. Amy Cubitt, from the Banksia Practice, the only specialist eating disorder practice in the Blue Mountains, sees clients from as far as Penrith, Richmond and Bathurst and says demand outstrips availability. These are the pressures that practitioners are under. Along with organisations like the Butterfly Foundation, the friends group will support sufferers, families and medical practitioners in redacting stigma, raising awareness, and airing the challenges government and doctors face in addressing this crushing illness.