Brett Whiteley (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I firstly thank the minister and the chamber for the opportunity to be part of this consideration in detail. Firstly, Minister, let me pay tribute to the work that you are doing in trying to rebuild the health system of this nation from the dysfunctional years before us. I was privileged in another place, in the state of Tasmania, to be the shadow health minister for four years, so this portfolio has a particular interest to me.

The issue about which I will ask a question in a moment is of specific interest to probably all of us in this chamber: bowel cancer. Probably everyone in the room has been touched by this dreadful disease. Interestingly, June is Bowel Cancer Awareness Month. I would encourage all of us to make sure that we are aware of the issues around this disease and would point people to Bowel Cancer Australia's website. I will be 54 shortly, so I am in the zone. Mr Deputy Speaker Kelly, you are in the zone; there are a few of us in the zone. Men and women over the age of 50 are at risk and need to take this matter very seriously. So, if you are over the age of 50 and bowel cancer is a matter of family history, that obviously highlights the need for us to be very much aware of the need to check on our own health.

Bowel cancer, to quote many who are working in this area, is preventable, treatable and beatable. They are words that we should all hang onto very dearly. Interestingly, though, bowel cancer in its earliest stages shows no symptoms, so in fact it is quite scary in some regard. There are no symptoms to be seen in the earliest stages of this dreadful disease. That is why it is so important that the issue of bowel screening is at the top of the mind of any government and any health minister. That is the question that I would like to put to the minister this evening.

Sadly, 17,000 people in the next 12 months will be diagnosed with bowel cancer. Of that, 54 per cent will be men and 46 per cent will be women. Over 4,000 people will die of this disease in the next 12 months. That is 10 per cent of all cancer deaths. The good news is that, through proactive work over the last 30-plus years, we have seen the number of bowel cancer deaths halved from about 32 in every 100,000 to 16 in every 100,000. All of us should welcome that movement in those statistics. The real challenge that lies ahead for us is to ensure that we stay on top of the game. All the research indicates that over 500 lives are saved through screening. Those lives could be the ones of our dearly loved family members, our friends or our colleagues. Therefore, it is really important.

Before I ask the question, I want to pay tribute to all those Rotary groups around Australia that have had a significant interest in bowel cancer for 30-plus years. The work that they do to raise awareness is not to be dismissed. I have spent a considerable amount of time with the minister in my electorate. I know that he is quite passionate about matters such as this. I know the minister knows that bowel cancer is indeed a horrible disease with, as I said, around 80 Australians dying each week from the disease. Minister, what is the government doing to reduce further the incidence of bowel cancer in this great country in which we live?

See this speech in context