John McVeigh (Groom, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today, at the risk of being seen by some to be politically incorrect, I would like to talk about a bloke thing. It's a Bloke's Thing is the name of a fundraising lunch that was held in my electorate of Groom just yesterday. It was the seventh iteration of this fundraising lunch, which is all about raising awareness and funds for prostate cancer. Yesterday it raised $1.5 million out of my own community of Toowoomba and the surrounding district, bringing the funds raised over the years since 2011 to $5.8 million. This makes the event one of the most significant lunchtime fundraisers in this nation. Not bad for a day's work, you might say, but we all certainly know that the organising behind such events takes much longer than just one day. I, therefore, want to particularly recognise the major sponsor, QantasLink, and the gold sponsors, including Range Event Hire, The Springs Garden World, Create Financial Solutions, Grand Central, Joyce Mayne, Creevey Russell Lawyers, Savanna, Queensland Truck Centre and Telstra. Other partners worthy of mention include Wellcamp Airport, the venue for the lunch; Stonestreets; The Punch Group; Salt Studios; Potters Hotel; Thru A Lens Media; Round Square Marketing; Snap; Signs N' Lines; Greenridge Press; and Visual Focus. They are worthy of mention because of their support for this very significant event.

The It's A Bloke Thing lunch yesterday, which, as I said, raised over $1.5 million, was attended by about 500 people. It featured food from celebrity chef Alastair McLeod. Journalist Ray Martin was there, as were yachtsman John Bertrand, singer Harrison Craig, and the Queensland world boxing champion, Jeff Horn. Moneys raised from this lunch—supported by those sponsors, the organisers and, of course, those VIP guests—will fund a full-time nurse in the region as well as ongoing research into the scourge of prostate cancer.

Some 16,665 males were diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2017. It's a tremendous effort by groups such as mine in Toowoomba to fund ongoing information and research. This cancer is certainly requiring of attention, and therefore I support very strongly the upcoming barbecue lunch by the Parliamentary Friends of Prostate Cancer Awareness here in Parliament House in the next sitting.

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