Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Services, Territories and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

I start by thanking the member for Perth for bringing forward this really important motion for discussion in our parliament. We don't talk about prostate cancer enough. As blokes, generally, we're really bad at looking after our health. We're not great at going and seeing the doctor. We're not great at booking in a regular appointment and making sure that we get a blood test to make sure that everything's okay. We tend to leave it all and just assume that everything's going to be okay or be too afraid to find out that something might be wrong with us.

It's particularly the case with prostate cancer. There's a misinformed view out there in the community that if you go and get a check-up to see if you've got prostate cancer then you've got to get a finger up the backside, and as blokes we say, 'Oh, we don't want that,' so blokes don't get checked up at all. The tragedy in all of that is that that's not true. You can get a really simple blood test. It's called a PSA test. You can get that test as part of your regular blood test that everyone should get once a year as part of checking on cholesterol, diabetes or anything else. Just check it out, particularly if your family has a history of prostate cancer and you're in your 40s. If there is no history in the family, you should be starting to do it in your 50s. That's what David, the gentleman in the video referred to in the motion, did. Just make it a regular part of looking after yourself to make sure that you're okay, because the key with prostate cancer is that in the early stages there are no symptoms, but if you can get it early enough then it's not a death sentence. So the key, to all the blokes watching and listening out there, is: go and get a PSA test.

I really want to thank the member for Perth for bringing forward this motion for the parliament to talk about. In particular I want to thank David Dyke, the gentleman who has produced this video that's available on YouTube. I encourage people listening to and watching this debate to click on that video and watch it. It's a very powerful, revealing, personal and honest story that will, hopefully, not only encourage blokes to go and get a PSA test but also help men who have just received a positive test to know what comes next, what their options are and what they can do. The video starts where David's just been told that his PSA levels are elevated and he might have prostate cancer. He goes and sees a specialist, they do a biopsy and they confirm that he does have prostate cancer. Then the doctor talks to him about what his options are and what all the potential side effects are; the side effects are real, and blokes worry about all those different things. David talks about it with his doctor, and, on the video, he tells people what he's up against and what he's got to do. We see the actual operation. We see the camera inside of him and how they remove the prostate cancer. We see all the rehabilitation as he goes through all the exercises to recover and return to a pretty normal life.

As I said, it's a really personal story but it's important to note that David is not alone. He talks about this being a lonely thing that he has to do himself, but, as the member for Perth and others have said, this is not something that happens to just one or two Australians. More Australians die from prostate cancer every year than from breast cancer. More than 3,000 Aussies will die from prostate cancer this year, and nine will die today. My grandfather died from prostate cancer. Your chances of survival are so much greater if you get it early. That's why taking the blood test, and incorporating it into your regular blood tests, is so important. Remember, David had no symptoms at all but the PSA test saved his life.

Every year we do a big barbecue here with the Prostate Cancer Foundation. It's coming up again in September. For the last two years, with Warren Entsch, the member for Leichhardt, we've extended that so that Pathology Australia can run PSA testing for us here in the building. Two years ago 50 blokes in the building did the PSA test. A couple of months later one security guard came up to me and said: 'Thank you for doing that. I've got prostate cancer.' It might have saved his life. Last year 200 blokes did the PSA test. A member of parliament rang me the other day and said: 'Thank you for doing that. I've got prostate cancer.' We've got to get the message out to as many people as we possibly can. Blokes, don't be worried about this; be worried about not looking after your health. Get the blood test and save your life. It's so important and so easy. Click on this video and watch how you can do it.

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