Kelly Hoare (Charlton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to pay tribute to a very dear friend of mine who, sadly, passed away on 31 May. When Stan Major’s funeral arrangements were being made, his family asked me whether I would make a tribute at the service for the celebration of his life. As I said, Stan Major was a very good friend to me and my family, and I would like to read onto the record the tribute that I had the honour to present at his passing:

It is a very special privilege for me to have been asked to speak at this celebration of the life of our dear friend and colleague Stanley Major and I thank my dear friend Dorothy and the family for allowing me to do so.

I am pleased that Dot and the family have chosen to call this service a celebration of Stan’s life because there is much to celebrate about it.

Stan lived a full life but it is always tragic to see someone with his qualities taken from us. We really cannot afford to lose the Stan Majors of the world. I sometimes feel that there are fewer and fewer remaining. Fortunately Stan and Dot have a large family and through their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren the qualities of Stan Major can be assisted to live on.

Stan Major’s life was one of basic human decency, of personal integrity, commitment, loyalty, friendship and love. There was always that clear but indefinable bond between Stan and Dot. They shared their lives, provided mutual security and personally rejoiced in their extended family. They were always like two peas in a pod.

Stan was a very proud man. He gave a very brave commitment during the Second World War and spent most of that time in New Guinea. His war service and his pride in it demonstrated his wider commitment to Australia and to peace. From this service he has continued as a strong, proud and active member of the RSL sub-branch, another facet of Stan’s life that he devoted himself to and was proud of.

As I have said, and we all know, Stan Major was a very proud man. He was proud of his family, he was proud of his working life, he was proud of his background and upbringing, he was proud of his war service. He was a proud member of the Wangi RSL sub-branch and he was a proud member of the Australian Labor Party. Stan Major had every reason to be a proud man.

Stan was a Life Member of the Labor Party. That commitment was based on and motivated by his belief that humankind was capable of creating a better world in which people of all races and creeds are treated equally and with dignity and provided the opportunity to develop their talents and live secure and fulfilling lives.

Stan never sought to gain anything personally from his membership of the Labor Party. He never stood for public office, because his concern was always for what the Labor Party could do for Australia and the Australian people.

I want to leave a very special message with Stan and Dot’s four daughters and sons in law, nine grandchildren and six great-grandchildren: forever into the future you can be proud of Stan and proud to have been part of his family. You can always proudly proclaim that Stan Major was your father, grandfather or great-grandfather.

The deepest personal sympathy of both myself and Reg is extended to Dot and all members of the family. As your present feeling of great loss begins to ease you will all be able to take increasing comfort from the knowledge that Stan Major was so highly regarded and respected.

As I said, we have all lost a very dear friend and I thank the House for allowing me to read the tribute into Hansard.

I want to go on to talk about something that affects a lot of us: prostate cancer. Last year saw the launch of the Be a Man campaign by the Prostate Cancer Foundation. Along with probably many of our colleagues I attended a launch of this campaign. There were various launches held right around the country. I know that there were launches in Brisbane, in Sydney and in Western Australia, with the Western Australian Premier. We had ours in Newcastle on Wednesday, 7 June.

Members on both sides of the House have survived prostate cancer. As we know now, if detected early, the survival rate of men who have had prostate cancer is very high. The Be a Man campaign is all about making men aware—making men know about prostate cancer, making men know where their prostate is and using early detection, testing and screening to ensure that the death rates from prostate cancer start to decrease. The Prostate Cancer Foundation website has a list of the facts about prostate cancer. I want to share those with everybody in this place:

Prostate cancer is the second most common cause of death from cancer, after lung cancer.

Approximately 10,000 men are diagnosed with  prostate cancer every year in Australia.

2,600 men per year die from prostate cancer in Australia each year. Therefore approximately 9,500 men with prostate cancer die of some other cause. Most of these men are in the older age group—over 70 years of age.

Although men’s awareness of prostate cancer has increased over the past two years, only approximately 15% of men are appropriately tested with a combination of PSA and Digital Rectal Examination—

And, as I said:

Early, curable prostate cancer is without symptoms.

It can be difficult to differentiate between aggressive cancers and those with a more slow growing history.

One of the misconceptions about prostate cancer is that there are symptoms that men expect to have if they think they should be tested for prostate cancer—problems urinating, pain and those types of symptoms, which usually force a man to think about that part of his body. Unfortunately, those kinds of symptoms do not develop until the tumour in the prostate has reached a fairly advanced stage—and, as I said, when it does reach that advanced stage, the diagnosis is not good.

There were lots of people involved with the launch of the campaign. All of these people gave their time freely. The campaign has been supported by a great many people in our society. The line-up of the main launches included actors Magda Szubanski and Sandy Gore; singer Marcia Hines; Australian Idol host Andrew G; Australian singing legend Marty Rhone; Minister Jim Lloyd, the member for Robertson; shadow minister Wayne Swan, the member for Lilley; leading jockey Darren Beadman; star AFL footballer and Indigenous representative Michael Long; former Australian test cricketer Gavin Robertson; former AMA president Professor Kerryn Phelps; and leading urologists Professor Tony Costello, Professor Phillip Stricker and Dr Andre Lalak. In our area we are very lucky to have Professor Jim Denham, who is a leading person in his field. He conducts lots of clinical trials and is leading this push in our area to raise awareness of prostate cancer. (Time expired)