Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Together we can beat cancer. That is the principle that defines the Relay for Life. Recently I walked a few laps of the Camden event. More than a thousand people in 130 teams took part, raising $160,000—an outstanding contribution from the community. I also joined the recent Goulburn relay, where about 600 people in 40 teams raised more than $56,000. Gloria Watchirs and Noah Berrisford were this year's relay ambassadors.

Cancer does not discriminate. To beat it requires a sustained show of force or, in the words of Camden relay committee chairman Rowan Moore, a spirit of oneness. This spirit was palpable at Camden, where tiny kids in prams, families, local businesses, community groups, the elderly, the healthy and the sick came together in hope. They united to recognise and celebrate local cancer survivors, patients and their carers and to honour and remember loved ones.

Cancer accounts for about three in 10 deaths in Australia, and in southern New South Wales it is expected to worsen as the population ages. I lost my own mother to breast cancer 27 years ago, and it is so important to me that, where we can, we support cancer research fundraisers: Relay for Life, Daffodil Day and Australia's Biggest Morning Tea. Congratulations to the organisers of local Relay for Life events for the great work they do bringing us together as a community.