Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to talk to the House today about one of my constituents, Rebecca, who asked me to deliver a message to our national leaders on her behalf. Rebecca is a young mum from Dingley Village. Like thousands of other Australians, she is suffering from brain cancer. It is a heartbreaking diagnosis, a horrible disease, and Rebecca is facing the horrifying possibility that her time with her family and with her young child is going to be cut short. My own family faced such a situation. My father was diagnosed with terminal cancer when I was about five, and he passed away when I was 11. So Rebecca's story is one that has touched me very deeply.

Mr Speaker, Rebecca wants to see more funding directed towards brain cancer. She wants me to tell you, and the other leaders of our country gathered here, that we are not doing enough to fight this terrible illness. I would like to seek the health minister's view on current levels of funding for brain cancer and his response to Rebecca's very passionate request for further support. I would like to understand what the government is doing to support people with a brain cancer diagnosis.

Rebecca knows that further medical research into brain cancer is not going to help her situation, but she is waging this fight to ensure that the next generation of people who are diagnosed with this illness are able to access better treatments. I am sure I speak for everyone in this parliament when I wish Rebecca courage and our thoughts and prayers as she continues her treatment.