Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today is a very important day for Bowel Cancer Australia as Red Apple Day is celebrated in communities right across Australia. I'm proud to once again be shining a spotlight on bowel cancer awareness and as part of Red Apple Day I've been pleased to host a red apple themed afternoon tea in Parliament House today to raise awareness of our second-biggest cancer killer. I was delighted to be joined by two bowel cancer ambassadors, Stephanie Bansemer-Brown and Donna Hope, both here as bowel cancer survivors, along with Associate Professor Graham Newstead, a colorectal surgeon with Bowel Cancer Australia, to share their stories with us as part of Red Apple Day, to raise awareness and to save lives. Thank you to those many MPs and senators who joined us for the annual giving day, when Australians support the vital work of this charity. As I look around the chamber I'm proud to see members of parliament and our senators wearing the green lapel ribbon in support of Bowel Cancer Australia, including Mr Deputy Speaker Andrews, the member for Menzies, and the member for Longman. I'm very proud of the fact that people care about this issue. The great news is bowel cancer is both treatable and beatable, and I bet you there's no-one in this parliament that doesn't know someone who's been touched by bowel cancer. If detected early, it can be successfully treated, which means families and patients can continue to enjoy a healthy life. Sadly, however, bowel cancer claims the lives of 5,336 Australians on average every year—that's, 103 deaths a week, far too many.

While talking about bowels is not the most appealing of topics, we need to have the conversation and that's why getting behind Red Apple Day is so important. There is a common misconception that bowel cancer is an older person's disease, but that is simply not the case. We heard yesterday the very moving public story of Duncan Pegg, the member for Stretton in the Queensland Legislative Assembly, who was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2019 and died at the age of 40 less than a week ago, seven weeks after he announced he was retiring from politics to focus on his health. I would like to say that Jim Chalmers, the member for Rankin, made an incredibly moving speech, which I think brought many in the chamber to tears, as he knew himself, being a similar age, how Duncan Pegg's death is going to devastate that family and that community. It is so important that we get together behind this bipartisan raising of awareness of bowel cancer, and I want to thank all of the members who attended the bowel cancer Red Apple Day here in parliament. I encourage my colleagues to grab a red apple, to get a pin from their whip's office and to take a photo to show our support as a parliament for Bowel Cancer Australia in our quest to raise awareness and make a vow to talk bowel and make bowel cancer history.