Gordon Reid (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is with great pleasure that I inform the House that we are holding the Second Central Coast Big Aussie Luncheon and Men's Health Forum in the electorate of Robertson in early December. The idea is to create a greater awareness of prostate cancer and men's health, particularly in men over the age of 40. We're working in conjunction with multiple stakeholders and multiple partners to make sure that this event gets up off the ground. What it will include is a luncheon and presentations by representatives from the Prostate Cancer Foundation and myself. All men over the age of 40 are welcome. And the list is growing as we speak.

We held the inaugural big Aussie luncheon at the Davistown RSL last year, and that had close to 150 attendees. A story that a constituent told me just recently was that the wife of one of the gentlemen that went to the last luncheon dragged her husband there—as we all know, men don't like going to the doctor—and he thought, 'You know what, I'm going to get my prostate levels checked, my PSA checked.' The prostate turned out to be okay, but he in fact had quite a significant tumour in his bladder, which wouldn't have been picked up if he hadn't gone to the doctor for that. He had surgery to resect that tumour, and ultimately that ended up saving his life. We hold a lot of events as MPs. We hold a lot of forums and the like. But in this case this luncheon was able to let this gentleman have access to the information that he needed. He went and saw a medical professional, and then, ultimately, that led to positive health outcomes for this gentleman.

I really encourage people to get in touch with my office if they'd like to attend this Second Central Coast Big Aussie Luncheon, because we are raising awareness for all men's health, but in particular prostate cancer. It's a condition that we need to make sure that we get on top of both on the medical side of things, but also as a parliament. We know that if we nip these things in the bud now, they don't exacerbate and they don't become metastatic disease and then require quite intensive chemoradiotherapy and surgery later on.

I would encourage people to get in contact with my office, and if you can't attend the big Aussie luncheon then please get in touch with my office, and we can send you some materials from the Prostate Cancer Foundation. We can send you some materials from the federal department of health to make sure that you're informed and to make sure that you know all of the information that you need to know with regard to prostate cancer and other issues affecting men's health.