Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. February is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month and Ovarian Cancer Australia is urging all Australians to recognise the signs and symptoms of ovarian cancer, to know their family history and to know how to get help. Earlier this month, Senator Catryna Bilyk and I sponsored a motion regarding the importance of awareness around ovarian cancer.

There is a lot of publicity given to diseases and other forms of cancer, but, despite the fact that ovarian cancer is the seventh most common cancer in women, it often gets overlooked. Approximately 1,500 Australian women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer every year and around 1,000 daughters, mothers, sisters, aunties and friends are taken from us each year in Australia. These are shocking statistics, and it is a truly devastating disease. Ovarian cancer currently has a five-year survival rate of 43 per cent. In order to make a difference to that survival rate, we need awareness. To raise awareness, we need to keep talking about ovarian cancer.

I have spoken many times about how important it is to be familiar with the symptoms of ovarian cancer, but I am going to run through them again because, as I said, we need to keep talking about this disease. We need to ensure that the women in our community are familiar with these symptoms. Some of the most common symptoms are abdominal or pelvic pain, abdominal bloating, needing to urinate often or urgently, difficulty eating and feeling full very quickly. A huge part of the problem is that these symptoms are very common and they are not symptoms that many women associate with ovarian cancer. This is why ovarian cancer often goes unchecked. We all need to ensure that we are familiar with these symptoms so that we can detect these signs as early as possible and do everything we can before this disease is too advanced.

When you take a close look at this disease and start talking about it, you see that it really is not a silent disease—although, at times, it is referred to as such. Unfortunately, these symptoms are so common that, only too often, by the time women see their doctors it is too late and the cancer has advanced to a level where the outcomes are obviously not good. As I said, the prognosis for women diagnosed with ovarian cancer is generally poor due to the fact of its late detection. The reason is usually that women have not sought advice. There have been times when doctors have not diagnosed correctly, and that is why I always encourage women, if they are not satisfied when they see their GP, to seek a second opinion. That goes for all health matters, irrespective of whether it is a cancer like ovarian cancer or not.

Only 47 per cent of the general population is aware that ovarian cancer is symptomatic, which is why recognising the symptoms is crucial to an early diagnosis, to prevention and, most importantly, to survival. If women experience any of the symptoms over time, or if they persist for more than two weeks, they should see their doctor as quickly as possible. We must not ignore any symptoms or pass them off as discomfort or another ailment. Understanding and awareness of these symptoms are absolutely crucial to the early detection of ovarian cancer. As women, we need to improve our confidence in our ability to know about ovarian cancer and we need to recognise and act upon these symptoms and not hesitate to seek a second opinion.

A recent survey conducted by Ovarian Cancer Australia reported lower satisfaction levels when it came to patient care and early diagnosis. The survey also highlighted that women were frustrated with the number of GP and emergency room visits they had to make before finally being diagnosed. A number of women also said that their symptoms were not initially recognised by their GP as relating to ovarian cancer and that they were, therefore, seeking a second opinion. One woman was recorded as saying that she had visited her GP more than three times but he kept on insisting that she had IBS. Then she went to another GP, who discovered that she had an enlarged uterus. Another woman in the survey said that she saw one doctor four times who just kept telling her to eat more fibre but did not examine her once.

It is absolutely vital that GPs and health professionals are better trained in identifying the symptoms and that they are proactive to ensure a fast diagnosis. It is equally as important for women to have the confidence to seek a second opinion if they are not comfortable with the initial outcome of their visit to the doctor. In the absence of an early detection test, we must all know the signs and symptoms of ovarian cancer—and it is important to know your family history. We need to continually raise awareness of this deadly disease. The more we talk about it, the more research will be done so that we can—and I am hopeful that we will, in the coming years—find a way of detecting this silent killer early.

I would now like to turn to another issue which is quite different but just as important. As the shadow parliamentary secretary for aged care, the government's decision to close the Kingston Centrelink and Medicare office in my home state of Tasmania was a shock. It was devastating to the local community.

I want to place on record my thanks and the thanks of the local community in Kingston and the surrounding areas for the work of Julie Collins, the federal member for Franklin, and Senator Catryna Bilyk. They were supported by all of us Tasmanians, including Senator Urquhart and Senator Brown, who are here in the chamber tonight. This is yet another example of how out of touch and arrogant this government is—closing a Centrelink office in a community where the majority of people who use it are elderly and disadvantaged. I am sure that Senator Bilyk, either tonight or on another occasion, will make some more detailed comments on this very important issue. When the community stood up and said, 'We are not going to accept this' and they campaigned and supported Julie Collins and Senator Bilyk at a local forum, that sent a very powerful message to this government.

We know this government is in chaos. On any given day, you do not know what the Treasurer is going to do. We know that what the Prime Minister says today will not be what he will do tomorrow, just like before the election he said one thing on a range of issues and then after it he has done another. Whether you are a conservative or a progressive, the Prime Minister has been caught in the middle and he does not know which way to go. We now have the Treasurer of the country in witness protection. He has failed as Treasurer of this country. Until he took on that role, he was able to hide behind the responsibilities he had as immigration minister; he did not say anything because he could not say anything. Everything was so secretive and silent. But now he has been exposed for being weak, for being the Treasurer of a government that has no vision and no plan. Yet the government still criticise the Labor opposition and Bill Shorten because we dare to put forward to the Australian community real policies, a plan for the future. We are rolling out our costed policies. Mr Turnbull said he was going to have an intellectual, smart and agile government, but what we have is Tony Abbott mark 2. When everything else fails, when they fail to deliver any policy, when they are exposed for wanting to increase the GST, they go back to scare, scare, scare. Next we will go back to the three-word slogans, rather than 'Mr Waffler', as the Prime Minister is known. (Time expired)