Marielle Smith (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today I want to put on the record the remarkable legacy of my friend Lorraine Tyler. Lorraine left us on 12 January this year. She passed away at the end of what has been a long and difficult struggle with lung cancer, and when we lost Lorraine we lost an extraordinary advocate in the fight against lung cancer and the stigma that has surrounded it.

I first met Lorraine in 2020, and I was struck by her passion, her wicked sense of humour and her generosity. Lorraine was suffering, but through her suffering she was determined to change things for other lung cancer sufferers like her. She wanted to see better screening, better detection and more lung cancer nurses. Lorraine came to this building many times. She came to my office many times. She met with Minister Butler, and I want to make it very clear that, when our government took the decision to introduce the National Lung Cancer Screening Program, that was off the back of advocacy from people like Lorraine. She made a tremendous difference in getting that $260 million announcement off the ground. Lorraine has an incredible legacy, and I want to pay tribute to that here in the Senate today.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death. It has a five-year survival rate of 22 per cent. It is taking too many Australians. The stigma that surrounds it is persistent, and it hurts people when it shouldn't, when they are already suffering too much.

Thank you, Lorraine, for everything you did. To Lorraine's wife, Kirsten, and her huge number of family and friends both here and in the UK: thank you for sharing her with the advocacy and with the parliament. She made a difference, and I honour her legacy today.