Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on ovarian cancer, as I do every February for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. This is an incredibly important cause, and it is a time when we recognise and support women diagnosed with ovarian cancer and their families. This year marks Ovarian Cancer Australia's 20th anniversary. From its humble beginnings, this organisation has become the leading national body taking action for Australians affected by ovarian cancer. The challenges of 2020 have placed extraordinary pressure on Australian charities, and as a result Ovarian Cancer Australia had a year like no other. Despite the challenges, Ovarian Cancer Australia shifted to a new normal by increasing their telehealth capacity and taking more of their work onto a digital platform in order to provide their essential services.

Despite these efforts, since the start of the pandemic there has been a significant drop in cancer cases being diagnosed in Australia. Understandably, COVID-19 has placed a strain on all of us in some way and caused a lot of fear and anxiety around contracting the virus. This has seen a lot of Australians deferring medical attention for new symptoms or attendance at routine follow-up appointments. Cancer does not disappear as a result of reducing testing; it just goes undetected. That is why it is so important to be aware of the signs and symptoms of ovarian cancer and to talk to your GP and rebook any missed medical appointments. This year, to help raise awareness through February, we suggest hosting a Teal Tea for friends, family and colleagues.

Ovarian cancer is the eighth most common cancer in Australia. Every year, around 1,580 Australian women are diagnosed, with the overall five-year survival rate for women diagnosed with ovarian cancer being just 46 per cent. That means that of the four women who are diagnosed with ovarian cancer every day, three will die from the disease. There is no effective screening program or early detection test for ovarian cancer, so the best way of detecting the disease is to know the signs and symptoms. These symptoms can be mild or very similar to those of less serious medical conditions, but it is important to listen to your body, trust your instincts and see your doctor.

As well as this, it is imperative that we all take the time to become informed of this disease so that all Australians are able to identify ovarian cancer and take action so that we can change these tragic statistics for future generations. The most reported symptoms for ovarian cancer include increased abdominal size or persistent abdominal bloating. We know that a lot of the symptoms are very similar to symptoms that women regularly feel. If these symptoms persist for two weeks or more, you should go and see your GP. If you're not comfortable with your doctor's diagnosis and you're still concerned about the unexplained persistent symptoms, you should always, always seek a second opinion, because you know your body better than anyone else. So you have to listen to your body, and you must persist until you're satisfied you have been correctly diagnosed.

Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for these symptoms to go unnoticed and, even when presented to your doctor, to be misdiagnosed or disregarded. This was evidenced in a 2015 national study by the national support and advocacy organisation Ovarian Cancer Australia, which found that the vast majority of women experience more than three of the common symptoms of ovarian cancer before their diagnosis and that most of the diagnoses were provoked by these concerns. Despite this, 47 per cent of diagnoses require two or more visits to a GP, 21 per cent of women had to go to three or more GPs and 18 per cent were presented to the emergency room. For a disease where early diagnosis dramatically increases your chances of survival, it is so important to advocate for yourself. If something doesn't feel right, as I said, you must persist.

More resources are needed to educate and to find a cure for ovarian cancer so that we can give hope to women and reduce the number of women who die from this disease. It is alarming to consider that in my home state of Tasmania wait times to see a gynaecologist are, on average, 26 days for urgent referrals, 138 days for semi-urgent referrals and 286 days for non-urgent referrals. Given that the symptoms of ovarian cancer are associated with other non-serious conditions, women could be waiting for months to receive a diagnosis and treatment. This is simply unacceptable, and we all deserve better. Unfortunately, the likelihood of survival has not increased over the last 30 years. Ovarian cancer has the sixth highest mortality rate of all cancers amongst Australian women.

I'd now like to turn to another issue that I want to speak about. Being a very proud Tasmanian—and I know that our Chief Whip, Senator Urquhart, and Senator McKim, as Tasmanians, would share this with me—I want to congratulate the 2021 Australian of the Year, a proud Tasmanian, Grace Tame. As a survivor of child sexual abuse, she displayed immeasurable courage and bravery in speaking out about her trauma and advocating for others who have not been able to speak out, who have been victims of this atrocious crime. For too long, victims of sexual abuse could not speak out about their experiences even if they wanted to. In what could only have been a gruelling process, Grace was required to obtain a special exemption from the Tasmanian Supreme Court to be able to speak out. But she didn't stop there; she kept fighting to have the archaic laws changed. This law allowed her abuser to speak out and to brag about his crime but put a gag order on Ms Tame. She wanted the world to know of the harrowing details of her case, and she wanted to warn us of the disturbing and sinister process of child grooming. She was vulnerable and, in what was a clear imbalance of power, she was taken advantage of at the hands of a calculating and very manipulative perpetrator.

Her courage and her advocacy for sexual assault survivors are inspiring to each and every one of us. Her encouragement of individuals to tell their stories has an immeasurable impact on them and our community. I think the hashtag #LetHerSpeak campaign will continue to lead and give courage to those marginalised girls and young men who have been abused and who deserve to be heard and supported. No-one should ever be ashamed or be shamed into being silenced and just having to tolerate what happened to them.

For Grace Tame, her title provides her with an unparalleled platform to be able to continue championing her cause and the issues that she has been acknowledged for. It was a brave move from a young woman who had to tell her story, a story that unfortunately hadn't been told often enough in this country. Through her bravery, she has shone a light on the issues around the sexual abuse and grooming of children that is happening every single day in our communities. So I want to put on the record—as have so many people through the media, social media and other forums—my congratulations to her on being the Australian of the Year. As a proud Tasmanian, I wish you all the very best for the years to come.