Remarks, Ovarian Cancer Australia Teal Ribbon Breakfast
25 February 2020
Well, thank you very much and good morning everyone.
Can I start of course by acknowledging our traditional owners the Ngunnawal people on whose land we meet today, their elders past and present and emerging and to any veterans and serving women and men in our defence forces who are here with us today, thank you for your service.
But particularly to Meghan, to Robert, your family and to the survivors who are here and those who do so much great work in supporting women across the country who are combating this most horrendous, and this most hideous of diseases. I share your hope Meghan, two daughters, I want them to have the same thing as yours, and I thank you for your courage today in speaking, and for your family to be here with you today who I can see are such an enormous encouragement and strength to you.
Can I thank also the Ovarian Cancer CEO Jane Hill for your welcome, and others from the organisation who are here today.
Can I also acknowledge the chair, Marina Go and thank you all at Ovarian Cancer Australia for the terrific work you do.
I want to thank also my parliamentary colleagues who are here today from across the aisle, cancer doesn't know politics, it only knows what it does to the lives of Australians. And in doing that I want to acknowledge, of course Chris who is here today representing the opposition.
Both Greg and I were here last year. It's an important event this one. And we heard Jill, and we heard Kristen speak and we spent time with them and we saw their courage and we saw their emotion. They were extraordinary women, despite their suffering and the sacrifices that were made not only against their lives, but the privacy of the lives that they were seeking to live out in the days that they had.
They chose to publicly live out their disease. And to be an encouragement and be a strength to others. Because they wanted to make a difference, as Meghan here today is clearly doing. To offer a brighter future, to all those women confronting ovarian cancer right now and in the generations to come.
Jill and Kristen are terribly missed. This is a particularly sad day. And our thoughts are with their loved ones.
As a government, we are committed to a brighter future that they campaigned for. No amount of funding can ever be enough in this area and that's why I think it will always be true to say, there can always be more that can be done.
But as the single biggest funder of cancer research in Australia, we're making every effort to support advances in genome sequencing, immunotherapy, radiation therapy and we'll keep going until we find those answers and there's more to do and more will be done.
Jill and Kristen were catalysts for the sort of action that has delivered the government's $20 million investment for ovarian cancer medical research, in $15 million dollars to clinical trials into gynaecological cancers, we've also provided almost $3 million as was mentioned to the Traceback project identifying and offering testing to women and their families previously not tested for the BRCA1 and 2 gene mutations associated with breast and ovarian cancer.
Our great hope is that will mean lives are saved. As well, we're subsidising patient costs by spending around $25 million dollars on ovarian cancer treatments through the PBS health system each year and we've also invested $1.6 million to trial psychosocial support for ovarian cancer patients, as I say there is much more to do.
Jill's daughter Malia said at the memorial service that her mum had taught her and I quote, “to fight injustices with raw unabated ferocity”, I saw a bit of that last year when we met.
It's not fair that 4 Australian women are diagnosed and 3 women are dying from ovarian cancer, cancer isn't fair, every day.
It's not fair, so the fight will continue. Both in Jill's name and in Kristen's name who fought for every breath and every moment that she could share here with all of us.
So everybody here today, we're all here together to stand in support of those who are fighting this terrible disease and as Meghan put it so well, to hold on to the hope, to keep walking towards the hope. To choose hope over the fear. To choose love over the fear, and allow that love to sustain you.
That is the greatest gift we can provide.
Thank you.
