I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, and I pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging.
It’s an honour to join you all here at Frankston Bowling Club for Pink Pennant Day. I’m grateful that you’ve dedicated it to our dearly missed friend, Peta Murphy. All of us who knew her are deeply touched.
As Peta could have told you, there’s a solid rule that applies across so much of life: The more we know, the better we can help.
It certainly applies when it comes to cancer. The more we know, the better our understanding. That’s the key to better treatment and, ultimately, better outcomes for Australians with cancer.
We’re here today to announce an important new step towards knowing more.
In Australia today, there are more than 1 million people living or who have lived with cancer. Last year alone it was estimated that there would be around 165,000 cases of cancer diagnosed and, tragically, 51,000 people would die from it.
And as everyone here knows, every case of cancer is a story that ends up affecting family and loved ones.
We live in one of the best health systems in the world, including some of the best cancer treatment. What we don’t have is a consistent, co-ordinated record of people whose cancer has progressed to metastatic stage.
We also don’t know how many people have been diagnosed with the same form of cancer they’ve had to deal with earlier in their life.
While Australia’s cancer data is high quality, there is always room for improvement – such as more information about stage at cancer diagnosis, cancer recurrence, and progression to metastatic cancer.
Without this information, it is impossible to know how many Australians are diagnosed with cancer at different stages, and whether someone has been diagnosed with the same cancer before.
It is also difficult to determine the effectiveness of Australia’s national screening programs and treatments, and to keep track of outcomes.
The answer – which so many have rightly been pushing for – is a national registry for metastatic cancers.
I’m really proud to announce that we are committing $1.5 million to start building that registry to accelerate the collection of national cancer stage and recurrence data.
It’s in line with the recently launched Australian Cancer Plan, and in response to the Breast Cancer Network Australia’s report, Time to Count People with Metastatic Breast Cancer: A Way Forward.
This investment includes funding for the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare to establish the Australian Cancer Data Alliance.
I’d like to express my gratitude to the work done by so many to get us to this point.
Among them the Breast Cancer Network Australia and all stakeholders who contributed to the report, for their tireless advocacy campaigning for the collection of more comprehensive breast cancer data.
I’d also like to recognise the people affected by cancer, consumer organisations, health services, researchers and clinicians, which have continued to advocate to improve the completeness of Australia’s cancer data.
Right now, I’d like to make particular mention of one – our friend who is very much on our minds today. Peta Murphy was so many things to so many: a friend, an inspiration, a wonderful Parliamentarian, a great voice for her community here in Dunkley.
And no matter how overwhelming her experience with cancer became, she remained a person of such great personal strength and compassion.
I will always be awed by the fact that even right up to the end, Peta was thinking of others.
In what proved to be the final week of her life – when she didn’t have much physical strength left – she still travelled to Parliament because she wanted to help launch that report from Breast Cancer Network Australia I mentioned, which called for a national registry for metastatic cancers.
I wish Peta were here right now. I know we all do. But she would have been pleased to see this happening.
We know so much more when it comes to cancer than we used to – but there is so much that remains unknown.
But this will help us take more steps towards chipping away at its mysteries, and to keep improving the lives of Australians with cancer.
Sometimes you need a better map to find your way forward, sometimes a brighter light to read it by. I have confidence that this registry will be a bit of both.
