Laura Smyth (La Trobe, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a pleasure to be able to speak this evening on an important motion. It is an important motion partly because it has been well crafted in the content and well thought through by the member for Shortland, who has obviously shown a great deal of interest in and dedication to the cause of raising awareness about the issue of bowel cancer in her electorate, and now right across the parliament. Also, it is important simply because so much of this issue is tied up in awareness raising. It is extraordinary to many of us to find out that bowel cancer is indeed the second most common cause of cancer-related death in Australia, after lung cancer. It should not really be quite so surprising; it should be well known to many more of us. Through efforts like this, putting motions like this on the public record, by having other members of parliament from various different hues speaking about it, it will go a long way towards removing the stigma associated with seeking treatment, and also removing the stigma potentially associated with revealing that one has bowel cancer or that a family member of friend may have it.

It is fairly sobering to understand that on average around 80 Australians die each week from the disease. Both men and women are at risk of developing bowel cancer. In Australia the lifetime risk of developing bowel cancer before the age of 75 years is around one in 19 for men and one in 28 for women. It is one of the highest rates of bowel cancer in the world.

According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and the Australasian Association of Cancer Registries publication Cancer in Australia: an overview 2012, 2, 205 men and 1,777 women died as a result of bowel cancer in 2005. Screening is very important, because bowel cancer can develop without any early-warning symptoms. I am sure that many of us here will know family members, friends and members of our respective constituencies who have found themselves exposed to bowel cancer and have not had any early-warning signs. We know that bowel cancer can be treated successfully if it is detected in its early stages. By undertaking a screening test every two years one can reduce the risk of dying from bowel cancer by up to one-third.

We know that international randomised control trials have demonstrated that population screening for bowel cancer by way of blood tests can reduce deaths from bowel cancer by between 15 and 33 per cent. We know that research also shows that the risk of developing bowel cancer rises quite significantly from the age of 50 and the National Health and Medical Research Council recommends that screening of people with an average risk of bowel cancer should commence at 50 years of age. We know that bowel cancer can be treated successfully if it is detected in its early stages but, regrettably, fewer than 40 per cent of such cancers are detected early.

In response to these figures, the bowel cancer screening pilot program, which tested the feasibility, acceptability and cost-effectiveness of such screening in the Australian community, ran between 2000 and 2004. Just over 56,000 men and women from Mackay, Adelaide and Melbourne were invited to participate in that pilot. The overall participation rate compared very well with participation rates in other longer established screening programs. The final evaluation report of that pilot program showed that a national bowel cancer screening program would be feasible, acceptable and cost effective in Australia. It is very pleasing to say that in response to this, as part of the 2012-13 federal budget, the Australian government announced that the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program would be expanded to include Australians turning 60 years of age from 2013 and 70 years of age from 2015.

Between July 2012 and 31 December 2015 up to 4.8 million eligible Australians will be offered free bowel-cancer screening, which includes one million Australians aged between 60 and 70 years. We know that the program will be further expanded in 2017 and 2018 with a phased implementation of biennial screening to commence. When it is fully implemented, all Australians aged between 50 and 74 years will be offered free screening every two years, consistent with the recommendations of the NHMRC. I am pleased to support this resolution brought by the member for Shortland and the work of Tanya Plibersek, the Minister for Health, in the budget measures.

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