Dan Repacholi (Hunter, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's an honour and a privilege to once again be given the opportunity to stand here in this place representing the good people of the Hunter. Thank you to the people of Cessnock, Singleton, Branxton, Edgeworth, Cameron Park, Dora Creek, Toronto, Morisset, Wangi Wangi and Wyee and the people from all the surrounding areas for putting your trust in me. A very special thank you and welcome to the newest parts of the Hunter electorate: Kurri Kurri, Weston, Abermain and the smaller townships nearby. For the past three years, I've worked my guts out to be the best federal member of parliament for my electorate, and I promise you that this will be the exact same over the next three years. I want to thank you all.

I want to thank all of the incredible volunteers and my fantastic staff and supporters who stood by me during the election campaign. I'm lucky to have such a great team who are passionate, hardworking and always ready to pull up their sleeves. It's fair to say that we have built a Dan army. None of this would be possible without the people behind the scenes who give their time, energy and heart. So, from me and my family to you guys, thank you so much for what you did to help re-elect me to this wonderful place. I can't thank you all enough.

I also wouldn't be able to do this job without the support from my amazing wife, Alex, and my two beautiful daughters, Zoe and Asha. Thank you for all that you deal with and have dealt with over the last three years. I'm sorry for everything that I have missed in the past, and I'm sorry for the things that I will miss in the next three years because of my role. Thank you for your love, your comfort and your patience.

Now I'm going to turn the spotlight on an issue that doesn't get spoken about as much as it should. I want to talk about some facts and figures. They are stark and they are confronting, but they represent an issue that we need to talk about. I want to talk about men's health. Three in four suicides are men. Seven in 10 young people who die are men. Four in every five heart deaths under 65 are men. Men are 50 per cent more likely than women to die from cancer. Seven in 10 alcohol-related deaths are men. Three in four road deaths are men. Ninety-five per cent of workplace deaths are men. Seventy-one per cent of men are overweight or obese. Men are 1.3 times more likely to have type 2 diabetes than women. Over 3,500 men die every year from prostate cancer. To put this in perspective, 50 men die each and every day from avoidable causes.

And what does this all mean? It means that men are dying too young. In fact, we are dying on average five years younger than the amazing women in our lives. But these aren't just numbers or facts written on a piece of paper. Behind every single number is a person: a father, a son, a husband. What these numbers and facts represent is a widespread, undeniable issue facing men of every race, religion and age in every corner of our country. The long and the short of it is that men are dying younger than they need to, and we owe to it each other to find out why. But to do this we need to turn the statistics around, and it all starts with a conversation.

For the first time in this country's history we have a role dedicated towards the health of men, and I am very humbled to have been given this huge responsibility of serving as the first-ever Special Envoy for Men's Health. I am also excited because this role has huge potential to make a real difference in men's health outcomes all around this country. One of the major benefits of this role is the opportunity to get the conversation started. It's about time that this topic has been brought to the floors of this parliament. When 75 per cent of suicides are men and some of our biggest killers, like heart disease, impact men at a massively higher rate than women, it's obvious that these issues need to be addressed and that changes need to be made. The issue of men dying young is an important one, and it deserves a position in this place focused on addressing it. Now we have that, and I'm so proud of the Albanese Labor government that we have now done this. Whether it was me or somebody else—it doesn't matter who it was in this role—I'm just glad that we have a government that is actually talking about this.

There are two equally important parts of men's health: mental health and physical health. When it comes to our mental health, there is one thing that we as men need to get better at, and that's just talking to each other. The sad truth is that most people know a man who has taken his own life. It doesn't need to be this way. Our mental health isn't an easy topic to talk about. I know that, when I get together with my mates, we don't sit around talking about what is causing us stress. Most of us wouldn't even dream of bringing up our feelings or our emotions. But you know what? Maybe we should. We all have stress and pressures in life; it's normal, and it's unavoidable. But, whether it's stress from work or family struggles or just feeling flat for no reason at all, you don't have to carry it alone. Talk to a mate, call your GP, take a break, ask for help and don't wait until you're at breaking point. There's no shame in having a bad day, but there's power in doing something about it. You're not alone, you're not weak and you're not meant to suffer in silence.

I just want to say, to the member for Cowper, you've gone through a massively hard time, and I'm glad you're in the chamber now for us to have this conversation. These are hard, hard things to talk about. So please make sure that you're getting the help that you need along the way as well.

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