Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This week is Men’s Health Week and I thought I would use my time to draw the chamber’s attention to the issue of men’s health and the fact that men should take better care of themselves. Men are notoriously neglectful of their own health. They tend to believe that they will be okay. They ignore the pain in the chest. They do not go and have all the tests that they should have for cancer—and I will highlight some of those tests in a moment.

I believe, to a large extent, this is cultural. Men in Australia have been encouraged to be macho, not complain, accept their lot and believe, ‘I’ll be okay’ when, in actual fact, they are not always okay. It is just as important for men to care for themselves and to have medical tests as it is for women. Women quite freely discuss the fact that they need to have mammograms and pap smears and they have those tests. If they are feeling a little unwell, they talk to each other about it; they discuss it. It is okay. But men are totally different. They ignore the symptoms and they tend not to discuss the fact that maybe there could be a problem with their prostate. It is no different for a woman who has to have a pap smear and talks about it.

Once they reach that age of 50, particularly if they have a family history, men should have a PSA test. They should have a colonoscopy; bowel cancer is one of those cancers that is very avoidable and one that men tend to ignore. As recently as last week, my son told me about a young man, one of his friends, who is in his very early 30s and has melanoma. He has had half of his lip removed. This could have been avoided if he had a test, had it looked at when it was at a stage where it could be treated. Now this young man is fighting for his life.

In relation to prostate cancer, I am holding a prostate cancer forum both in the Charlestown area and on the Central Coast at the Halekulani Bowling Club on 4 July this year. Wayne Swan and a number of experts in that field will be at the forum, and I would like to encourage those people who are interested to come. (Time expired)