Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If by Rudyard Kipling:

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;

If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

That poem is being used by Darwin businessman Clinton Hoffman. It is called Ifby Rudyard Kipling. Clinton is turning that poem into an app to help with men's health issues.

It is well known that a lot of men do not like to talk about their mental health issues. I ran a men's health forum in Darwin last week, and it was one of the things that everyone agreed on: women are much better communicators than men. Clinton's aim is to come up with an app that can be always available to someone so that when people are in their deepest darkest hour they may just decide to have a look at their phone, and they may get that little bit of advice or perspective that may make a massive difference. I am running a national male health forum next week, here in Canberra, and I thank everyone who is coming to participate.