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

This week marks National Men's Health Week. I was honoured to attend the launch with Sir Peter Cosgrove, the Governor-General, and even more honoured to have been appointed as Labor's men's health ambassador. And I have not been taking this role lightly: earlier this year I was proud to host a national men's health forum here in Canberra with men's health experts from all around the country, I have run a male health forum in my electorate of Solomon, and this week I helped to organise a male health expo in Darwin, which was very well attended. I want to thank all my co-organisers and all of those who had stalls. We had an 80 per cent increase in the number of men coming to the expo and having a Pit Stop health check, so that is a great result. I want to thank the Department of Veterans' Affairs for that great initiative as part of the expo. I also want to thank Jason Bonson, the principal organiser; my staff, Sharon and Dom, for their work; and the volunteers, especially Kirby Stocks, an ex-soldier who recently walked from Darwin down to Katherine over a number of days to raise some money for PTSD.

The theme of this year's Men's Health Week is 'Healthy body, healthy mind: keeping the balance'. It is something I know we all struggle to do, but it is very important. I mentioned those veterans. All 50 veterans came back to Darwin from Iraq today. It is very important that we have those services there to support them. I want to acknowledge the work of the Department of Veterans' Affairs and the ESOs that are working in our communities with our veterans.

As well as the veterans community, we also have lots of young males in the construction industry—in particular, a lot of FIFOs. Only this week, we have been shocked and saddened that another FIFO worker in Darwin has taken his life. Suicide is a massive problem and it is something that we need to be more focused on. I know there is some good work going on, but it is the leading cause of death for men under the age of 54. It exceeds the national road toll. So we need to redouble our efforts.

Obviously, blokes do not like going to the GP as much as women. As a result, our health is not as good in general, and I think that is something we can all focus on. But, in the national Men's Health Week, I want to congratulate all of those leaders out there, like Professor John Macdonald from Western Sydney University, who are working to make sure that blokes get healthier in Australia.