Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise this morning to commend the work of a local constituent from Warrandyte in my electorate, Dr Linda Worrall-Carter, who is not only the founder but the CEO of a relatively new not-for-profit known as Her Heart. Dr Worrall-Carter resigned from a successful career as professor of cardiac nursing and founded the organisation in 2015. She believed that just carrying out more research in this area would not solve the fastest-killing disease of women in Australia and elsewhere and that a dedicated effort to roll out a series of national education programs and campaigns for women and girls in particular was needed.

I ask rhetorically: what is the largest killer of women in this country? People often think about diseases such as breast cancer, but the reality is it's heart disease. Quoting Dr Worrall-Carter:

Heart disease is the biggest killer of women. Tragically, 1 in 3 women will die in Australia, that's 1 woman every hour; in the UK & Europe, it's 1 every 10 minutes, and in the US, it's 1 woman every 80 seconds. I think this is completely unacceptable and strongly believe that if you know something is wrong, then you need to be prepared to put your hand up and do something to change it.

That's what she has set out to do.

Not only is this a major killer of Australian women but it involves a huge cost to the budget. In 2014, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare estimated that over 27 per cent of the $7.6 billion Health budget was spent on heart health, which is more than $2 billion. No doubt, a few years later, it's even higher than that $2 billion. The biggest spend is on heart disease. It's the No. 1 killer and it's the No. 1 killer of both men and women in Australia. Over 20,000 Australians die of it each year, and it's estimated that one-third of these are preventable—that would be some 6,700 lives, saving close to three-quarters of a billion dollars.

What she's trying to do now, through information and education programs, is to use her research to indicate to women that what we generally understand as the symptoms of heart disease can differ very greatly in women from those in men. Through her education programs, website herheart.org and speaking engagements, she's trying to bring this message to women not just in Australia but around the world. In fact, from very humble beginnings in Melbourne, she now has subscribers to her website and blog from some 128 countries. Not only has Linda founded this organisation but she's invested her own funding in establishing the charity. She has donated her salary for three years and re-invested all donations and funds in order to move the charity forward. The initial interest has far exceeded expectations and Her Heart is now a global movement with campaigns and community leaders.

As I said earlier, drawing on her experience as a cardiac nurse and then an educator for 15 years as a researcher and professor of nursing, she's able to share not just her knowledge but her passion about this issue to inspire people to think about what is a preventable disease for many thousands of Australian women. That's being done through a mission to prevent heart disease in Australia: a campaign to contribute to life-saving awareness about heart disease in women by educating women through access to educational resources and to help them feel empowered and act on this information to change their lifestyle.

In the seconds remaining to me, there are essentially six points in that education program which the research shows are important: first, don't smoke; second, be active; third, eat healthily; fourth, get some sleep; fifth, relax; and, finally, limit alcohol intake to moderate levels. The more this message can be spread throughout this country, not just to Australian women but to their partners, husbands, spouses, fathers and siblings, then the more we can do to contribute towards the prevention of what is a disease that can be prevented in very many cases for many of our mothers, sisters and daughters in this country.

Andrew Gee (Calare, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Menzies for raising awareness of that issue in the Australian parliament.