House debates

Tuesday, 25 February 2020

Questions without Notice

Ovarian Cancer

3:10 pm

Photo of Nicolle FlintNicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

My question is for the Minister for the Environment representing the Minister for Women. Would the minister update the House on how the Morrison government is supporting women diagnosed with ovarian cancer?

Photo of Sussan LeySussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment) Share this | | Hansard source

I thank the member for Boothby for her question. Tomorrow is Teal Ribbon Day and this month is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. They acknowledge the thousands of women, their families and their friends impacted by ovarian cancer this year. I acknowledge the members of parliament who attended Ovarian Cancer Australia's Teal Ribbon Day breakfast this morning.

Ovarian cancer is estimated to be the 10th most commonly diagnosed cancer in Australian women, with 1,532 cases projected this year, and it's the sixth most common cause of death from cancer in Australian women, with 1,068 deaths estimated this year. The five-year relative survival rate for ovarian cancer is 45.7 per cent. This compares with 68.9 per cent for all cancers combined, and with 90.8 per cent and 95.2 per cent for breast and prostate cancer respectively.

We are committed to improving outcomes for women affected by ovarian cancer, and I want to acknowledge the commitment of the Minister for Health and, in particular, former Minister for Women Kelly O'Dwyer, who continues to serve as an ambassador for the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation, fighting, as she did in this place, for better health outcomes for women.

We've come a long way in the last 20 years, notwithstanding we have a lot further to go. One of our first ovarian cancer advocates was Sheila Lee. After receiving her shocking diagnosis in February 1999, she was appalled by the lack of awareness of the disease, the lack of its profile compared with other cancers and the lack of research. Sheila and her husband, Simon, started speaking out, raising awareness—determined to make ovarian cancer silent no more. She spoke of symptom awareness holding the key to hundreds of lives and research holding the key to thousands. In the just 20 months before we lost her after that tragic diagnosis, Sheila and her team set the Ovarian Cancer Australia organisation on the trajectory where we see it today.

We have available now $20 million in funding for ovarian cancer research through the Medical Research Future Fund, and a further $15 million for clinical trial funding in reproductive cancers. Since 2013, more than $40 million has been provided for ovarian cancer research through the National Health and Medical Research Council. We're continuing subsidising proven treatments on the PBS, adding two new MBS items for genetic testing for hereditary mutations predisposing to breast or ovarian cancer. And in 2019, the government committed funding for the ovarian cancer case management pilot. We're particularly focussing on reaching out to rural Australian women as we continue as a nation to battle this horrific disease.

Photo of Tony SmithTony Smith (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

The member for McMahon on indulgence.

3:13 pm

Photo of Chris BowenChris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | | Hansard source

I associate the opposition with the comments of the minister. This morning the Prime Minister and members from across the aisle gathered to mark the fact that four Australian women will today be diagnosed with ovarian cancer—and four tomorrow and four the day after—and that the survival is too low at 46 per cent. And that was particularly stark this morning when we were reminded that the two speakers at last year's breakfast, Jill Emberson and Kristen Larsen, were no longer here with us to speak at this year's breakfast. This morning we met with not only survivors of ovarian cancer but also women fighting it as we speak, who are sharing their courage with this parliament so as to remind us that we have much, much more to do. It's the eighth most common cancer, but a very big killer of women. This parliament and this country have a long way to go. We join with the government in the efforts undertaken.

Honourable members: Hear, hear!

Photo of Scott MorrisonScott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | | Hansard source

I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper. I would also record our remembrance of Jill Emberson and Kristen Larsen. As the shadow minister for health has just said, they were with us a year ago. They died not that long before Christmas. Let's hope that next year we see all of those who we saw this morning.