E&OE..................
Well thank you very much Janet. Ladies and gentlemen, Janette and I are again very pleased indeed to support this magnificent breakfast which is about double or three times the size it was last year. And it's a tremendous tribute to the organisers such as Janet, but it is also a token of the community's concern about the number one health threat to Australian women. It's a recognition of the willingness of people to talk openly about the threat that cancer poses to the lives of so many Australians, particularly breast cancer to Australian women. It's also a measure of the co-operation between the governments of Australia, the State Governments, large companies, medical researchers, doctors and most importantly of all, people who have suffered breast cancer. And the willingness of men and women increasingly in the modern Australian community to talk in a feeling, sensitive, communicative way about diseases that affect them, about illness and thereby impart to their fellow Australians a better understanding of what is needed to prevent illness occurring in the first place, of coping with it when it does touch you and then sharing the rehabilitation process. And I think the willingness of so many people to do that is a very heartening thing indeed.
As Janet has said, one in eleven Australian women are touched by breast cancer. In many cases it proves fatal, in an increasing number of cases it doesn't. Early detection is of course absolutely essential and for a number of years now, governments at both a state and federal level have provided very strong support for screening processes which are designed to accelerate the process of early detection. With a particular targeting of women in the 50 and over group, but of course not restricted to people in that age cohort. And I am very pleased to announce that tomorrow we'll be relaunching a TV campaign at a cost of $2 million to advertise the screening programme and to bring to the attention of all Australian women the importance of undergoing screening for breast cancer.
But all of these things are best tackled, not by just leaving it to the government, not by just leaving it to doctors and their patients, not just leaving it to great voluntary organisations, many of which are represented here today, but very importantly getting all of those groups working together. The Government has a major ongoing role to play in relation to health and medical research. That is why as a result of the recommendations of Peter Wills' committee, we are over the course of a period of years, doubling the amount of Federal Government funding going into health and medical research. But we also need to enlist the aid of so many people in the community and that is what thrills me about a breakfast like this. This is the outcome of the active interest and campaigning if you like and participation of some very public spirited people in the city of Sydney. And I do congratulate you Janet, and all of those, and Sally Redmond and everybody else associated with the energy that's been put into organising this, because it's not just a breakfast and heaven knows to get 700 people at a breakfast on Monday morning in Sydney is a considerable achievement. I've been to a lot of breakfasts . . . we're all a bit slow on Monday morning. Particularly if you've been cheering at Paralympics as I have, or doing all sorts of other things that the rest of you have been doing.
But ladies and gentlemen, getting everybody together, making people feel that it's a community crusade, a community challenge and it's something you've got to talk about to understand and to deal with it, and that those who haven't been touched by it should have an understanding of the challenge for those who have and the extent to which those who have are willing to share their experiences provides those in the future who might be affected by it with a source of encouragement and hope and inspiration in a time of great personal trauma and difficulty. And I can only say that my admiration for people who cope with this particular form of illness, overcome it, get on with their lives, continue to provide love and support to those around them, my admiration for them is absolutely unbounded. And this breakfast as much as anything is a tribute to them and also a reminder that not everybody makes it and that can only intensify our determination as Australians, as a Government, as organisations, as individuals, as medical practitioners to do everything we humanly can to fight this terrible scourge within our community.
I hope the Pink Ribbon Week is a huge success and I hope it further impresses upon the Australian community the importance of maintaining this very strong campaign against breast cancer. Thank you.
[Ends]