PM Transcripts

MESSAGE FROM THE PRIME MINISTER, Li
MR. JOHN GORTON, FOR NATIONAL HEART WEEK JUNE 1968
A message from the Prime Minister commending " National
Heart Week" will be telecast throughout Australia. tonight ( Sunday).
The National Heart Foundation's special week of community
education will begin tomorrow ( 1 July).
Following is the text of Mr. Gorton's message:-
" Australia ranks among the leading nations of the world in standards
of living and in the rate of scientific, cultural and industrial growth.
It also shares the distinction if so it can be called of one of the
highest rates of heart disease in the world. This disease is still
Australia's number one killer accounting for about forty per
cent of all deaths, and for one-third of the deaths of men in middle
age. The National Heart Foundation of Australia leads the Australian
effort to meet this challenge. It is fighting on many fronts through
its research programme, through its rehabilitation units and through
its professional and community education activities.
" National Heart Week" is a special effort to tell all Australians of
how to reduce the toll. Through the press, on television and over
the radio and by other means, the Foundation will be giving a message
of hope and action during the coming week.
The Heart Foundation will tell what activities and strains increase
the risk of heart disease, and of relatively simple measures to
reduce those risks. It will tell how to overcome the handicaps of
heart disease should it strike. It is a message for all, Young and
old, men and women, and I commend it to u"