Logan City
E & OE - PROOF ONLY
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PM: We're here today to have a cup of tea, and that's a pretty humble thing to do but people are going to be doing it right around the country in support of the World's Biggest Morning Tea to raise funds and to raise awareness about cancer.
And I'd like to thank Dr Helen Zorbas from Cancer Australia for being here and gracing this morning tea with her presence.
As we come together over a cup of tea we will no doubt be sharing stories about people we know who have faced a battle with cancer, are facing a battle with cancer, perhaps even loved ones we have lost to cancer.
It's something that touches every Australian family. There wouldn't be a person in our country who in their family, in their friendship group, in their workplace isn't aware of someone who has battled cancer during the course of their lives.
And around 125,000 Australians will be diagnosed with cancer this year; that's a large number joining the ranks of those who are already locked in a battle with cancer.
It's important that as a nation we make appropriate provision to support people with cancer and to support the healthcare services they need.
I am proud as a Government that we are investing record amounts in supporting world-class cancer care; $2.5 billion has been invested.
And when you do invest you see returns. Australia leads the world in cancer care. In the last two decades alone the survival rate for many cancers has increased by up to 30 per cent.
But we've got to keep going, we've got to keep fighting cancer during prevention, early detection, and new treatments and models of care, and that's a very key priority for us as a nation, and as a result a key priority for me and the Government I'm proud to lead.
Just last week our Minister for Health, Tanya Plibersek, announced an additional $18.3 million over four years for the wonderful work CanTeen does to support young people living with cancer.
And when we look at the young people in this audience or the many that I've walked past and had the opportunity to say a quick hello to - I don't think you can think of anything worse than a child having cancer and therefore we do, as a country, want to come together and support our kids in that battle.
Australians are innovative people; we are good at coming up with new ideas.
And we have been responsible for many of the great medical breakthroughs of modern times: trials of chemotherapy for children with leukaemia; the Gardasil vaccine now protecting a generation of Australian boys and girls and preventing them from getting a particular type of cancer.
I'm proud that we continue to support our researchers who are busy working on what will be the next breakthrough in prevention or detection or cancer treatment.
We all want to see those breakthroughs made in our nation; we want to see a difference for people with cancer.
Today we'll come together and put our gold coin in. That makes a difference. As a Government too, here today at a morning tea, part of the World's Biggest Morning Tea, I want us to make a further contribution.
I'm proud to announce today that the Government will invest $2.4 million over the next four years to improve cancer data in order to improve cancer care.
That will enable Cancer Australia to build on the work they are currently doing so that Australians diagnosed with cancer benefit from better collection and reporting of national cancer data.
Now I know talking about data can sound a little bit boring, a bit too much like a maths class; I understand that.
But it is important that around the nation we end up with a national set of data so we know how different treatments are working, we know how often cancers are returning, and if we have all of that information it helps feed into our efforts to make a change for people with cancer.
So I'm very pleased and proud to be able to announce that new investment today.
Here in school we know never to underestimate the power of good information; putting together My School and having national testing data is revolutionising the way we think about schools, so information is important.
Thank you to everyone for coming together today. It matters as a demonstration to others around the nation and I'd urge others around the nation to do exactly what you are doing here today.
Come together, have a cup of tea, have a chat and put in a gold coin. Do your bit, help out, it's important to all of us.
Thank you very much.
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