Thank you very much Marcus, Professor Barter, Justice Santow, the Chancellor of Sydney University, other distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. I should tell you Marcus that when you offered to join me on that morning walk, you actually contributed to a marked reduction in my stress level, because the program that I had been listening to on the radio was being highly critical of the Government's foreign policy and I was delighted to turn the interviewer off and engage you in discussion. And I've been told on early morning walks you should avoid listening to anything controversial, it's very hard for somebody in my position although I have found over the last six months or so, and I tend to listen to Radio National when I go walking, that I am mixing the political reports of Radio National with Classic FM and I must say the latter is getting increasingly more attractive.
I am very pleased to be here tonight to express my personal, and the Government's support for the Heart Research Institute specifically and to say how fascinated I was like all Australians should be with the analysis with our I suppose heart health challenge here in Australia that came from Professor Barter to understand the progress that's been made and also to recognise the areas where further advances have to be achieved.
I am also looking forward to meeting and honouring some of the young scientists who are contributing so much and demonstrating to our country their commitment and their dedication. It's something of an old clich‚ to say that this country punches above her weight and that is the case in many fields, it's certainly the case in many sporting fields, but it is also markedly the case in medical research. And if you look over the years at the Nobel Laureates in the medical fields that are Australians, and you think of the magnificent contribution by so many Australians in the field of medical research, we can justifiably say that this country has punched very much above her weight in that area. One of the challenges we've had of course is making sure that the Australian diaspora in the area of medical research doesn't grow too large, and that was one of the concerns behind the introduction, amongst other things of the Australian fellowships some years ago and a number of the other measures that have been introduced by the Government as part of its commitment to medical research.
We shouldn't despair of some Australian diaspora, it's part of living in a globalised world, it's part of sharing the excellence that this country produces, it's part of enjoying the excellence of medical scientists from other parts of the world, but we do need to ensure that we have a proper balance, and that those who want to return to Australia feel it sufficiently enticing and attractive to do so. Marcus has been kind enough to talk about the Government's financial commitment to medical research and particularly the announcement made in the last Budget for the Heart Research Institute. I am particularly pleased to be able to say that by the year 2009 the Government will have increased by four times its annual investment in NHMRC grants for health and medical research since 1999. And I know we've enjoyed good economic times and surpluses have been strong and tax receipts have been good because business has done well but as you all know there are competing demands on the available taxpayers' dollar, and I have regarded it as an absolute long-term priority of the Government that we invest very heavily in medical research.
I want in reflecting on that to express a puzzlement about what appears to me to be something of a paradox in Australian society about matters relating to health. One of the things that can be said about Australia, apart from the fact that we produce outstanding medical scientists, and despite all of the criticism that is levelled against us, we do have a fundamentally very good health system. It's got a lot of weaknesses and you can criticise aspects of it, but I frequently say when I talk about Australia's health system, that if you are a battler it's better to get ill in Bankstown than in Brixton or The Bronx because the quality of health care in this country in our public hospital system in the fundamentals of Medicare which is now accepted as a permanent and enduring part of Australia's health system. We do do very well in comparison with the rest of the world. One of the things we are very good at is responding to what I might loosely call public health campaigns. It does truly astonish me whenever I go overseas to realise how far, notwithstanding the concern that Professor Barter legitimately expressed about the incidence of smoking amongst young women, it astonishes me at how much further down the track we are of eliminating excessive or indeed smoking by a significant number of our population compared with most other nations, particularly our neighbours in the Asian region and many countries in Europe, and particularly compared with southern and eastern Europe where levels of smoking are still alarmingly high.
We've responded to that campaign very well, there's been a mixture of government fiat, starting years ago in the 1970s with the removal of television and radio advertisements for cigarettes up to some of the more recent prohibitions. Now you can debate at the margin and as a reformed smoker of many years myself, I still have some I have to confess, I won't say lingering sympathy for, but sort of understanding that it is becoming a very persecuted habit, but it's in terms of public health, it's a justified persecution but it really is quite remarkable how far we've come down the path. But I also think it's very remarkable how far we have come down the path and how effective and early we were into the field in relation to public education concerning HIV-AIDS aids. And I know there has been debate over the years that we might have regressed a little, but when you think of the audacity of the campaign that was launched in the middle 1980s by the previous government and supported by the then opposition which very directly in a very frontal fashion, dealt with a major public health issue and I think Australia demonstrated a capacity to other countries to deal in a very direct fashion. I think we are entitled to say to ourselves we are very good. I also think of one of the earliest warnings that Michael Wooldridge, the first Health Minister I had after the 1996 election when he came to a Cabinet meeting and said 'do you all realise that this country now has 'Third World' immunisation rates?' And we set about in once again, through a combination of carrots and sticks including a requirement that you couldn't have access to certain family benefits unless the basic immunisation of your children had been carried out. And within a fairly short period of time, we had lifted those immunisation rates from the 50s up to the late 80s and into the early 90s.
So we have had very considerable success in those public health campaigns, yet we appear to be struggling as a nation with the challenge of obesity, something that's come upon us with alarming speed and something that is affecting all age groups. Now the reasons for it I think are obvious - the lack of exercise, bad diet, for many people are clearly and plainly, and I don't need to tell a room full of experts that they are overwhelmingly the reasons. Yet, despite our understanding of that, and despite the clear and obvious explanation, we don't appear, as a country, to have responded as effectively and as willingly to the challenges that those two things represent to our health. And I suppose what I am doing in expressing that puzzlement is also to express the hope that the discipline and enthusiasm if I can put it that way and support and recognition that we extended to our public health campaigns in areas such as immunisation, smoking and HIV-AIDS will spill over in time to our campaign in relation to obesity.
Could I make the observation that the Government can do a lot, but I do hope the community doesn't see obesity as a problem that can simply be solved by government regulation. I am not attracted to heavy handed prohibitions on advertising, I am not. I think that rather misses the point that a certain degree of individual responsibility and individual self-discipline and particularly an assumption again of parental responsibility and parental surveillance of the activities of children, what they eat, how much exercise they get, the balance between playing sport and other physical activity, and time spent in front of the television set and on computer games. I know as a parent of course my children have long since reached adulthood, these things are never easy to achieve a balance in, but I think it would be a mistake if the whole public debate about obesity revolved around the Government being required to pass this or that new law or bring down this or that additional regulation, I think they are part of it, but fundamentally I believe that obesity lies, the response to it does lie very much in changing lifestyle, just as it has become a total change in the way you relate to each other. I think of dinner parties 30 years ago that I attended where rooms were still full of smoke and compare that with dinner parties that we all attend now where people go out of a room if they still smoke. That kind of change in the lifetime of just about everybody and not everybody, but most people in this room - if we can do that in relation to something like smoking, there's no reason why we can't do it in relation to something like obesity.
A very interesting observation was made to me by Professor Fiona Stanley at a meeting of my science and technology council a few months ago, and she said the alarming thing about obesity is that it has come upon the Australian population in a very short period of time, that's the bad news. The good news is that because it's only been with for a short period of time, if we tackle it in the right fashion, there's no reason why we can't overcome it within a relatively short period of time as well. That is a good challenge to all of us, it's a challenge that can only be met through a combination of government responses and an assumption of personal and particularly parental responsibility and guidance in relation to the aspects of behaviour by children. So ladies and gentlemen, can I say again thank you for having me tonight. I'd like to join Professor Barter in paying tribute Marcus Blackmore, he's a very philanthropic bloke, he's not only doing great work as the Chairman of the Heart Research Institute, but in so many other fields of endeavour, he joins a very significant list of Australian business men and women, who yes they have been successful and they have done well and they've done well because they've been able and entrepreneurial, but they have been willing to give something back to their community and tonight is a demonstration of his commitment and your commitment to tackling Australia's number one killer, of re-dedicating ourselves to good public health outcomes and I think it's a wonderful cause and very importantly honouring those young scientists who really are the hope of the side and the key to longevity for so many of us for years into the future. Thank you very much.
[ends]