Prime Minister
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's great to be here at the Royal. It's great to be surrounded by such an amazing group of people, largely women. But there's a couple of us blokes here as well. And there’s good reason for that, because what we're here to announce importantly today is some really, really important changes that we're making in areas that so impact on the journey that particularly women have throughout the course of their lives. This is an area that has touched mine and Jenny’s life. But it isn't just about our story, it’s about the story of millions of women all around the country.
Today we’ve come together, and I want to introduce everyone who's with us. We've got Alex Wolfe from Endometriosis Australia. Gai Brodtmann also here joining us. Good to see you, Gai. I’ll come back to you in a second. Donna Ciccia who’s from Endometriosis Australia, Director and the Co-founder. We've got Professor Jason Abbott, who's here at the School of Women's and Children's Health. Dr Susan Evans who’s from Pelvic Pain Foundation. Jess Taylor from QENDO, which is Queensland Endo, and it's great to have Jess here. She’s going to make a few comments a little later. And Syl Freedman from EndoActive. And so you can take from that we're going to have a bit to say about endometriosis in a few minutes’ time.
But also together with us today is the Casella family, who I first met back in 2018. And Jon Casella and Rachael Casella are here with us, and Rachael’s going to have a bit to say about another very important announcement we’re making today. And Izaac Casella is here. He’s fast asleep in his pram, and he is the brother of Mackenzie, Mackenzie Casella. And Mackenzie’s Mission was named in her honour, and a number of years ago, back in 2018, we commenced the trial program, which was about genetic testing to support people who are looking to have children be able to get tested for a range of different genetic disorders that would enable people to plan and to have choices and to ensure that they could pursue their dream of having children, and at the same time, having greater confidence about the children that they’ll be bringing into the world and being able to raise. And they’re joined, of course, by all the grandparents, well, three of the grandparents are here today - David Banham and Wendy Banham. I didn't see Wendy before, she might be around here somewhere. And Ross and Linda Casella, so it's great to have all of you here with us to this very important announcement.
Now as I said, these two issues you mightn’t think are related - spinal muscular atrophy and cystic fibrosis and endometriosis. Well, when it came to our own journey, when Jenny was a mid-teen all the way through to her mid-20s, it wasn't until then that she learned that she was suffering from endometriosis, and Jenny has told her story over the last 24 hours. And I want to thank her, and I know everyone around me thanks Jenny for doing that. She told the story of crippling and terrible pain, and I knew it, because Jenny and I started going out when I was 16, and she lived through that, and she's incredibly tough, I know that personally. But this was the most awful thing to see someone you love going through every single month and not understanding why, having been to the doctor and been given some medication, but not understanding what was causing this every single month. And then, as I said, she was diagnosed with very severe endometriosis, and this happened at the same time that we were in the process of trying to have a family and understanding why we were having challenges there. And so these stories of fertility treatment and endometriosis for us came together.
And everybody's story about trying to realise their dream of having children is very different. For many, they are blessed and it just happens, and that's the majority. But there are millions of Australians for whom that is not their story, and for many different reasons, and endometriosis is one of them. But there are many others. And there are others who are seeking their dream of having children. And that dream, even after it’s realised, as it was the case in Mackenzie’s case, it’s crushed, because of debilitating diseases and genetic conditions that destroy life.
And so what today is about is saying to all Australians and talking to them about their dream of having children, their dream of trying to live a life which is pain-free, or as pain-free as you can make it, and being able to live with conditions like endometriosis and to be able to manage that pain about going about your life, about not having to plan your entire day about how you manage endometriosis - about the sort of jobs you can have, the sort of holidays you can go, whether you can go out at night, whether you can see your friends or, you know, whether you can even go and exercise, and ultimately about whether you can have children or not. What sort of job you can choose to have because you have to think about how you're going to manage that condition.
So we know, but that's not why we're doing it. We know as a family, Jenny and I, that it impacts just so many other lives. One in nine Australian women and girls suffer from endometriosis, and they suffer. I can't underscore that more strongly. It is a disease that you suffer with, and constantly and regularly, and it is unrelenting. It is so, so hard on people. And for those who love them, it is also very hard to see them go through it. And we're doing something about that today, and I'm going to come to SMA and cystic fibrosis in just a moment.
But what we're announcing today for endometriosis is a $58 million package, and this builds on the work Nicolle Flint and Gai Brodtmann started. Nicolle and Gai, when Gai was in the Parliament, they set up the Friends of Endometriosis, and there are others - Nola Marino, who's another colleague who's very passionate about this as well and her daughter and what they went through. And this was about Parliamentarians working together to bring the focus on a very important issue. Two, I know, very influential but very persuasive with Nicolle, and I'm sure Gai would agree with me, that's the way to describe Nicolle. And the two of them worked together to make sure we got focus on this issue, and began, we began the Endo Action Plan back there in 2018, and here we are today with a $58 million package, which is designed to address the many different needs - whether it is the specialised pain clinics, some $16.4 million, the pain clinics that are there to provide support to women and girls who are going through this terrible, this terrible condition, and how they can manage to get access to the right advice, the pain management, the options that they have in front of them. There is no cure for this, but all the time they’re learning better ways to how people can live with it and try and minimise the impact it has on their lives, that the rest of us take for granted in so many different areas.
There's support for the Endometriosis Management Plan, there’s support for clinical scientific trials, there’s support for clinical practice guidelines. These things make a huge difference in being able to early diagnose and support women early on. I can only imagine if how different Jenny’s life would have been had she found out when she was 16, not when she was, you know, in her mid-20s - 26 - and how different that could have been. And that wasn't the doctor's fault. Jenny at no time, I've never heard her say once, she's never blamed the medical profession for that. Not once. That’s just never as, that’s her nature, I’ve got to tell you. But at the same time, it's important that we get the education and the awareness, so clinical professionals and others know and can pick up on it and connect people to services, and that's what this plan is all about. There’s changes to the Medicare Benefits Schedule, there’s digital learning tools and education tools.
And so I'm really proud of this package because it's about focusing on the health issues that really matter to women and girls every single day. It's going to mean, I think, a better health future for our kids, for our young girls growing up, and going through a time in their life when everything's changing, everything's changing for them. Their bodies are changing, their health is changing, their outlook is changing. And to be having to deal with something like this at the same time and to have the support available is very important to our country. And I'm very pleased to ensure we've committed that in the Budget.
The other program we're announcing today is the realisation of Mackenzie’s Mission. And this was back in 2018, we put in place funding to begin a trial program, a trial program to do testing to check if couples were carriers of particular conditions - spinal muscular atrophy was one of those, SMA. And this is just a heartbreaking disease. It is just absolutely terrible. And Jenny’s got to claim some credit for our focus on this one too, because I remember, I told this story, you’ll remember that there was an awareness forum going on in the Parliament, not unlike what Gai and Nicolle would do on endometriosis. And this was on SMA. I was Treasurer at the time and Jenny rang me up. And she became aware of this because of a friend of hers in the Shire had had had experience with this and then suffered terribly. And she said, “What are you doing today?”, I sort of ran through what was a pretty busy diary. She said, “Forget it, you're go to that forum and you’re going to listen [inaudible].” And I did what any man in that situation would do and just say, “Yes.” And I'm glad I did. I walked in the back and I sat at the back of the room quietly, and I just listened to heartbreaking story after heartbreaking story.
And I walked out of there and I said, “We're going to do something about this,” and linked up with Greg Hunt and the Casellas, and we began that trial program that provided for the clinical testing of couples looking to have children who would have been going through the very things I've just been talking about often as well. And so we put Mackenzie’s Mission to work, and it’s done its work and it's proved to be incredibly effective. And so today we're announcing that we will help couples plan for their pregnancy by investing $81.2 million to create a new Medicare item to support access to genetic testing for three serious genetic conditions. And they are, of course, spinal muscular atrophy, cystic fibrosis and fragile syndrome. And so we'll be going forward with that. Mackenzie lives on in these programs and providing hope and reassurance and comfort to Australians as they're looking to create the most precious thing we have, and that is family.
So with that, I’m going to ask Nicolle to say a few words, and then Jess is going to speak about the measures that we've announced for endometriosis. And then Rachael is going to come and tell us her story as well. So thank you all very much for being here with us today.
MS NICOLLE FLINT MP, MEMBER FOR BOOTHBY: That definitely does deserve a round of applause. This is absolutely huge for Australian families, for women, for girls, but also the wonderful men in our lives who support us, whether it's through the tragedy that people like Rachael and Jon Casella have been through. And I know Ross and Linda, Jon's parents, really really well, and it's just devastating that they lost Mackenzie, but to have so much good come out of one beautiful little girl's life. And this is a huge announcement today. And PM I hope I do as well as you and don't get too emotional, because this is a really emotional day. Look, you know, giving hope to families, giving assistance to families and, of course, helping women and children and families with endometriosis, as well as the genetic testing announcement.
It is wonderful to be back here at the Royal Hospital for Women in Sydney. This is where in 2018 we announced the first ever National Action Plan on Endometriosis, and that is thanks to my former colleague, the amazing Gai Brodtmann, but all of these incredible women behind me, and Professor Jason Abbott, holding up the men’s team as well, and the PM and Minister Greg Hunt. So in 2018, we announced the first ever National Action Plan on Endometriosis. We had, we funded $22 million of research, education awareness, clinical practice guidelines between now and then. And today, we are announcing $58 million of further funding for endometriosis.
This is an absolute game changer for women and girls around Australia. The funding we are announcing today will change lives for the better, and I'm so grateful to the Prime Minister and Mrs Jenny Morrison for bravely and generously sharing their story because we know, and I know personally because I was quite shockingly to me diagnosed with endometriosis in early 2020, and knowing Jenny's story gave me a huge amount of hope. Because I knew a lot of horror stories and I knew that having a stage four endometriosis, which was the most severe form, my surgery was going to be complicated - it went for three and a half hours - and I knew a lot of horror stories, because Gai Brodtmann and I had done so much advocacy work together with these incredible groups with us today. But hearing and knowing that Jenny got through it, that she and the PM were able to have their two beautiful girls and that Jenny’s life was changed for the better and she was able to get her pain under control, she was able to finally get the help she needed was of such comfort to me.
And so there's a lot that we've announced today that will provide similar comfort to women, girls, families around the nation. The $16.4 million, course, for the pelvic pain clinics is crucial. If you can manage women's pain in conjunction with getting the endo under control, they can, like I do, like a lot of women in this room today, live very successful, fulfilling lives and have fantastic careers. So this is a game changer. No Government has ever done this in the history of Australian politics, and I just could not be more proud that we're rolling out the pain clinics in every state and territory. And part of this is the nurse navigators, which is critical to make sure that it’s every level of the health profession who are involved in treatment and support for women - allied health, whether that’s pelvic physios, whether that’s dieticians, of course, our specialist, pain specialists, GPs, nurses. We have proper holistic care for endo, which is what we will be supporting women and girls around the nation to to achieve. You can, you can have a great life and a very fulfilling life, and a largely pain-free life for so many women.
We are also, I’ve spoken about the power of other women's stories and how much that's helped me in my journey, and I know a lot of people here have shared their stories with me, and that's helped me as well. We’ve provided funding for a mentoring program for women who have just been diagnosed and need a little bit of peer to peer support to have that reassurance from other women that, they know what they’re going through, and it will be ok.
We are also, very importantly, funding some workplace education as well, because the more employers that we can educate about the impact of endometriosis and support the women in need, the better. Because as I hope I provide the example of every day, you can, you can work at the highest levels of Government with endo, you can do anything, as long as we get you the support and the medical care you need, which is precisely what $58 million in funding are doing today.
The Prime Minister has covered off on a lot of what we're doing. I just want to acknowledge, most of all, the incredible groups around me - the Australian Coalition for Endometriosis came together with, through Gai and I, we all worked together, way back in 2017, and decided as a group that we were stronger together and that we would achieve the change that Australian women have so desperately needed, if we worked as a team. And I am so proud to be here today with these incredible women and Professor Jason Abbott and the PM. And, you know, we couldn't have done it without Minister Greg Hunt, as well. So we've had incredible men supporting us. But ACE is comprised of the Pelvic Pain Foundation, EndoActive, Endo Australia, QENDO and Endometriosis WA, as well. These women have given years of their lives - and the blokes as well - have given years of their lives as, largely as volunteers. They've done this on top of their day to day jobs and things to support women when there was no support available. And I could not be more proud that Gai Brodtmann and I by a fluke chance, came together in the Parliament and have been able to support these incredible groups.
And another key announcement today was the $2.5 million for the continuous development and review of the [inaudible] of clinical guidelines on Endometriosis, which is for the medical profession to make sure that the voices and views of consumers, but also our health practitioners - our incredible, dedicated health practitioners like Dr Susan Evans and Professor Jason Abbott, continue to inform and update these guidelines so that they’re a living document, and Australia remains the place with best practice endometriosis treatment in the entire world.
So thank you to everyone who is here today. I cannot thank my incredible ACE groups enough, and I just couldn't be more proud to be part of a Government and to be led by the Prime Minister who listens and he cares. And he just spoke very, very passionately and in such a caring way about the Casellas. There is nothing more tragic than losing a baby. And as I said, I'm just so proud that we’ve got $81 million of funding to fund genetic tests so that, and that's all thanks to Mackenzie Casella. So her life will be remembered forever. So thank you all for being here.
PRIME MINISTER: Well said.
JESSICA TAYLOR, PRESIDENT, QENDO: Well, this is a great day for endo sufferers, and it's wonderful to have a Prime Minister who understands endometriosis in the way that you do, Mr Morrison.
My name is Jessica Taylor. I am the President of QENDO, and I'm here with my colleagues who form the Australian Coalition for Endometriosis - and that is Endometriosis Australia, EndoActive, the Pelvic Pain Foundation of Australia, and Endometriosis WA.
This is a welcome investment, and will positively impact Australian endo sufferers for years to come. It's people like Jen and others who share their story that the [inaudible] and national prominence and many, many more people will continue to share this story. And this is how we make action. This is a historic day. This is the largest investment into endometriosis from the Australian Government to date, and that's something worth celebrating.
As a Coalition, and the people around me, plus many more, we have been working tirelessly for many, many years to see some action, and it's wonderful that we can start to get the ball rolling. We're grateful to the Government for this investment and to those who have worked alongside us, and that is Nicolle Flint, Gai Brodtmann, and many other MPs who have advocated in the Parliament for this cause. We're really looking forward to implementing these initiatives with the Government and those who represent us, as well as the consumers who we represent. And together we are stronger and we will see change. Thank you.
RACHAEL CASELLA, MACKENZIE’S MISSION: Please forgive me, this was a very overwhelming day for me and for my family. This is the hospital where Mackenzie was born and this is not far from where Mackenzie passed away. Sorry. I’m overwhelmed. I'm just a mum who wanted to fight for change for my daughter. To many that are listening to this today, this might just be another piece of news. But for those like us that have lost a child or who are fighting through severe severe illness due to genetic conditions, this announcement is everything. The impact that this will have on the future is unable to be measured. The heartache it will save, the babies who won’t suffer, and the early access to treatments that this will provide. This is a huge step and it will make Australia one of the world leaders in genetic carrier screening. I hope that when the infrastructure grows, we will slowly be able to add genetic conditions to this screening.
This announcement comes after years of hard, hard work and pure passion from so many people. They are the unsung heroes. And I wish that all of Australia knew them.
Finally, words cannot adequately describe our gratitude and admiration for Prime Minister Morrison and also for Minister Hunt. We first met the then Treasurer and now Prime Minister Morrison in 2018, and he promised us change. We held our breath, fearful to have hope. But he was true to his word. They've given us the biggest gift that anyone could ever give a grieving parent. They’ve acknowledged our daughter Mackenzie’s life and the other children who should also be here in their parents’ arms or who are suffering from genetic conditions also. They’re showing us that not only do they care about our daughter and the other children’s lives, they are strong and resolute that it will not happen to other people in the future. Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER: Wow. Questions.
JOURNALIST: It takes about more than six years for a diagnosis. How much do you expect that to go down by as a result of this funding?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I might ask others to speak specifically about the clinical aspects of this. But for me, you know, a huge part of what this is about is the managing of the pain. And the research that helps us unlock how we might avoid this in the future. But it's the pain that changes people's life for the worst. And if you change how pain is managed, so people can live their life, then they can live their life for the better. So I would hope to ensure, it's a bit like when I was discussing yesterday about our towards zero suicide goal. What other goal would you have? How quickly would I like this to happen? Immediately. And that's the path I think we're on. And I think in all areas of technological development, in the management of so many of these conditions, it's improving all the time. And in Government, it's a matter of trying to help, and I really want to acknowledge Greg Hunt here, in in both of these areas. Our goal in working together has been just trying to get as much of the support to those who who have the conditions, and dealing with people on a day to day basis as we possibly can - whether it's the drugs they need under the PBS, whether it's the technology they need in their clinics, whether it's the research they need to back up, whether it’s the testing. All of this is designed to try and get the help there faster and sooner. But Susan.
MS NICOLLE FLINT MP, MEMBER FOR BOOTHBY: I might add to it PM, as well. Thanks PM, and I’ll ask Susan Evans and also Jason, Professor Jason Abbott to add to this as well. We have already done two key things that are absolutely critical to reducing the diagnosis time. First of all is the education for school girls, young women, but also men as well and boys. And we're seeing a lot of interest from schools who want both boys and girls to receive the education. But when women are empowered, when girls are empowered, when families are empowered with the information about what endometriosis is, what is and isn't normal when you have your period, then people can insist that they get medical assistance that they need. And of course, we have announced today $16.4 million for pain clinics and endometriosis pain and endometriosis clinics nationwide. So the biggest blockage, the biggest problem to date has been a lack of information, awareness and education within the general population.
Dr Susan Evans and the Pelvic Pain Foundation head up the PPEP Talk program, which the Federal Government provided funding for a pilot study and then last year in the Federal Budget, $5 million to take this nationwide, because the pilot was so successful and there's been so much demand with our schools, and that will change the diagnosis time because we will now have a generation of young women and their families who know exactly what their symptoms are and the help that they need to get.
The second thing that we've done that is absolutely critical, and Professor Jason Abbott has been heavily involved in this, is the development by RANZCOG, the obs and gynae peak body, of the clinical management guidelines, and that will be providing, well it does provide further tools, education to our specialists. It will be rolled out to GPs as well, and they can access it now. But part of that also, they developed a fantastic tool called the RATE - R - A - T - E - tool - so people can self-diagnose. So as a woman, if you think that something's not right with your period, Google the RATE tool run by RANZCOG, tick the boxes as you go through, and you you can self-diagnose, you can print it out, you can take it to your GP. And I tell you what, if I had that 10, 20 years ago, instead of getting to the age of 40, 41, when I was diagnosed, I would have self-diagnosed, I would have been able to take it to my GP. And so that's what we're doing. But the, we're doing so much.
We've already done so much in education awareness, but now we are completing the puzzle by providing the medical support through the pelvic plain and endometriosis clinics so that women can then get the specialist and allied health support that they need. Susan, would you like to add to that? And Jason might like to say …
DR SUSAN EVANS, PELVIC PAIN FOUNDATION OF AUSTRALIA: I'd love to. Thank you. I, my name's Dr Susan Evans and we’re from the Pelvic Pain Foundation of Australia. In May, we were absolutely thrilled as part of the National Action Plan for Endometriosis to receive $5 million to extend our schools program. We help students work out whether their pain is normal, the things they can do themselves, how to live a life of less pain, and where to go for help. It's actually a completely new approach to reducing that time to diagnosis and helping girls and other students stay at school and with a life with less pain. So we are incredibly grateful for the support we've had and we are rolling out in all states that will collaborate with us.
PROFESSOR JASON ABBOTT, SCHOOL OF WOMEN’S AND CHILDREN’S HEALTH: I’m Professor Jason Abbott, as you've heard many times today, and I think that the question is a really good one. About 20 years ago, when I first started in the area of endometriosis, the time to diagnosis was 12 years. We’ve halved that time, and we've halved that time through a number of initiatives, and the clinical guidelines that were put out through the European Society for Reproductive Health was a really important initiative in getting that, because it started people talking. We've released the Australian guidelines just last year - really scientifically sound, evidence-based guidelines, and the announcement today that we get to continuously update that is going to improve exactly what we're talking about, reducing that time to diagnosis. Susan's fantastic work with the PPEP program and PPFA means that we're talking to younger Australians, and that's a key and critical thing too. Having those conversations means we start rolling back the time to getting an earlier diagnosis. And of course, the more we invest in research, and we've spoken so much just about what happens with genetic screening. We may be in the process in future to be a world leader at genetic screening for endometriosis.
The UK Parliamentary Inquiry set a goal of one year to time to diagnosis in 2020, an absolutely amazing and fairly lofty goal. But I do think that we could get there, and this pack today does an enormous amount to roll forward those programs in Australia to make sure that we are at the forefront of endometriosis research, development and patient care. And we've had some brilliant news today about immediate care for all of those girls, those women and the gender diverse community who are suffering with endometriosis today.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you, that was perfect timing.
MS NICOLLE FLINT MP, MEMBER FOR BOOTHBY: I just, yes, I just finally say, I just want to actually say a huge thank you to all of our media here today, and again to to Scott and, the PM, and Mrs Morrison, Jenny Morrison. The more people who share their stories, the more people in high-profile roles, it's the reason why I was extremely public about the, I’ve spoken in Parliament a number of times. I told my story to the press when I was diagnosed - and I was, could not have been more shocked when I was - it’s the more that we all talk about the symptoms, the more we discuss share experiences, which is why the mentoring program’s important, why the information and awareness, you know, the $1.4 million for the endo digital platform, things like these spreads the information. It’s absolutely critical. This will empower women, girls, families to get the information that they need to get the help that they need. And I could not be more proud of what our Government has done.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks Nicolle. Questions.
JOURNALIST: I’ve got a question on another matter.
PRIME MINISTER: No, we’ll just stay with endo and [inaudible] first.
JOURNALIST: Can you imagine just what your life would be like if Jenny wasn't able to access that surgery that she had when she was 26?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, two parts to that. A, the endometriosis wouldn’t have been as advanced as it was when she had the surgery, and for blokes who are trying to understand what this is, I remember when I saw the image, image of the scan of when Jenny went to have her surgery, and this was after 10 [inaudible] failed IVF. It's it's like someone has basically ingested a tub of superglue and everything inside is just stuck together. And when you see it, it is, and I just looked at the surgeon, an amazing surgeon, Dr Alan Lam, and I said, “Mate, how are you going to clean that up?” And he said, “Very, very carefully.” And he did. And it was, it was a very invasive surgery and the skills of our surgeons, I’m in constant awe, and particularly Dr Lam.
But of course, yes, because the surgery, the endometriosis wouldn't have progressed as much as it had. But, in addition to that, the the opportunity to catch it at that time, you know, could have meant a very different path. But I I go back earlier to the very point that Nic was making. I mean, Jenny just felt that, you know, oh oh my, it's just more painful for me and, you know, other, my friends, you know, they take a Panadol or something. And it's it's unpleasant, but I there, there must be something wrong with me or something like that, and I just have to deal with it. And and if she understood and knew at the time, if there'd been greater awareness at the time, then Jenny’s life could have been very, very different. You know, we’re not, we're blessed. We’re amazingly blessed, we’re the first to tell you that. But yeah, no doubt it would change and it will change now the lives of one in nine Australian women in the future.
JOURNALIST: Your personal experience has obviously influenced your decision to put funding into this cause. But but exactly what else, I mean, obviously you're not doing this for personal reasons. What else, you know, has influenced you here, really pushed you? … Who else?
PRIME MINISTER: As as Nic said, Nic and Gai and Nola Marino, and Julian Simonds, he sent me a message …
MS NICOLLE FLINT MP, MEMBER FOR BOOTHBY: Yeah, we’ve got a lot of colleagues.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, a lot of colleagues. I mean, people who are elected to Parliament are like everybody else - they have their life stories and their life experiences, and there's more awareness of these things. I mean, you put 150 people in a room - you know, one in nine women for a start - and that's going to identify. But the work that is done by our Parliamentarians, particularly in these health areas, I think is extraordinary. And this is where Greg Hunt has been, I think, a tremendous Health Minister, because Greg’s ear has always leaned in to these, and it goes back to SMA. You've got advocates who are standing here, and I don’t mean advocates, I don't think I've ever seen any of you holding a placard in front of me. But you’ve spoken and Ministers have listened, and Members of Parliament have listened. And I can tell you that is the most effective way to get the message across. And I'm really glad Jenny said get yourself down to that meeting room and listen to those stories about SMA.
There are so many of these conditions and no politician can know about every single one and there are more. I could stand here and tell you stories about cystic fibrosis as well and many others, and Greg as well. But listening, trying to understand it and then how you can deliver the outcome. And so between Gai and Nic who sort of carry and work with the advocates to channel their priorities even in this package, trying to get the right balance of the things you need to do. That's that's Parliament and Government working at its best.
JOURNALIST: Questions on something else?
PRIME MINISTER: Before we move to others, yes.
JOURNALIST: I just want to ask one question about the sort of clinical pathway. So if for girls that go to the GP, how will she then be ending, able to end up at one of the clinics? What's the, is there a sort of pathway that’s likely to happen or a referral?
PRIME MINISTER: Susan, did you want to speak to that?
DR SUSAN EVANS, PELVIC PAIN FOUNDATION OF AUSTRALIA: I'd love to.
JOURNALIST: So we can give the audience a bit of an idea of how it works.
DR SUSAN EVANS, PELVIC PAIN FOUNDATION OF AUSTRALIA: Yes, with our PPEP Talk program, there's a whole range of different experience with teens. Not all pain necessarily needs everything. So we're looking all the way at locking, at unlocking all the places that might hinder her experience. So education all the way - educating general practitioners, educating health practitioners, making more information awareness, working in schools, working with community groups - all means that things get managed early and more effectively. I think the the pelvic pain clinics are just fantastic. They won’t, not everyone will need to go to one of these pelvic pain clinics. It will be for the most severe cases that need a lot of different things. But this whole community, the Australian Coalition for Endometriosis, everybody, we're all working on making that journey as smooth as possible. Everywhere we see a roadblock that could be tricky for somebody, we're working on reducing that roadblock for them, so that we can individualise care for each person that has those problems.
PRIME MINISTER: Terrific. Well, I'm going to thank everyone for being here, and then we, Nic, Nicolle and I can take other questions. So thank you all very much. And can I particularly thank you Rachael for coming and sharing your story with us so bravely. And we remember Mackenzie, and to you Jon and the rest of the family, but particularly to young Izaac, it's tremendous to see him here, there he is, looking great, he’s awake. Hey, hey Izaac. That’s that’s hope right there. So thank you very much for joining us today and for your tremendous support for this wonderful set of initiatives. Thank you.
Happy to take questions on other matters.
JOURNALIST: China has influenced, increased, rather, its influence in the Pacific. If Australia wants to be a leader in the region, should we have done more?
PRIME MINISTER: Pardon?
JOURNALIST: If Australia wants to be a leader in the region, should we have done more?
PRIME MINISTER: Australia is a leader in the Pacific region, in our Pacific family. Our Government has increased, first of all, the overseas development assistance to the Pacific by 50 per cent. We increased it from around $1.12 [inaudible] up to $1.7 billion, and this was part of our Pacific Step-up program. And what we did is meld that with our maritime security program, providing patrol boats into the Pacific so they can protect them, support their own ocean territories. We have done it through, we are the single largest provider of development assistance in the Pacific - daylight second, daylight third. And through the course of the pandemic, in particular, that has been our first and primary focus beyond our own shores.
And so whether it be Frank Bainimarama, I would speak to Pacific leaders or be in text contact with leaders almost every day, and certainly every week, and we are constantly in discussions about the many challenges they face, whether it's the volcanic explosion in Tonga recently, whether it was the measles epidemic that we saw up in Samoa, where we sent in our medical terms, whether it has been the many challenges we face up in Papua New Guinea and even now, the training bases for emergency service operators and those involved in peacekeeping missions up there near [inaudible], the Blackrock facility we put in in Fiji, the Pacific Finance Initiative, $1.5 billion - we have led in the Pacific.
But I think events that you've seen most recently, I think, only highlight the constant pressure and the constant constant push that is coming into into the region from interests that are not aligned with Australia’s and not aligned with those of the Pacific more broadly. I mean, we completed a 2017 bilateral security treaty for the first time back in 2017 with the Solomons. We deployed more than 200 AFP, Defence and DFAT personnel in the Solomons, and not for the first time, not for the first time. Whenever, whenever there is a crisis or an issue to be dealt with in the Pacific region, the first call that's made is to Australia because they trust us to be able to come and support them and do it in a way which is respectful of their culture, respectful of their history. And they see Australia as family, as they do New Zealand. And we work very closely, Prime Minister Ardern and I, in aligning our Pacific engagement with the region, and the rest of the world knows that. The rest of the world, our partners and their allies, understand that it’s Australia, working together with New Zealand, understand what's happening in the Pacific.
Now, there are others, there are others who may seek to pretend to influence and to seek to get some sort of foothold in the region. And we're very conscious of that and that's why we've been doing that work. We are not completely immune from the risks of that, but whether it's investing in telecommunications infrastructure or the electrification of Papua New Guinea itself, in partnership with New Zealand and the United States and Japan, when we sit around the Quad table with India and Japan and the United States, these are the issues we talk about in supporting the Pacific, as well as in Southeast Asia. So I think these most recent developments and the uncertainty and instability in the Solomons just highlights once again why it has been so important that we leaned in as carefully as we have. No Government has ever invested as heavily and consistently and recognise our responsibility in the Pacific more than our Government.
JOURNALIST: Will there be any response from Australia to this draft security pact with China?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we will see how this progresses. I mean, one of the ways you deal with your Pacific family is you deal with it as family. You talk about these issues as family. I mean, one of the first places I went after the re-election back in 2019, is Jenny and I went to the Solomon Islands. That's the first place we went, to the Solomon Islands, and I did that intentionally because I wanted to send a very clear message about where Australia saw its first priorities beyond our own shores. And that was to stand by our family in the Pacific to assure them of our continuing support. So when Fiji needed vaccines, who did they call? Australia. When they were called by another country seeking to have influence in the region, they said, “We're good, Australia’s got us covered.”
JOURNALIST: So have you contacted your representatives in the Solomon Islands directly, or are you leaving it up to diplomatic channels at the moment?
PRIME MINISTER: Manasseh Sogavare and I have had many conversations over the years.
JOURNALIST: But with, in the last 24 hours?
PRIME MINISTER: Not in the last 24 hours, and there’s dialogue that’s taking place there. But we we deal with these issues and we work them through. As you know, we have Australian Federal Police in Solomon Islands right now, guaranteeing the peace and security of the Solomon Islands right now. And the reason we're there is because Manasseh called me and asked me and said, “Scott, can you please send us support to ensure we can stabilise the situation here in the Solomon Islands?” I've I've visited their constabulary. I've thanked them for the tremendous work that they've done in Honiara. And you know, it’s a very good partnership.
JOURNALIST: Given that Australia's Ambassador met with the Solomons PM just before this deal, or this draft, was announced, was Australia blindsided by this deal?
PRIME MINISTER: No.
JOURNALIST: No? And do you worry that a naval base there would give China the capacity to block shipping routes from Asia through the Pacific to Australia?
PRIME MINISTER: One of the many reasons we’re so active in the region is that so we can ensure a free and open Pacific. Same reason we are so active in the Indo-Pacific region more broadly, up through South Asia, the Indian Ocean, up through the South China Sea, North China Sea, is to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific. Now there is, we share our Pacific family values. We share culture, the principles of democracy and freedom. And these are things that are very important to the Pacific Islander peoples. And that's why they can trust and know that we are their family partner.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, as we speak, there is a group of schoolchildren gathered outside Kirribilli House for the School Strike 4 Climate. What is your message to these children and should they be at school today?
PRIME MINISTER: My message to them is, as a Government we've taken on the challenge of climate change seriously. Australia has reduced its emissions by around 20 per cent. And I think it's important as young people are growing up and have an understandable keen interest in this issue, because it affects their futures. But I would encourage them to understand that Australia, contrary to what they might be being told by many people with other agendas, Australia is reducing its emissions by around 20 per cent. They probably mightn’t know that Australia has reduced its emissions by more than New Zealand, by more than Canada, by more than the United States, by more than Japan, by more than many countries in Europe. They might not know that, because they probably ever, only ever been told that Australia isn't doing these things, but the opposite is true. What is true is that as a country we're taking these issues very seriously, and we're doing things about it that actually reduce emissions. Now and it's not just about reducing emissions, because you've got to deal with the built-up existing impact of climate change. And so the impacts of weather events and these things are the product of things that have been happening for decades, not for a couple of years, for decades and decades and decades. And so we have to build up our resilience and adaptation, and that is exactly what this Government has been doing. It's not about just reducing emissions - that's incredibly important - but it's also about boosting our resilience. That's why we build dams and our adaptation. That's why we do fuel management in bushfire areas because we know of the climate impacts of what's going on.
As I said a few weeks ago, Australia is a harder country to live in now because of these changes, but those changes haven't been caused by a couple of years or even a couple of, ten years. It's going back over many decades. And so how we live with that over the next 20 years, that's why we invest in those areas. But it’s not just that. They may care to look and see what we're doing with recycling to keep plastics out of our ocean and how we're looking to conserve water. And the the bush-keeping and river-keeping initiatives that we're doing, and I encourage them, by all means express your view. It's a great democracy and I have no issue with that. But the learning gets done in schools and the learning gets done in understanding the many other facts that I think are very important to this debate. So we will continue on. We've committed to net zero by 2050 with a $21 billion plan, which is being rolled out now, developing new energy technologies and, importantly, getting them into industry into commerce, and not just in Australia.
Let me finish on this point on this question. It's not enough for Australia just to reduce our emissions by 20 per cent, as we already have done. It's not enough for Australia to achieve net zero by 2050. The whole world has to. And so if emissions are continuing to rise, be it in China or in Indonesia or Vietnam or South America, all these places, well, the world continues to get hotter. And so the solution, we believe, is technology that those countries can embrace at a cost that enables their countries to continue to develop and give their citizens jobs. You know, dealing with climate change is not just a advanced economies challenge, it is a global challenge. And so that's why we've developed partnerships with India. I was just speaking with the Prime Minister Modi about this very issue just last week, about how we can work together to help them transform their energy needs and how they’re acquitted over the next 20, 30 years.
See these countries want to go down that path, but we have to give them the tools and the technology to achieve it. If you believe in climate action, trying to ensure that our technologists can develop hydrogen, which can be put in place in Indonesia and India and other parts, and China and other parts of the world, that is actually climate action. So I respect their voice, I respect their opportunity to raise their voices. But I would encourage them to look at these many other issues because if you want to see climate action undertaken, then they’re the practical things that you need to do, and our Government is focused on the practical things, just like we've been focused very much here today on the practical issues of women's health and of of families looking to become families, as people go along that journey. And I want to thank everyone again for being here with us today. Thank you.