Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Vocational Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Given that there only a few minutes left before adjournment, I might take this opportunity, that I have been looking for over the week, to let the House know about an activity in my area that I was able to attend on 8 March. It was the 15th annual Bowelscan launch by our local Rotary clubs, who do a fantastic job with this program. It is great that governments of both persuasions have gotten behind it and expanded the Bowelscan program as a preventative health measure.

I just want to acknowledge Alf Harley, a great local Rotarian who started it 15 years ago, and who is well supported by the clubs across the region. We have a guest speaker, Professor Ian Olver AM, who is the CEO of Cancer Council Australia. He made the point very well that it is one thing to get the scan program out, but we have to also make people aware that they need to take the test and return it. Prevention relies on you actually participating. We have a great song. I will not give you the lyrics, but I encourage people to imagine local musician Graham Wilson, who has a song that reminds us of the important of the Bowelscan program. All over there are locals getting together, such as Ryan Park the member for Keira, Gordon Bradbery the local mayor, local GPs and Southern IML Pathology, all coming together to support a really important and great initiative.