STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

Ms CLUTTERHAM (Sturt) (13:37): With the support of the Assistant Minister for Social Services, Ged Kearney, and the Special Envoy for Men's Health, Dan Repacholi, I recently facilitated a men's health forum in my electorate of Sturt. We had over 100 RSVPs, who listened to panellists from Fat Farmers, the Burnside men's shed, Breakthrough Mental Health Research Foundation, the Good Better Best Men, the Men's Table and Professor Gary Wittert, Mortlock Professor of Medicine at Adelaide University and a senior consultant endocrinologist at the Royal Adelaide Hospital.

The discussion was lively, honest and productive, with questions being asked by those clearly in the over-80s age group but also by young students from Pembroke College, Saint Ignatius' College and Saint Peter's College. The message to the men of Sturt was that there are physical and mental health support services out there. They are only a phone call or an email away.

There are dedicated and empathetic men in our community who routinely do what they can to support other men, young and old. The other message from the forum was about the benefits of a healthy community. We talk about men's health and women's health, but when we do what we are really talking about is human health because we know that we don't have economic prosperity, improved productivity, qualified workers or entrepreneurs without a healthy population.

A healthy population underpins and drives a healthy economy.