ADJOURNMENT

Senator POLLEY (Tasmania) (16:46): I rise this evening to thank Dementia Australia, particularly the Chair of Dementia Australia, Merran Kelsall AO; the CEO, Professor Tanya Buchanan; and the entire team—Eliza, Dr Stokes, Christine, David and the team—for the professional and enlightening Parliamentary Friends of Dementia event that I held as a co-chair yesterday in this place.

I'd also like to place on record our thanks to Minister for Health and Ageing Mark Butler for attending and speaking, for his strong advocacy of this issue for over a decade and for his great understanding and compassion for those people who have been diagnosed. I also want to acknowledge Minister Sam Rae, Minister for Aged Care, who also attended the event. I would also like to acknowledge my colleague here, Senator Ruston, the opposition spokesperson, for her passionate contribution that she made at the event yesterday.

This event yesterday was no coincidence. Why we held it yesterday was because action week is next week. Dementia Action Week runs from the 21 to 27 September.

Our theme is 'It's Time to Talk about Dementia', and you may ask: why should we be talking about dementia? I've spent a very long time in this place campaigning, getting support from the government and harassing the opposition when they were in government to make dementia—it's a very important health issue that needs to be bipartisan. After all, dementia is the leading cause of death for men and women in this country.

The reason we want people to talk about dementia in their communities, in their workplace and amongst their friends is that dementia does not discriminate on political grounds. It doesn't discriminate on postcodes. It can impact anyone.

We have to debunk the myth that dementia and Alzheimer's are just a part of getting older. It is not. This is why we have to talk about it.

We also have to talk about it because there is some wonderful support available through Dementia Australia, but we also need to educate our health professionals, our GPs, because, when someone comes to you, they've had a diagnosis of dementia and they have their carer with them, you cannot talk to the carer. You have to talk and look at the person who is on that journey.

We were so fortunate yesterday to have a panel of people. We had two GPS who specialise in dementia, and I give a big shout-out to them for the support that they give their communities. We had a young woman who is caring for her mother and spoke about how she missed some signs, and she felt that she had missed the opportunity to get that earlier diagnosis.

We also had the great delight to have a gentleman speak to us who has the had the diagnosis for three years, and I can assure you, when you heard him speak, you would never have been able to tell. If you walked into that room, you would not have ever expected that he'd had the diagnosis for three years. He spoke about how he had changed his life and his activities.

He comes from Wollongong, and, at 4.30 in the morning, every single morning, he goes for a swim in the rockpool. He said, yes, it is very cold during winter, but he does that because it's so important, as we age, to do different things to stimulate the brain, and he's doing that. It's also about making sure that you look after your brain, and that really starts from being a young person—all the way through.

You need to have a balanced diet. You need to lower your stress levels—maybe not become a politician—but you also need to make sure you exercise and eat well. You stay engaged.

The unfortunate thing is that we know that children have childhood dementia, and that is so, so sad. The other reason why we need to talk about dementia is that we need to improve the amount of time GPs get to actually do consultations with people as they age so that they can pick up the changes. We also need to ensure that people get an earlier diagnosis.

The earlier you get that diagnosis—there are medications now available to you. We've got great researchers in this country. There will be a breakthrough soon.

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