STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

Ms PAYNE (Canberra) (13:46): This morning, Brain Tumour Alliance Australia's Head to the Hill event was an important reminder of how insidious brain cancer is. Part of the event includes displays of shoes representing lives touched by, or lost to, brain cancer. My constituent Amanda Redford stores the shoes at her home and helps with the display.

One little pink sparkly pair of shoes belonged to her six-year-old daughter, Ava. I attended with my staffer India Bishop, who lost her father, Mark Bishop, in 2020 to this awful disease, and I saw his best Crocs on display there. Zoe Spry, who is another constituent of mine, and her two children walk to raise funds each year in honour of their husband and father, Sim, who was lost to this disease at just 39.

The fact is that this is a cruel and deadly disease, and the statistics are bleak. Survival rates have barely changed over the last 40 years. While survival rates have improved for many other cancers, only 24 per cent of people with brain cancer survive beyond five years.

Each year, more than 2,000 people receive a diagnosis and about 1,600 die from the disease. But this event was an important reminder of how we can change this. The truth is that we need to invest more in brain cancer awareness.

The report they launched today has eight important asks with three key themes: that every person in Australia affected by brain cancer has access to world-class research, clinical care and support, wherever they live. We know that investment changes outcomes, and it's important that we do this.