Mr Pasin (Barker) (16:46): The Male Bag Foundation raises funds to purchase equipment for public rural and regional hospitals to improve prostate cancer diagnoses and treatment.
The Male Bag Foundation was established in July 2011 when a couple of men looking for an adventure decided it’d be a good idea to ride from Perth to Melbourne on motorbikes. Incidentally, they didn’t own motorbikes nor did they have licences, but they did it anyway because it was a great cause, raising community awareness for prostate cancer and associated issues.
Eight years on and they’ve raised over $1 million for specialist medical equipment for rural communities like mine. In October, the Male Bag Foundation will ride through the greatest electorate on earth. For those who might not know, that’s the electorate of Barker! On their ride of more than a thousand kilometres, they’ll raise funds for transperineal biopsy machines in the Riverland and the Limestone Coast.
This will be a great addition to other services recently announced in those communities, in particular an MRI license for the Riverland.
I’m also looking forward to the new radiation services rolling out on the Limestone Coast next financial year, as announced by our government in April last year. In the time I have left, I want to confirm for the House that I’ve been spending my time advocating for a prostate cancer nurse for the Limestone Coast as one of the additional 34 Commonwealth-funded nurses announced in last year’s budget.
