Page 526 - Week 02 - Thursday, 11 February 2021
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contribution to advance consumer participation in health care. Indeed, I first met Russell when I worked for the Consumers Health Forum in 2001—20 years ago.
He has had a long history working on the oncology users group at the Canberra Hospital, and at the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards; and on the board of the Consumers Health Forum, the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards and the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, to name a few. Importantly, over his time he has mentored many consumer advocates, including Darlene Cox, the current Executive Director of HCCA. Recently, I understand, he has been testing out our public health system. I am advised that consumer advocates call this “field research”. I wish Russell well in his recovery.
Lastly, I was saddened to hear of the recent death of Roger Killeen. Roger was a long-time and active member of the HCCA, joining in 2002. He was a very experienced consumer representative and represented consumer interests on a variety of committees at a local and national level. This included significant work on diabetes services, point of care testing and our much-loved walk-in centres.
Roger lived with type 1 diabetes for more than 50 years and was very focused on improving outcomes and the experience of care for people living with this disease. Roger was a previous president of Diabetes ACT and was awarded life membership in 2017. Roger felt that his 40 years in the Air Force prepared him well to be an effective consumer representative.
I know his colleagues at HCCA will miss Roger. His contributions to HCCA over the years were greatly appreciated by many members. They remarked on his constantly calm manner. They have described him as an enthusiastic contributor, a stalwart and, like many in the consumer movement, a deeply passionate man. My condolences go to his wife, Koraline, and his family.
In closing, my thanks go to all who continue to participate, to advocate and to share their expertise and knowledge to help us build a better health system. Consumers, carers, families and experts in bringing lived experience to the table to improve outcomes—thank you, one and all.
UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
MS CLAY (Ginninderra) (6.02): I would like to talk about the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. On 22 January this year, the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons came into force, making nuclear weapons illegal under international law. The treaty prohibits all aspects of the development, testing, production, use and threat of nuclear weapons. It currently has 86 signatories and 52 ratifying state parties. Unfortunately, Australia is not one of them.
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, also known as ICAN, was founded in Australia. ICAN promotes the treaty. In 2017 ICAN was awarded the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for its work in drawing attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons, and for its groundbreaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons.
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