The Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital Foundation Presentation of Research Grant Awards
10 February 2009
The Honourable Stephen Robertson MP, Minister for Health;
Dr John Herron, Chairman of the RBWH Foundation;
Mr Mick Reid, Director-General, Queensland Health;
Dr David Alcorn, Executive Director of the RBWH;
Professor Keith McNeil, District Chief Executive Officer, Metro North Health Service District;
Dr Cherrell Hirst, of the Avant Mutual Group;
Mr John McFarlane;
Research Grant Recipients;
Ladies and gentlemen.
In the spirit of reconciliation that we wish to see respected and promoted throughout Queensland, I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we are gathered, the Jagera and Turrbal peoples and their descendants.
I am pleased to be able to join you today at this awards ceremony, one of the most important functions organised each year by the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital Foundation. My first formal interaction with the Foundation was last October, when I attended the annual Butterfly Ball - quite a remarkable event to help raise the profile of the Foundation and to generate more support from the community for its activities.
Such promotional efforts are vital - as vital, in their own way, as the research activities we are recognising today - for without community support, without the generosity and the continuing financial contributions of individuals and organisations, we simply could not sustain the work being carried out at the Hospital and in its world-class research centres.
It is important that we maintain vigorous efforts to inform the public about the level of activity in these Centres, about the breadth of research being carried out and about its significance for the State and for the population. The experts know... the medical community knows... individual families who have been affected by the research, as we have heard today and those involved with clinical trials know... but how many others?
We need to reach out and broadcast to a larger audience the extraordinary quality and achievements of our scientists, of our doctors and nurses and medical researchers. We need to encourage greater awareness and appreciation of their work: AND we need to secure even greater support and funding in the future.
This is not easy. It is never easy and is likely to be harder in the future.
I say this for three reasons:
Firstly, there is the problem of complacency, of familiarity: The Foundation has been in operation for almost a quarter of a century - since 1985 - and the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital has been part of our landscape for so long, from its initial role as the ‘Lying-in Institute" - that what they deliver (in every sense of the word!) can too easily be taken for granted.
Most people would be aware that RBWH is the largest hospital in Queensland, but do they know that it is the largest teaching hospital in the southern hemisphere? Do they know that the Burns, Trauma and Critical Research Centre was an Australian "first", combining these three fields of expertise? That the substantial reduction in premature baby deaths in Queensland is directly linked to the work of the Research Centres and the Foundation? Do they know that a groundbreaking survey of post-menopausal women is underway - whose results are eagerly awaited across the scientific and wider community, in Queensland, in Australia and internationally?
I spoke of three problems; three areas of difficulty.
The second is the problem of competition for funding. I know this at first-hand, perhaps almost better than anyone. As Governor, I am Patron, not just of this Foundation, but at last count, of 151 organisations, all of them very worthy, most of them heavily reliant on volunteers and nearly all seeking financial support, well beyond what governments can provide. It is a very crowded space, even in affluent times: and when we are confronted with emergencies, such as the terrible, heart-breaking bushfires in Victoria and the devastating floods which have affected more than 60% of our State in recent weeks (and having just visited Ingham and other affected areas over the weekend, I am concerned this will have an economic impact for months to come). When these sorts of emergencies occur, the demand for ordinary people in the community to extend their compassion, to contribute to special appeals is obviously very great - indeed, compelling, adding to the pressure on community organisations, like the RBWH Foundation, working steadily and quietly to maintain their activities and operations.
The third problem is the larger economic context in which we are operating today: a particularly challenging one, as the shock waves from the global financial crisis continue to reverberate through all the world's major economies, Australia included.
So - all in all, it's a tough picture, but not, I think, a bleak one.
Again, I'll give you three reasons:
Firstly, I am encouraged and impressed that last financial year, Queenslanders generously donated $1.8 million to the Foundation.
With a population which is growing more rapidly than in any other part of the country - an enviable quality of life, in relative terms, and a year-long celebration in 2009 of Queensland's distinctive identity and of what is good about our State, we could imagine many Queenslanders remaining receptive and being responsive to appeals to maintain their generosity to such an iconic and historic institution as the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital.
Secondly, I am deeply impressed and proud of the quality of the scientific research being carried out in our State and in all the Centres which are operating under the auspices of the Foundation - as illustrated by today's research grants and awards; and I believe that with a strong drive to educate the public more about the excellence of the specific research work now underway or planned - and more generally about the value of such research to the economy and the community, that we should be able to persuade people to sustain their support.
Thirdly, while funding appeals can be linked, quite appropriately, to sentiments of generosity and compassion, there are some very good arguments to be made about the economic sense of investing in research; and some striking facts about that value and benefit to the economy that can be publicized and publicized better - facts which may have more of an impact on hard-headed CEOs and Boards than appeals to their altruism and sense of humanity.
For example, an Access Economics report tells us that medical research returns to the Australian economy an average of $2 and up to $6 for every $1 spent. This same report calculated that Australian health and development expenditure between 1992 and 2004 was estimated to return over $29 billion. Indeed this investment outperformed the returns from manufacturing and agricultural sectors; or, the studies and reports that demonstrate the returns that come in the form of savings through reduced incidence of disease. To give but one example: it is estimated that the ability to reduce Alzheimer's disease by 5% through Australian Research and Development will produce savings of around $10.3 billion by 2050.
I know I don't have to tell this audience - especially our Foundation Chairman or the Minister or the Director-General of the Health Department, that such research-generated savings will be crucial, given the inexorable rise in the cost of health care and Australia's ageing population. (Fifty years ago men and women's life expectancies were 73 and 67. Now they are around 83 and 78 respectively. Leon Eldred in his well known quote laments on behalf of many of us that "If I'd known I was going to live so long, I'd have taken better care of myself").
However, as will be clear from my remarks, I believe we will all need to do more in the future to get the message out about just how much Queenslanders stand to benefit from the Foundation's activities. Today's research grant announcements - which I hope will be reported by the media - will make our task - and this challenge - easier, underlining as they do the exceptional diversity and quality of our research community. I congratulate all the recipients and those who have helped make the awards possible, including Savant and the other generous supporters and sponsors. I will be watching with great interest to see the results of your research down the track and I look forward to being given even more reason, as your Patron and as Governor, to proclaim and to promote the excellence of the Hospital, the Foundation and the Research Centres to the people of Queensland and beyond.