Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital Foundation Reception

Deputy Board Chair, Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital Foundation, Mr Stephen Burton and Board members; RBWH Chief Executive Officer, Ms Simone Garske, your staff, ambassadors and supporters; distinguished guests; ladies and gentlemen. 

I begin by acknowledging the Original Custodians of the lands around Brisbane, the Turrbal and Jagera peoples, and pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging, and to any First Nations people here tonight. 

This evening, I am immensely proud to be addressing so many people dedicated to advancing patient care innovation and life-saving medical research in Australia. While you each contribute to these worthy objectives in different ways, I am honoured, as Patron of the 40 Years Strong Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital Foundation, to acknowledge and commend your dedicated service to driving the successes that have been truly transformational to lives around the world. 

Now, as we approach the end of 2025, it gives me enormous pleasure to reflect on the highlights this year has brought, each demonstrating the potency of connection, commitment and incredible generosity.   

In January, I was delighted to attend the launch of this year’s special celebrations—cutting the cake alongside four-time Paralympian gold medal winner, and former RBWH patient, Curtis McGrath. 

March brought the 40 Years Strong Celebration for staff from RBWH, Redcliffe Hospital, STARS and the Institutes, while April saw the return of the much-loved Royal Run for Research. 

In July, the Celebration of Giving Breakfast honoured the generosity of donors and supporters and announced almost one million dollars in grant funding, followed in August by the Ruby Gala Ball—a wonderful showcase of the power of philanthropy. 

Throughout the year, the 40 Moments of Joy program has brought smiles to faces in the hospital community with the delivery of unexpected treats, visits by some of our state’s favourite sporting superstars, including Wally Lewis, and musical performances by members of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. 

While the 40 Strong Stories initiative, by the Foundation’s inaugural artist-in-residence Nick Earls—who is here with us this evening—has been immensely popular, and truly heartwarming. 

I am also thrilled that so many of the 40 health heroes from the entire hospital and research precinct are also able to be here, because it is their exceptional, ground-breaking work that truly showcases the strength and effectiveness of the Foundation itself. 

Some of these outstanding individuals include; Professor Jeff Lipman whose research into antibiotic dosing in critically ill patients has reduced sepsis risk globally; and Professor Barbara Leggett, who discovered that a type of bowel polyp, long considered benign, was causing 20% of bowel cancers. 

I have been privileged to work alongside so many of you. 

Of course, there would not be four decades of such success, without the kindness and altruism of Foundation donors and supporters, some of whom are with us tonight.  

Since 1985, the Foundation has funded more than $80 million in research and innovation across the Herston Health Precinct, changing world practice in areas as diverse as critical care, premature babies, burns and trauma, maternal health and cancer. 

It is your vision for a better future that has helped researchers tackle some of our most pressing public health issues, and I can’t thank you enough—on behalf of all Queenslanders—for ensuring the institutions the Foundation supports can continue to expand the frontiers of knowledge. 

In the words of retired RBWH Trauma Surgeon, Dr Daryl Wall, also with us tonight, “the RBWH Foundation inspires the imagination of the hospital, fuelling the optimism of health care workers, patients and families, by funding clinician-led research and innovation projects that improve health outcomes, today and into the future”. 

Thank you all for 40 years of remarkable service to the people of Queensland and beyond.