Ms ADDISON (Wendouree) (14:43): My question is directed to the Minister for Innovation, Medical Research and the Digital Economy.

The Andrews Labor government is leading the nation in the fight against brain cancer and providing improved treatments and outcomes for patients and their families. How will the Victorian government’s investment of $16 million into the Brain Cancer Centre improve brain cancer diagnosis and prognosis for paediatric, adolescent and adult patients?

As a community we all know friends and families that have been touched by this heartbreaking disease. Brain cancer has the lowest survival rate of almost any cancer. The disease does not discriminate. Brain cancer kills more children in Australia than any other disease. Four out of five patients die within the first five years of diagnosis.

For some of us this is personal. I recently lost my father to brain cancer. He passed away 20 months after his initial diagnosis. To date, little is known about its treatment and progress has been slow, so I thank the government for this investment.

Read the Minister’s response here – or for more of my contributions in Parliament, click here.