E&OE TRANSCRIPT
Topics: Men's Health Week, LGBTIQA+ Community, Joy FM 33rd Birthday.
HOST, DAVID MCCARTHY: Ged Kearney, also member for Cooper and Assistant Minister to Health, a great supporter of Joy. Thanks for coming down, Ged. How are you?
GED KEARNEY, ASSISTANT MINISTER: I'm very well, really well. Actually, got a little bit of a cold this morning.
DAVID MCCARTHY Yeah.
GED KEARNEY: Yep, keeping distance, keeping distance.
DAVID MCCARTHY: So, Men's Health Week. Tell us what's going on there.
GED KEARNEY: Oh, so much.
DAVID MCCARTHY: I know.
GED KEARNEY: Well, one thing we know about blokes is they're not very good at looking after their health. And that's, that's, you know, right across the whole beautiful diversity of manhood. And so, we're really encouraging people to seek help, first of all, for their general health. You know, go to the doctor regularly, get tests. But I think we are particularly worried about mental health, in particular. We know that there's high rates of suicide amongst men. We know that. And when men aren't well, sometimes when, you know, when you hurt, you hurt others. And that's something, you know, Macca, that I'm particularly interested in is the interconnection between mental health and family domestic violence.
DAVID MCCARTHY: Because there's a very clear link. There's a very, very clear link.
GED KEARNEY: There is a very clear link. We do know that when people are, you know, depressed, if you have moderate to severe depression, you're nearly 60 per cent times more likely to use violence full stop, let alone violence against intimate partners, which we know is a big concern. So, you know, we really - I'm in the business of, you know, my portfolio, I've talked to you about it before, is the prevention of family, domestic and sexual violence. I do certainly think that caring for people's mental health across all genders is a really important part of that prevention. We know that family domestic and sexual violence statistics amongst the LGBTQIA+ community is particularly high -
DAVID MCCARTHY: Yeah, overrepresented.
GED KEARNEY: Very overrepresented, and so it's something that I'm going to be working on a lot with these communities and something that I'm really interested in helping with.
DAVID MCCARTHY: We had a - You had a community morning tea recently, a couple of weeks ago, at the Pride Centre. And, you know, some of, you know, you were, you were there. And that, you know, that in itself is just so wonderful. But some of the messages that you got and some of the, you know, different parts of our community reaching out to you on the issue of domestic violence. Were you a little bit surprised or - although I think you're actually pretty much across the detail.
GED KEARNEY: Well, I was grateful, yeah, I was really grateful that everybody there was prepared to talk to me openly about it, because, I mean, you know, to be honest, the community faces so much stigma often, and discrimination, if you kind of add another layer to that, to say, well, we're dealing with these things, that can certainly be a barrier to wanting to speak about it. So, I was really privileged and really grateful to hear the communities talk to me about family, domestic and sexual violence and what an issue it is, and to come up with some really good areas for me to focus on. I was genuinely pleased that they thought my focus on, you know, working with healthy blokes, building healthy blokes, was a good idea. I've got to say I was a little bit concerned that maybe some people might think that's not the way to go. I'm not excusing people. I'm not saying that violence, you know, has an excuse. I'm all for accountability and it's got to stop. And no violence can be excused in any way, shape or form. But if there's a way we can get in there before violence starts by looking at helping grow healthy, robust men, I think we should have a go.
NEVENA SPIROVSKA: Ged, it's 33 years of Joy, and we're reflecting on how much has changed during that time. Give us a snapshot about where were you 33 years ago? What was happening in your world at the time? And give us a little bit of a journey from then till now.
GED KEARNEY: Crikey. 33 years ago, was I. How old was I? If I'm 62 now, do the maths. But how old was I? Somewhere in my late 20's?
NEVENA SPIROVSKA: [Indistinct] Chicken, I think they call it.
GED KEARNEY: I can't even think. Oh, my goodness. I was having babies back then, but I was working in the health system. I was a nurse working on the floor at the Austin Hospital. And look, I remember there was, you know, the LGBTIQ world was still very much hidden in a way. It wasn't nearly as open. Was this the 80s? Would this be the 80s or the 90s?
NEVENA SPIROVSKA: Thereabouts.
GED KEARNEY: I remember, you know, I've spoken about this before when HIV was a burgeoning or, you know, it was probably pretty established, but still, we didn't really know much about HIV and how to care for people with AIDS. Oh, look, I remember. When I think back now, I feel, I feel terrible about it, but, you know, somebody came into my ward with AIDS and they had to have an appendicectomy, for example. We would put them in an isolated room. We wouldn't let them, you know, we would gown and glove to go into that room. We would be literally sort of treating them like they had the bubonic plague. And we've come so far since then, and I think I feel terrible about that because I was part of that system. And then we had the wonderful Fairfield Hospital just up the road, who were open and beautiful and doing fabulous things, but that hadn't spread right across the health system.
So, from my personal experience, that's just one thing that has really changed is our understanding of, you know, things like AIDS. And I think more broadly, you know, we have Rainbow Tick in health now. We've got organisations that are trying to, you know, be places of preference for people in the community to go, which is great. They're all competing, almost like, come see us. So, that's a great new thing.
And I think, you know, we have health centres that are specifically for the community, which is wonderful. So, in my area of health, I think I've seen enormous change, and a lot of that is thanks to organisations like Joy, who bring that world out into the open for everybody to hear and everybody to see and feel the love and the wonder that is in those communities.
DAVID MCCARTHY: And I think one of the challenges, Ged, in health is, we've touched on it briefly, is about visibility, but there's also a segue there in terms of the work that Ro does at the training of Humanitarian Rights Commission is visibility, but having access to the service and being heard and, you know, on health issues, Ro, you've been around a little while, like me, and, you know, you remember HIV/AIDS. In fact, Joy started basically to get the message out about HIV/AIDS just up the street here in Coventry street. In all that time, Ro, the health challenges that we've all faced, but as a community, it's so important to be heard, but also for government to resource it, isn't it?
ROWENA ALLEN: Oh, absolutely. But the connection's really clear. You're discriminated against, it affects your health.
DAVID MCCARTHY: Yeah.
ROWENA ALLEN: Whether it's homophobia, transphobia or racism, you know, your mental health. I think. I think the work Ged's doing is extraordinary. You not only hosted the afternoon tea in the Pride Centre, but you hosted a breakfast.
GED KEARNEY: Yeah.
ROWENA ALLEN: Wasn't that great up in Parliament House?
GED KEARNEY: Yes.
ROWENA ALLEN: For the LGBTIQ Domestic Violence Awareness Day. So, yeah, that was great. And we had all rainbow members of Parliament coming to listen and. Yeah, yeah, that wouldn't have happened 33 years ago.
GED KEARNEY: That's true.
ROWENA ALLEN: You would not. We wouldn't have been allowed in the door three years ago of Parliament House.
DAVID MCCARTHY: We were there, but we were hidden.
ROWENA ALLEN: Oh, we were, yeah.
GED KEARNEY: That's true. And you're right, there were people from right across the whole political spectrum there, and I might have been a bit cheeky because I did pick up on one quite contentious issue that, you know, and I did say -
DAVID MCCARTHY: What was that? Come on.
GED KEARNEY: No, no, no.
DAVID MCCARTHY: No one's listening, go on.
GED KEARNEY: It was a serious issue. Because, you know, our trans community is really used in the political scene as a football, and it comes up time and time again and, you know, there's people, you know, I won't name names, but there are people in Parliament House who really play into that divide and it's awful. And so, I made a point of saying, you know, we hear you, we love you, we are out there to protect you as much as we can and celebrate you. And, you know, I got a little bit of interest in my comments afterwards for saying that.
DAVID MCCARTHY: Whats--Rowan and Ged, what is the most effective way, in your particular areas of work, to counter that? What's the most effective thing? I'll let you go first, Ro.
ROWENA ALLEN: Well, to do exactly what you did. Speak up.
DAVID MCCARTHY: Yeah.
ROWENA ALLEN: You're in these positions of power; you're in them for a short period of time. That platform is yours and you need to use your platform so you can't be what you can't see. Marginalised groups shouldn't have to stand up for themselves. Self-advocacy is great, but these are the roles that we have across governments and, you know, statutory bodies like mine, to stand up for people, to listen, to be the conduit. My role particularly to be the conduit between community and government. It's different, obviously, for a Minister, but we get away with different things.
GED KEARNEY: Can I just say, Ro, when I saw you in the room, I mean, seeing people like you there gives me confidence, it makes me think, ‘it's ok’, ‘I can do this’. You know, I've got comrades here with me. It's true, it's true. And I try to be a good ally, but then when I'm surrounded by great people, I think there's a lot of us and we're all here together, we're all in this together. So, thank you for the work that you do and for helping people like me stand up.
DAVID MCCARTHY: Now we've got a message from a fan, Ged.
GED KEARNEY: Oh, yeah.
DAVID MCCARTHY: Says, great to hear Ged on air again. It's reassuring to have the constant support of our community that you do so well for us, Ged. And thanks to Joy, with the constant engagement with our community.
And I do have to read this out, there's another donation. And don't think you're going to escape. 250 dollars from Sean in Brunswick.
GED KEARNEY: Yay, go Sean. That's great. Yeah, fantastic.
NEVENA SPIROVSKA: And just to round us out. We've got about a minute left. What's one message you'd like everyone to hear on our radiothon today?
ROWENA ALLEN: Today?
GED KEARNEY: Donate, donate, donate, please. Look, Joy is a joy. Joy is fantastic. They're so important on so many levels. I know, everybody knows. I have been a user of Joy for a lot of my messages, but also, I've been always welcome and it's such an important conduit for information and pleasure.
DAVID MCCARTHY: Thank you. And I always acknowledge this, but people say, oh, there goes Macca again. Ged Kearney, Peter Khalil and Josh Burns lobbied incredibly hard, incredibly hard. And what they achieved was for the first time in Joy's 32-year history, at that time, we got Federal Government support last year, $250,000.
GED KEARNEY: Are you going to ask me on air again for more money?
DAVID MCCARTHY: No, no, no. I reminded--I reminded you, I reminded you last time. But you know, that was an absolute watermark for Joy.
GED KEARNEY: Yeah, it was good.
DAVID MCCARTHY: In 32 years, we had not had one cent of Federal Government money. Ged, Peter and Josh made it happen. Our donation total this morning is pretty close to or just over $20,000.
GED KEARNEY: That's great.
DAVID MCCARTHY: Want to thank everyone for that. Final message, Ged and then Ro.
GED KEARNEY: Oh, I said mine. Donate.
DAVID MCCARTHY: Give them money, give them money.
ROWENA ALLEN: Happy birthday. Oh, yes. Happy birthday, Joy. Happy birthday to our community, all the listeners and all the volunteers. A big shout out. I'm surrounded by volunteers today, you go volunteers, makes the whole place run. Well done everybody for giving up, I think, Paul, you said ten Christmas days you've done.
DAVID MCCARTHY: Yes, we've done ten years.
ROWENA ALLEN: I think it is 10 years of Christmas days. May that keep going.
DAVID MCCARTHY: Yeah looking forward to it, and again, Ged, thanks for coming down again this morning.
GED KEARNEY: Okay, my pleasure.