Australia news live: AOTY winner opens up about cancer diagnosis; AFL clubs call for Australia Day change | Australia news

Australian of the Year gives emotionally charged speech about his terminal cancer

Daisy Dumas

Australians of the Year Prof Richard Scolyer and his research partner Prof Georgina Long are credited with saving the lives of thousands of Australians with skin cancer.

But Scolyer used his moment in the national spotlight to talk about his diagnosis with stage-four brain cancer and how it had been a “no-brainer” last year for the pair to use his condition to develop experimental treatments for brain cancer, even though it might shorten his life.

“I love my life, my family, my work. I have so much more to do and to give,” he said.

By undertaking an experimental treatment at the risk of shortening his life, Scolyer has advanced the understanding of brain cancer and is benefiting future patients.

He has generated public interest by publicly documenting his own cancer treatment and progress.

“I’m one of the many thousands of cancer patients who have travelled this path and thousands will follow,” he said.

“I stand here tonight as a terminal brain cancer patient,” Scolyer told the audience in Canberra. “I’m only 57, I don’t want to die.”

Long and Scolyer’s scientific partnership – the pair are co-medical directors of the Melanoma Institute Australia – has led to the use of immunotherapy in the treatment of melanoma. But it was Scolyer’s own 2023 diagnosis that led to groundbreaking discoveries in the life-changing applications of their immunotherapy approach when he and Long developed a series of world-first treatments based on their melanoma work.

“Devising this world-first experimental treatment for my type of brain cancer was bold. For me, the decision to take on Georgina’s groundbreaking plan was a no-brainer. Here was an opportunity for us to crack another incurable cancer and make a difference, if not for me, then for others.

“From where I stand, with the future now measured in months rather than decades, it’s impossible for me to properly articulate how proud and hopeful that this also makes me.”

AFL clubs Port Adelaide and the Western Bulldogs have released powerful statements calling for the date of Australia Day to change, Australian Associated Press reports.

It comes just days after Australian cricket captain Pat Cummins, then star batter Steve Smith, both voiced their push for a rethink on the January 26 public holiday.

AFL clubs have released statements in recent years, acknowledging the date is full of sadness for Australia’s Indigenous people.

But Port and the Bulldogs’ stance is stronger than ever, coming on Thursday, a day before Australia Day is officially marked.

“The Port Adelaide Football club acknowledges our First Nations people’s continuous connection to these lands for more than 60,000 years, and that the 26th of January represents a day of immense sadness and sorrow for many in our community,” the Power’s statement read.

“The Port Adelaide Football club respects that everyone has the right to their own views.

“The board, staff and players of the Port Adelaide Football club support changing the date.”

January 26 has long been a difficult symbol for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people given it marks the anniversary of the arrival of the British First Fleet into Sydney Cove and the raising of the Union Jack.

Bulldogs forward Arthur Jones labelled January 26 a “day of mourning”.

“Going to the march with all the boys last year … it’s called Survival Day in our term, the oldest culture alive,” he said.

Premiership midfielder Tom Liberatore added: “The longer I’ve spent time with First Nations people, particularly teammates now, to hear what you’ve got to say and hear what you’ve been through, allows me to understand a lot more,” he said.

“It’s only a positive thing to change the date.”

Good morning and welcome to our rolling coverage of the national holiday.

Last night’s Australian of the Year award has revealed a truly heroic story with Prof Richard Scolyer, the cancer researcher who jointly won the main prize, revealing how he selflessly used his own terminal diagnosis to pioneer treatment that could save more lives in the future. But in a heartbreaking speech he said: “I don’t want to die.” In the Australia Day honours revealed last night, there were also awards for paralympian Ellie Cole, author Pamela Allen and broadcaster David Koch. More coming up.

A key adviser on the voice referendum has chosen the most difficult day of all for Indigenous Australians to say a treaty and truth-telling processes is needed “more than ever” after the defeat of the October vote and the government should press on with the process. Marcus Stewart, a former co-chair of the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, said the unsuccessful referendum campaign had highlighted the gaping disparities in health and social outcomes for Indigenous people.

Another Australia Day has arrived with yet more proof that it’s becoming harder to justify the date of 26 January. As an example, Paul Daley points to conservative Cricket Australia’s distancing of itself from the celebrations and writes that “no matter how indignantly the woke-as-a-pejorative crowd screech … about the politically correct trying to steal their day, the cultural tide is ebbing fast”. Find out here which Invasion Day events are taking place near you.