Asbestos Awareness Week

My second post in one day.  That is a bit of a change of pace.

This week is Asbestos Awareness week.  We had a press conference this morning and I had to talk in front of all these microphones and cameras.  I really didn't like doing it but thought it is important to get the message out because there is so much Asbestos out there.  I don't know all the channels the cameras where from but the only logos I saw on the microphones were from channel 9, SBS, and 3MMM.

Tomorrow is another big day.  The forum will be launched and also for Asbestos Awareness Week there will be a commemorative service held at the Edge Theatre, Federation Square at 11.00 a.m.  There is also a BBQ after the service on the banks of the Yarra so any of my blog readers who are from Melbourne are most welcome.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention.  I went shopping last week and bought myself a Mini Cooper S Cabrio.  So if anyone wants to go for a spin, I get it in about a week and a half - just in time for summer.

I have attached photos from the press conference this morning.

My Trip to New South Wales and Queensland

Well I keep saying that I'm going to start posting more regularly but then never do.  This time for sure....

Well I have been busy.  Tomorrow we launch the forum for ADSVIC  to coincide with Asbestos Awareness Week.  Today I did a media press conference.  More about that later but I have been meaning to post about my holidays when I went up to NSW and Qld so I'll do that first.

We left on Tuesday the 23rd. of October to Sydney and went straight to our accommodation for that week at the Bondi Serviced Apartments which I don't recommend to anyone.  We met up with Judith for drinks and it would have been for dinner too if Dave hadn't accidently whacked their son on the head while playing tennis with their Wii game console.  They had to rush him off for stitches. 

Next day we went sailing in Sydney Harbour with Ian Lacey and his band of retirees.  It was a boat race but we lost.  I wasn't much help in the race but it was a fun experience.  The rest of the holidays was spent catching up with so many people I hadn't seen for years.    I saw Mark and Roland - ex Adelaide people. I also say  Raveena who I was friends with from when I was in Israel way back in 1980 and she had some fantastic photos from back then which were amazing to look at.  I also had dinner on Friday night with Joel, Sandra and Danny.

After Sydney we flew up to Byron Bay and stayed with Igor.  We visited Michael Strum who lived somewhere near Nimbin.  We then drove up to Bunderim in Queensland and stayed with Manny and Smadar.   We then went back to Byron Bay and stayed with Michael Goldberg for a couple of days before flying back to Sydney and staying with Joel.  On the last day we went to Margo's place who lives right on Rose Bay beach - pretty nice view of the Harbour Bridge from there.  After that we went to Bondi Beach to see a sculpture exhibition.  The weather was so beautiful but we had to fly back to Melbourne.  I felt like I really wanted to keep going but we had to come back for the court case which I mentioned earlier

I thought it was great to catch up with so many friends, especially ones I hadn't seen for so long.  Patrick on the other hand thought it was all a bit too rushed and would have preferred to stay in fewer places for longer.  I can understand that.   

The photos from our trip...

top left:  A basketball match between Sydney Kings and Adelaide 36ers that Mark took us too.

top right: View from Margo's house on Rose Bay beach front.

middle left: Michael Strum with daughter.

middle right:  Clockwise - Patrick, myself, Michelle, Judith - dinner at Kobe Jones Restaurant.

bottom: Bondi beach sculpture exhibition with Ari, Ella, Judith and myself.

Case against James Hardie

One thing I never mentioned in my blog up until now was that I had a legal claim that was due to go before the Supreme Court against James Hardie. I didn't mention it because I wasn't sure what I could say and was scared that I might say something that could prejudice the case so I thought it was better not to mention it until it was over. If anyone read about it from some of the newspapers on Thursday you will know it is all over.  And sorry if the whole thing came as a bit of a surprise to many of you.

Well the case was due to start on Thursday morning and while we were sitting in court, James Hardie's people ask if the judge could come half an hour later, and then their people spoke to my people (Slater and Gordon) and then my people spoke to me and this went back and forth for a while until we all agreed on a settlement. Now part of the settlement is that I am not allowed to disclose how much the settlement was so please don't ask me.

My father was due to give evidence at my trial that afternoon but not only was he in severe pain due to a pinched nerve and was walking around on crutches but my parents were also about to move the next day to a retirement village so they were right in the middle of packing up their whole house. The timing couldn't have been worse for them for the court case so a settlement was very welcome indeed.

Also very welcome the same day was news that Alimta had been recommended by PBAC for listing on the PBS. We got news about it straight after the settlement while were having a drink with my legal team. I mentioned that it was only going 'public' on December 14th and that was still the plan on Thursday but I guess it didn't stay 'private' very long.

Later that day I was contacted by a couple of journalists about it.  While a lot of the questions I was asked were about what I thought of Alimta, I don't the articles even ended up mentioning any of that but just talked about me and my settlement.

Here are links to the article from The Age and from the Herald Sun.

I will still as promised post about my recent trip away.

Back from my break

I am back in Melbourne after taking off for 12 days to Sydney upper NSW and Buderim in Queensland.  I will write more about that later.

During my first week in Sydney both Josie and Judith Lacey worked hard and spoke to various people of influence to help get some attention for the Alimta campaign.  It was about to be decided on by Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) and so I appreciated the efforts of them both of them in helping to get this important issue heard.  

Josie was successful in getting Cameron Murphy of the Civil Liberties Council of NSW to talk about my blog on radio 2UE to highlight the cost of the Alimta drug and the unfairness in its availability to those that can't afford it.    Here is link to it.  They talk about it about 15 minutes into the radio show.

The submission for PBAC was on the 31st of October but the outcome won't be public until December 14th.  I'm not sure why it takes so long to be public.  I don't know if the fact that there are elections are responsible for this or not.

Anyway I will write about the rest of my trip and put up photos.  I just wanted to get this bit up first.