Speeches
Tuesday, 15 April 2025
Reception for supporters of the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute
Rod and I warmly welcome you to Government House.
To an audience such as this, I need not emphasise the importance of medical research and its application.
Being your patron gives me the enormous privilege of lending the support of my office to your world-leading endeavours that are preventing disease, finding better treatments, and discovering cures.
Rod and I have been pleased to engage with SAHMRI and its team of researchers and corporate staff - touring your facilities, attending launches of SAHMRI initiatives, and welcoming your senior leaders and researchers to various Government House events.
From these experiences, we have seen that SAHMRI is finding solutions where they are desperately needed.
We have seen that SAHMRI researchers are curious, innovative, and determined to search for breakthroughs that will have impacts here, nationally and across the globe.
It is well known that research can be a long and painstaking journey, but in just over 11 years of active research, SAHMRI has made important breakthroughs.
Developing a new non-opioid, pain relief drug; conducting leading research into chronic myeloid leukaemia, now effectively curable; uncovering the capacity of omega 3 supplementation to reduce the risk of pre-term birth, and more.
These developments are changing lives and will continue to do so.
SAHMRI has also been at the forefront of preventative health policy, working with government policy makers and non-government organisations to develop programs aimed at tobacco control and e-cigarettes, alcohol consumption and obesity prevention.
We have also been pleased to see SAHMRI’s development of the SA Aboriginal Health Research Accord, an indigenous community-informed blueprint for conducting ethical and effective research with indigenous people and groups.
This accord is used at SAHMRI and across our three South Australian universities.
Friends,
This evening we gather to thank the donors and supporters whose efforts are integral to the success of SAHMRI and to its future.
I thank donors for their generous financial support, essential to not-for-profit research organisations, as well as the other manifestations of philanthropy that SAHMRI enjoys.
I thank those who work in a voluntary capacity, including the Board Directors, tour guides, and others who contribute to events.
Great research cannot happen without input from people who have, or are, living with the conditions that researchers are trying to treat and overcome. I thank the patients who take part in clinical trials to validate new diagnoses and treatments.
I also thank those of you who act as informal advocates for SAHMRI, sharing its work with your networks of friends, family and colleagues.
This is also extremely valuable.
Looking to the future, SAHMRI is poised to continue its trajectory of impressive research breakthroughs.
I look forward to seeing them translated into real-world applications.
SAHMRI also faces a range of challenges, which I am confident will be met admirably by the Board and staff.
I wish the organisation every success for the future as it continues – through research excellence, innovation and strategic partnerships - to ensure healthier futures for all Australians.