00:00How's that one? I do feel I don't have a lot more time than I've had.
00:05I want to say thank you, everybody, for being here today,
00:07particularly on this chilly camera morning.
00:10And I want to say thank you, particularly to Ivan and Marty,
00:15who were following those two. They're both speakers.
00:16I'll take it to my own support.
00:19I've got three people I want to thank today.
00:21I want to thank my mum, Jane, for being here.
00:24Mum told me everything I know about community and volunteering.
00:27I want to thank my better partner, Laura O'Neill.
00:30Who helped me make most of my income giving away.
00:32And I want to thank my best friend, Ben,
00:35who understands more about population health than I'll ever know.
00:39And he explains to you in mathematical terms
00:40why this is a really important thing for the camera and the community.
00:45This initiative matters to me because it's about community care.
00:48And it's about equity in its most practical form.
00:52Your chance to survive a sudden cardiac arrest
00:54should not be determined by your postcode or your income.
00:59Yet today, that is often the reality.
01:02I live in Kingston.
01:03I walk around the lake.
01:04I stumble into these things.
01:06You know, there's four of them for sure online.
01:09But not all of Canberra, not all of the capital,
01:12our community has that advantage.
01:15Access to AD is uneven.
01:19Some communities are covered where others aren't.
01:21And in a medical emergency, where every second and every minute counts,
01:26the gap can mean the difference between life and death.
01:29What we're trying to do here is simple.
01:32We want to remove that disadvantage
01:34and make life-saving support consistent
01:37across every part of our community.
01:40At my work, we see and support front-line emergencies every day.
01:45This includes building, maintaining and managing critical dispatch systems
01:50and response systems that support many of Australia's emergency services.
01:54Those systems are viable and may save lives.
01:57But we also know something else to be true.
02:00The most critical moments often occur before health arrives.
02:05They happen in homes, in sporting fields, in shopping centres and on the street.
02:10They happen when ordinary people are suddenly placed in extraordinary situations.
02:18That's why access matters.
02:21But access alone isn't enough.
02:24So I've done it to John to help roll out life-saving AEDs
02:27to every suburb in Canberra this year
02:29through the street-beat partnership with Good Living Mutual.
02:33That's a clap, folks.
02:38The ambition is bold.
02:40And I've been told repeatedly it's the world first.
02:43I'm not believe I have on that
02:44because there's a lot more conflict with than Martin.
02:46But the goal is very straightforward.
02:48We want to turn intent into something tangible.
02:50We want to do something with safe lives in practice,
02:53not on paper.
02:55Importantly, it's not just about putting more,
02:57more AEDs on walls.
02:58It's also about confidence.
03:00It will help St John's with free AED and CPR training
03:04to 5,000 Canberrans in shopping centres,
03:07in sporting events across the territory
03:08and anywhere where people will listen and be trained.
03:11Because in those moments that matter,
03:13people need to know what to do.
03:15They need to trust themselves enough to act
03:17and they need to step forward.
03:20When communities are equipped with both the tools
03:22and the knowledge to something powerful happens,
03:25trust builds,
03:26people look out for one another,
03:28and resilience stops being an abstract idea
03:31and becomes something very real and very human.
03:35Thank you to St John,
03:37Goodluck,
03:38Martin,
03:39Ivan,
03:41Mum,
03:41Laura,
03:42and Ben for making this possible.
03:45If we can prove this works at a city level,
03:47there is no reason it cannot be scaled
03:49and adopted broadly.
03:52This should be the standard,
03:54not the exception.
03:56I want to be part of a future
03:57where life-saving support is visible,
04:00accessible,
04:01equitable,
04:02and normal.
04:03Where survival doesn't depend on luck or location,
04:06but on shared responsibility,
04:08shared access,
04:09and our shared sense of humanity.
04:13Please join with me
04:14to applaud the St John team
04:16for showing what is possible
04:17when intent is matched with action,
04:19when innovation is used for most important purpose,
04:22keeping people alive.
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