That message has stayed with us after two exceptional days in Canberra with Dame Sue. So has her call to action: making that promise a reality requires bold ambition and commitment to adopt genomics at scale, make it commonplace—and start now.
Across meetings with Mark Butler, the Assistant Treasurer Dr Daniel Mulino, Dr Mike Freelander, Senator Anne Ruston, MSAC and PBAC leaders, and the Department of Health, we explored what Australia can learn from NHS England’s experience. We heard how a fragmented starting point made delivery prohibitively expensive, and how national coordination, focus, scale and consolidation have helped bring costs down while increasing testing capacity and quality. Alongside this, the workforce has needed to evolve and diversify.
Dame Sue’s patient stories brought the purpose of this work into sharp focus: lives transformed through genomics, across many areas of healthcare.
Several messages stood out:
- National ambition needs national coordination.
- Genomics must become part of everyday clinical practice.
- Digital infrastructure is essential to delivery at scale.
- Partnerships with industry and sustained, long-term planning are critical to delivering benefits for health, productivity, growth and investment.
The conversations continued over dinner with patient, clinical and government leaders; at the National Press Club of Australia address alongside the Excellence in Health Journalism Awards; and at a breakfast generously hosted by the British High Commissioner at his residence.
These have been positive, insightful and inspiring days that have exceeded our expectations.
Thank you to our sponsors AstraZeneca, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Oxford Nanopore Technologies, Illumina, TrakGene Pty Ltd, Genomical and Human Genetics Society of Australasia – HGSA. To Tiffany Boughtwood, Matilda Haas and the Genomics Australia team also our event partners at Omico, Rare Cancers Australia and the National Press Club, and the British High Commissioner and his team for helping make them possible.
📺 If you missed Dame Sue’s National Press Club address, watch the recording here.
Excellence in Health Journalism Awards evening address with Dame Sue Hill