Thursday, 9 March 2023

Olivia Newton-John

Anthony CARBINES (Ivanhoe – Minister for Police, Minister for Crime Prevention, Minister for Racing) (09:52): I would just like to give some reflections today on the life of Dame Olivia Newton-John AC DBE, whose state memorial service many of us attended on Sunday 26 February at Hamer Hall at the Victorian Arts Centre.

We are very fortunate in the Ivanhoe electorate to have the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre, which has become known mostly these days as the Olivia Newton-John wellness centre. Cancer treatment is very significant across the world, but particularly to have her name, her passion and her commitment to build and develop the Olivia Newton-John wellness centre in my electorate of Ivanhoe, in Heidelberg, where we have built two hospitals on one site – the Mercy Hospital for Women and the new Austin Hospital, which was rebuilt on the site. To add the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre has been very significant for my community and for so many people right across the state.

Olivia was always a healer and someone for whom love and light was at the centre of all she did. The Wellness Walk, which this year will be on 8 October at Alexandra Gardens, has in the past been across the Ivanhoe electorate, in Heidelberg. Olivia was very generous with her time locally, but also the work she did inspired so many who are cancer survivors and their families, who looked to Olivia for leadership and inspiration.