Labor MP Dan Repacholi on masculinity, men's health and why he was ‘embarrassed' to visit his doctor

The Guardian

a day ago

'Big Dan' Repacholi is still eating big burgers – but after a major health kick which saw him lose more than 30kg, he's down to one sandwich per sitting, from his previous three.
After a period where he admits he was 'embarrassed' to visit his doctor, the affable and popular member for Hunter has been named the federal government's special envoy for men's health, and is on a crusade to get blokes and boys to talk about their problems with health professionals and their families.
For the second-term Labor MP, that meant talking to friends and doctors about eating healthier. For other men in Australia, as Repacholi tells Guardian Australia in a revealing and frank interview, it may mean talking about mental health, sexual health or toxic masculinity.
'It's about getting the conversation going between blokes, to go 'I just went and had a heart health checkup today, and you know what? They actually found something,'' he says.
'On the mental health side of things, there are so many, so many men and boys who are struggling. But it also is about teaching boys and young adolescents the right level of masculinity, through schools as well, about what is acceptable and what isn't.'
'Talk to 50 blokes, especially those that are a little bit older, they still think you need to get a finger in the arse to get a prostate check; they don't realise it's a simple little blood test. There's so much that isn't getting out there to the average population and that we need to do better at.'
Repacholi, standing over two metres tall with a big bushy beard, came to parliament last term after a life working in the Hunter Valley mining industry and a glittering career in pistol shooting as a former Olympiian and Commonwealth Games champion. Well-liked around Canberra, he's known for producing an annual calendar with photos of him eating large hamburgers around the Hunter region; but he admits he indulged to excess, particularly enjoying KFC and finishing off his family's dinner leftovers.
'I got to 152 kilos,' Repacholi says. 'It's the biggest I've ever been. And I've always been a big guy – I don't remember seeing large [size shirts], I only see Xs in front of it.'
'I was walking down the street in Cessnock, and I saw myself in a window … and I thought, 'Holy fuck, look how fat you are.''
Repacholi says he spoke to two medical doctors in the Labor caucus, Mike Freelander and Gordon Reid, admitting he was looking for 'a quick fix'. Repacholi is open about having used injectable weight management drugs, but he was told to go see his doctor for a weight-loss plan.
'I was embarrassed to go see my doctor, because I'd gotten so big,' he says. 'I didn't tell anyone at first … but then I thought, this is going to be fine, I'll give it a go.'
Now having dropped a large amount of weight, aided by a gym workout plan and healthy eating, Repacholi says he wants to share his story in hopes of being an example for other men feeling sheepish about asking for help.
'I thought, we should be having those conversations, and I should be telling people about this, because there might be millions of people like me embarrassed to go see their doctor,' he says.
'If an elected official can't have these conversations, how do you expect George, or Tom or Craig down the street to be able to?'
The annual burger calendar though, Repacholi laughs, is safe and will continue.
Named to the envoy role last month, working under the health minister, Mark Butler, Repacholi is taking to it with abandon. The past week has been Men's Health Week, and Repacholi – already known for his zany and enthusiastic social media presence – has posted videos about calling Butler for a goodnight check-in and a meme about erectile dysfunction .
'Or as some of us call it: 'the old fella clocking off early',' Repacholi posted, saying men 'should be chatting about it more'.
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The MP says his advocacy role will cover all aspects of men's health, physical and mental. He points to Men's Sheds, including virtual ones and Facebook groups, as avenues he thinks work well, but raised concerns about how adolescents learned about relationships.
'Most young boys are finding out about sex through porn. They're not being taught at school. Their first encounters into anything like that is looking at porn online, and that can go down so many different rabbit warrens that you don't want to open it up,' he says.
'It's about teaching them how to respect women, how to respect ladies, how to respect girls, or how to respect any partner that they have.'
The social services portfolio, under former minister Amanda Rishworth and new minister Tanya Plibersek, has been working on issues around healthy relationships, domestic violence and masculinity for some time, with particular concern around 'men's rights' influencers on social media perpetuating toxic attitudes towards gender roles and sex. Repacholi says that will be part of his focus, working with social services.
'If we can get these young boys on the right track in school with learning what the right level of healthy masculinity is, we're on to a winner,' he says.
'If they can see that if they do treat somebody like what some of those people [men's right influencers] have been, they don't get any respect.
'It's a hard, hard conversation. There's no doubt about that. And we're always going to have people like that in the world that will say that.
'But hopefully the young boys out there can see that that is not the right way.'