Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Hansard source

I apologise for that. There was a promise that youthful, vigorous Australians who may be over the chronological age of 55 would be screened every two years for bowel cancer, acknowledging that every week 90 people die of bowel cancer. So this is a very serious disease. This promise was dumped at budget time. It was billed as a ‘major priority for the next term’, but it will not be delivered in this term. We know, because of a continuation of current trials, that it is not due to start until July 2006. So a promise on bowel cancer screening has been dumped. Even if there is delivery at the later date, there is significant doubt by the states and territories that the funding, management and operational issues that need to be resolved will be resolved.

The Australian Health Ministers Advisory Council is meeting today, and they want answers on a whole host of issues around this much delayed, looking like it is going to be dumped policy. The states and territories are concerned that the bowel cancer screening program has no clear set of objectives and strategies, has no clear specification of roles, will add additional cost burdens to the states, has not addressed the need for affordable access to colonoscopy, has no information and database management systems, has no clear funding arrangements between the states and the federal government, and has no communication program to educate health professionals and consumers. That is, everything that would need to be done to support this policy in any effective way remains undone. There is not one thing that one would need to do to get this policy up and running effectively that has actually been done by this government. In view of this incompetent performance, the states and territories claim that the whole program, a very important program for the health of all Australians—I remind you, Mr Deputy Speaker, that 90 Australians die every week because of bowel cancer—is incompetent. Here we have a national screening program—promise made, promise delayed—and incompetence is surrounding what could be its ultimate delivery.

And there is more. We know through the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing, Christopher Pyne, that there was a promise to help pregnant women quit smoking. That was also an election commitment. There was a media statement issued in June last year about an advisory group for this program, but the composition of the advisory group has yet to be announced and is yet to meet. We know that about 20 per cent of pregnant women smoke. We know that babies of smoking mothers are more likely to be smaller, are three to four times more likely to die of SIDS and are more likely to suffer respiratory disorders and intellectual impairment. So this is not a marginal issue. This is not an unimportant issue for Australia’s future and the future of Australian children. This is an issue front and centre that we should be dealing with. But, yet again, we have unexplained delay and continuing incompetence.

This is something that really does need to be addressed by this government, and it ought to be addressed during the course of this debate. I note that the second reading speech stated that ‘Cancer Australia will have a role in the implementation of the following initiatives’, which were once again part of the Howard government’s election policies. These initiatives are

• new approaches to mentoring regional cancer services;
• a grants process targeted at building cancer support groups;
• a national awareness campaign for skin cancer, to be developed in conjunction with state and territory governments;
• a new dedicated budget for research into cancer, to be administered in conjunction with the National Health and Medical Research Council; and
• funding for clinical trials infrastructure for cancer patients.

I am pretty sure that we can say today that these election commitments are not up and running yet. So Strengthening Cancer Care, the policy taken by the Howard government to the last election, has been awash with incompetence, awash with delay and awash with promises made and not delivered on. I have raised a number of them in the course of this speech, such as the creation of Cancer Australia itself, as well as bowel cancer and smoking and pregnant mothers. These things have not been done. They ought to have been done, and an explanation is required. We also need an explanation of what this body will be doing in relation to private sector fundraising.

While I am on the case of delay and incompetence of this government, there is another very important case of delay. We all know that in December last year this parliament mourned the sad and untimely death of former senator Peter Cook from cancer. We all acknowledged his important last legacy in the recommendations contained in a Senate Community Affairs References Committee report entitled The cancer journey: informing choice. This was a committee he chaired and inspired, despite his personal battle with cancer at the time. In my memory never has someone made such a commitment in this parliament, never have they dedicated the last remaining months of their life so clearly to the development of a better policy for the rest of the nation. Despite that historic work by former senator Peter Cook, as of today the Howard government has not responded to that report. What could explain that act of cruelty? That ought to be done. May I conclude by moving a second reading amendment that deals with these issues:

That all words after “That” be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:“whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House condemns the Government for:

(1)

the unreasonable delay in implementing this 2004 election commitment;

(2)

the consequent demise of the National Cancer Control Initiative and the loss of NCCI expertise;

(3)

failure to respond to the Senate Committee Report The Cancer Journey: Informing Choice; and

(4)

lack of any substantial commitment to improving cancer care in Australia”.

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