Peter Lindsay (Herbert, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the House:

(1)

supports the provision of the highest quality health services to Australians;

(2)

notes the continuing advances in medical science, making available new diagnostic tools; and

(3)

recognises the need to extend the availability of Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanning to regional Australia.

I do not think there will be any disagreement in the House with the view that we support the provision of the highest quality health services to all Australians. It is a fundamental belief on both sides of the parliament that, as a modern country, we should look after our people and provide them with support. There is already marvellous support. Our health facilities are certainly very good indeed when you compare them to some of the other countries in the world. There are continuing advances in medical science making available a huge range of other opportunities for the medical profession to do its job even better. But of course that comes with a cost. Some of the latest drugs and technologies are hugely expensive.

Today I would like to address just one example of those technologies, and that is the PET/CT scanners that are now available. I would like to address that in the context of making them available universally. One of the fundamental tenets of Medicare is that there should be universal access across Australia. Access is not only about affordability; it is also about availability. I understand, as do other members of the House, that you cannot have hugely costly technology out the back of Bourke, but you have to be mindful about where you can have it. Currently, this modern marvel of PET/CT scanning, which is used particularly in the detection of cancers and their spread, is only available in the capital cities. In the whole of the state of Queensland there is only one PET/CT scanner, which is at the Wesley Hospital in Brisbane, to service—

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