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

Thank you to the member for Shortland for being bitter and twisted. We had an election and now you are in control of the government and we will make sure that you address this issue. There is only one of these scanners in Queensland, and it is in Brisbane. That means, Mr Deputy Speaker Scott, that the people from your electorate have to travel to Brisbane, as do the people from my electorate. Some of our Queenslanders have to travel up to 2,000 kilometres to get a PET scan. Access should be about availability as well as affordability. Regional Australia does tend to have fewer health services available than our city and urban counterparts. I can understand that. That does not mean to say that we should not all be on guard to make sure that services are provided where they can be.

Differential access to specialist medical services for rural and remote Queenslanders is demonstrated by this information before the House today. We need a PET scanner in Townsville. We have nuclear medicine facilities which will run PET scanning in the city already. We have qualified doctors who can run it, and it can be provided in both the public and the private system. The member for Burdekin wrote a letter to the Townsville Bulletin this morning pointing out that the Townsville Cancer Centre at the Townsville Hospital purchased a new three-dimensional planning system 3½ years ago with PET scanning in mind. He also pointed out that the $300 million that was provided by the Queensland government for oncology in its ‘post-Patel’ reforms has not materialised as far as Townsville is concerned. What has happened to the money? Why have we not seen the Queensland government invest in such a vital technology for our region? The member for Burdekin makes a very valid point.

Queensland is not the only state with this issue, of course. Western Australia and South Australia have only one PET scanner each and Tasmania does not have one at all. We as a parliament need to be thinking about the availability of PET/CT scanners to regional areas. The Cancer Council of Australia in its submission to the inquiry of the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs, which resulted in the report Highway to health: better access for rural, regional and remote patients, pointed to poor outcomes for cancer patients in rural and remote areas. There is growing evidence that cancer mortality rates increase significantly with geographical isolation. That is a very worrying piece of evidence. Are my people in Townsville in a situation where, if they do not go to Brisbane for the use of this technology, their mortality rates will increase?

PET/CT scanning does a different job to an MRI or just a straight CT, and it provides our specialists with more information on the spread of cancer and how it can be managed. Dr Stuart Ramsay from Queensland X-Ray is certainly a strong supporter, having said that PET/CT scanning is long overdue in North Queensland. We have a population in the north which is close to 700,000 now. There is certainly a need, a demand and a client base for a scanner, but we do not have one.

We will be waiting to see what the Rudd government does in relation to PET scanning. Minister Nicola Roxon has said that she is considering the current situation. We have to do more than consider. I committed to my electorate that, if the Howard government were re-elected, we would have a PET scanner in Townsville. I would have delivered that. I ask the Rudd government to back my commitment and I ask the Rudd government to ensure that we do get a PET scanner in the city.

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