Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

She advises me that half a million dollars of that was invested into elective surgery arrangements at Port Macquarie.

On cancer related services, the honourable member will be familiar with the fact that in the budget we announced some $1.2 billion worth of cancer related services, because we are deeply concerned about the proper provision of what are called comprehensive cancer care services not just in our large cities but across the country. The honourable member will be familiar with the support which the government has so far provided to what will become the Chris O’Brien centre in Sydney. In Melbourne there has been considerable investment also on our part—in partnership, I believe, with the government of Victoria—in the MacCallum centre, which is being built at Parkville. On top of that, there are investments of a more comprehensive nature in various other health regions across the nation. He is right to say: what is the proper provision of cancer related services in his part of New South Wales? I am sure the consultations which we will undertake in and around Port Macquarie hospital will help inform decisions which are taken in the future on the proper provision of those services as well.

We fully understand, based on the advice provided to the government by Dr Bennett’s health reform commission report and the 123 recommendations contained within it, that our health and hospital system across the nation is increasingly at a tipping point. The reason for that is that, firstly, we have an increasing population, particularly in the region where the honourable member lives but also in parts of Queensland where I have just been as well—in Far North Queensland, in North Queensland and elsewhere. Secondly, we have, of course, the ageing of the population. We have, thirdly, the increased cost associated with individual medical and hospital treatments and, fourthly, the increasing cost of pharmaceuticals. We therefore need to look at how we better design this system for the future for all Australians, wherever they live—in metropolitan Australia, in regional Australia and in rural Australia, and in remote Australia and our Indigenous communities as well.

I commend to all honourable members the report delivered by Dr Bennett and the recommendations contained within it. We will be road-testing those across the country. We look forward to the opportunity to visit the honourable member’s hospital at Port Macquarie to specifically get their responses, as we have done most recently in Cairns, Townsville, Adelaide and Sydney, to the recommendations contained in the report. I look forward to organising the details of that with the honourable member through the health minister’s office.

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