Sharon Grierson (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I take great pleasure in drawing attention to the appropriations in this budget and particularly for health. I take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank Minister Butler for his frequent visits to Newcastle and his wonderful delivery on mental health services. I also take this opportunity to thank Minister Snowden, who is sitting beside me, for his attendance at a national Indigenous men's health forum in my electorate. I know how much it is appreciated that our interest in the health of the Indigenous population is genuine and that we have delivered great outcomes. Also worthy of mention are the achievements of Parliamentary Secretary Catherine King, who is also in the chamber, on the organ donation program. I also note that the member for Shortland joined with me just recently in my electorate to announce one of the first Medicare Locals, and that is something we take great pride in.

For us, this budget delivers on four years of great investment in the health of our electorates. All of us have been touched by cancer in some way, with 88,000 Australians diagnosed with cancer each year and 35,000 dying from cancer each year. In the four years before the federal Labor government was elected in 2007 we had campaigned long and hard for attention to be given to our scanning and imaging equipment but we were ignored by the then health minister, Tony Abbott. We were pleased and privileged to have a PET scanner, but it had been bought by the specialists themselves and was being funded by the specialists themselves. It was not until Labor was elected that the positron emission tomography scheme was funded for a Medicare licence, and then, in a follow-up budget, $1½ million was invested to upgrade services—to buy the necessary radiopharmaceuticals, increase the shielding equipment and purchase another PET scanner.

Under this government we have also seen a new Medicare licence for an MRI scanner at the East Maitland Private Hospital, which services my electorate and that of the member for Hunter. The Calvary Mater hospital in my electorate, which provides most cancer oncology services in the state of New South Wales, purchased a new MRI machine which was installed just two weeks before the budget. We had been waiting for that machine to be installed and I am very pleased that in this budget the minister was able to partially fund a new Medicare licence under a regional health program. So my question to the minister is: can you outline the ways that access to important MRI diagnostic services was included in the budget—those services that will help diagnose conditions such as cancer—and how this is reforming access to MRI services right across the nation?

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