Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Calwell for her long-term commitment to the expansion of the Bowel Cancer Screening Program. I know that it is an issue that she is very passionate about. She has campaigned on it in her electorate and she has translated materials into community languages in her electorate. Even though my colleagues here were having a little giggle about your story of your 50th birthday, I think that the approach that you are taking in speaking openly about your experiences is so very important for community leaders. We will all get asked eventually whether we are prepared to put our money where our mouths are.

The 2012-13 budget locks in the government's support for an expanded Bowel Cancer Screening Program. From 1 July 2013 people who are turning 60 will join the program. From 1July 2015 people turning 70 will be invited to participate. That means around five million Australians will be offered free screening over the next four years. We are moving to five-yearly screenings for the people in that target population group. That is almost $50 million extra investment—$49.7 million extra investment in the program over the next four years.

We have also locked in our commitment to moving progressively to two-yearly screening beyond that. We will implement the National Health and Medical Research Council guidelines to implement biannual screening. Some people have asked why we cannot do it sooner. We do actually have capacity constraints. When people have something of concern that shows up in their testing, of course, they are often then referred for a colonoscopy. We need to be able to offer those procedures to the population. From 2017 invitations to undergo screening every two years will be progressively extended to all Australians between 50 and 74 years of age starting with 72-year-olds in 2017. Two-yearly screening, as I said, will bring us into line with recommendations from the National Health and Medical Research Council.

Phasing the implementation will ensure appropriate delivery mechanisms are in place and enable an adequate workforce to be built as demand for colonoscopies grow. The Cancer Council has described the bowel cancer screening plan as another milestone in this government's effort to reduce the impact of cancer. Bowel cancer is the second most common cause of cancer related deaths in Australia. Eighty people die of bowel cancer each week and the majority are aged over 50 years. As the member for Calwell said, 3,800 Australian die each year from bowel cancer. In 2000-2001, bowel cancer had the highest health system cost after non-melanoma skin cancer.

During phase two of this testing more than 1,100 suspected or confirmed cancers and more 3,300 pre-cancerous lesions were detected and removed from program participants. Almost 80 per cent of bowel cancers removed were in the two earliest stages of cancer spread. The most important thing to know about bowel cancer is that it is a type of cancer that it is very treatable if discovered early, which of course this screening program is all about. Early detection is the best way of fighting bowel cancer. The extension of the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program will save lives, and early detection of disease will significantly reduce the cost of treatment and the burden, of course, on patients themselves and on their families.

It is estimated that when biannual screening is fully implemented, approximately four million people will be screened and more than 12,000 suspected or confirmed cancers will be detected annually. This will potentially save or prevent 300 to 500 Australian deaths each year. As the program is expanded, the Commonwealth will seek to increase awareness of the potential benefits of early detection through screening and work to increase participation in the program. I have to congratulate the member for Calwell on the campaigning that she has done in her local electorate, including those translations into community languages of materials promoting the screening program. Of course, the government is currently working with our stakeholders to increase the participation rates, particularly in some groups in the community that are not returning the tests. They are being invited to participate and not returning the tests. That particularly applies to younger groups, Indigenous Australians and some people from non-English speaking backgrounds. Also, rural Australians have lower response rates than people living in urban areas. We need not just to offer the screening but to make sure that people are taking up the opportunity of the screening. Population screening is intended to detect cancer and precancerous lesions in asymptomatic people. That is why it is important to get those groups, even when they are not showing symptoms. (Time expired)

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