Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

From the outset I would like to commend the member for Shortland for putting forward this very worthwhile motion. Bowel cancer is something that affects many families, if not all families. As the member for Shortland indicated, screening is so important to getting to the cause of the problem, if indeed there is a problem. Early detection can mean a longer life. It can mean a cure. It can mean that people can stem the tide of those deadly cancerous cells and ensure that their future is far better.

I also commend the government as the member for Shortland spoke about funding of $16.1 million over four years to fund bowel cancer screening. That is commendable. I know this has bipartisan support. Cancer is something that affects all families, and bowel cancer is something that affects many, many families. It has affected mine. My father-in-law, Bernard Shaw, died of bowel cancer on 4 June 2000. He had been diagnosed with bowel cancer 16 months earlier and was given just three months to live. In his true fighting spirit, he managed to ward it off for an additional 13 months but finally succumbed when the bowel cancer spread to his liver and lungs. He was only 61 years young when he passed away. That certainly had a profound effect on my family. My father-in-law was a good man. He played a great role in my development and is greatly missed by his widow, my mother-in-law, Beverley Shaw. Never a day goes by on which she does not reflect upon the fact that he is not there for the grandchildren and the family.

I commend the member for Shortland for putting this motion forward. She puts a lot of these health related motions to the House and I commend her for that. I know that she would be well aware that these sorts of motions have bipartisan support. If there is anything we as parliamentarians on any side of politics can do to improve screening processes, health and medical facilities to enable them to find cures for any cancers and to better improve the screening services for bowel cancer, we ought to do it. Health is the number one issue in my Riverina electorate as I am sure it is in McPherson, Shortland and La Trobe, I note as the member for La Trobe walks into the chamber.

Bowel cancer is the general term for cancer that begins in the large bowel. Depending on where the cancer starts, it is sometimes called colon cancer or rectal cancer. Most bowel cancers develop from tiny growths called polyps inside the colon or rectum. They look like small spots on the bowel lining or like cherries on stalks. I know it does not sound very nice, but unfortunately that is what it is. The member for Shortland talked about the embarrassment of going through the screening, but let me tell you that a little bit of embarrassment is nothing compared with the pain and suffering that bowel cancer patients go through. A little bit of embarrassment at the start to have one of these screening processes done is nothing when you consider that what they are doing could save your life. Not all polyps become cancerous. If polyps are removed the risk of bowel cancer is reduced and in many cases completely taken away. Symptoms of bowel cancer include blood in faeces, an unexplained change in your bowel habits, such as prolonged diarrhoea or constipation and unexplained weight loss.

We know that in regional areas the treatment and service facilities available for people with bowel cancer, along with a number of other cancers, lag behind those for people in metropolitan areas. That is unfortunate. I know that the good folk of Wagga Wagga and district self-funded their own Riverina radiotherapy care centre. That particular centre is having a profound effect on improving the longevity of cancer patients and in the early detection of people at risk.

Wagga Wagga has just secured prostate biopsies at the Wagga Wagga Base Hospital. It took some months to get it and something of a media campaign to get it. But, thankfully, patients will soon be able to have prostate biopsies in this major regional referral centre. Previously, patients had to go to either Young or Griffith, a two hour drive from Wagga Wagga, to have this service done. This is just not acceptable in this day and age. I am glad that the new equipment required to undertake trans-rectal, ultrasound-guided biopsies of the prostate has arrived at Wagga Wagga Base Hospital and is currently being configured. An education session for clinical staff on using the equipment has been scheduled and the first procedure is scheduled to take place from 1 July at Wagga Wagga Base Hospital, according to Murrumbidgee Local Health District operations director Jill Ludford. Murrumbidgee Local Health District will continue to provide the procedure at Griffith Health Service and Young Health Service. It is expected that Wagga Wagga Base Hospital will perform around 120 of these prostate biopsies, called TRUS biopsies, per year.

That is very pleasing for Cootamundra resident Eddie Williams, who, at age 73, was shocked last year when he learnt that he had to travel more than 200 kilometres to have the procedure done. He described it as an absolute disgrace. He was certainly right. I raised it with the federal health minister and she was rightly concerned that this service was not being done at Wagga Wagga Base Hospital. I know that Tanya Plibersek looked into the matter to ensure that something was done. I am glad that the New South Wales government has seen fit to ensure that that particular piece of equipment is supplied and the training is done for that service to be carried out.

It is important too to note that bowel cancer also affects Aboriginal people. Anything we can do to help Aboriginal people with cancer screening is going to be very vital in the future. I will quote from a book titled Journeys into Medicine from the Australian Indigenous Doctors Association. The Chief Executive Officer of that association, Mr Romlie Mokak, said: 'With our numbers growing within the profession, our voices will undoubtedly grow louder and stronger and that can only mean a better future for our children.' Aboriginal people, and there are many in my electorate and certainly many more in remote areas of Australia, always have even greater difficulty accessing health services than do people even in regional areas and certainly those in metropolitan areas.

When we talk about bowel cancer and screening services, we should remember that these people have such difficulty even being educated, but certainly in being aware of screening services and having access to those services. I would implore the current government and indeed the coalition—people who have the ability to improve these sorts of services—to make sure that funding is available so that those people in those very remote communities can have equitable access to cancer screening and so save lives and increase the chances of them picking up very early those deadly cancerous cells.

In 2004 and 2008 the overall rate of new cases—the incidence rate—of cancer in the Indigenous population was slightly higher than for non-Indigenous people. Incidence rates vary on the types of cancer but for cervical cancer for women, cancer of the pancreas, lung and other smoking-related cancers and cancers of unknown primary site—the part of the body where the cancer started—are extremely high. Because many of those people live in remote areas, everything should be done to make sure that the proper screening services are available. Funding should be directed to those very important areas.

In conclusion, I commend the member for Shortland for putting this motion forward. Bowel cancer is a dreadful, insidious disease. We should be doing everything we can to properly fund screening services throughout Australia and certainly in the regional areas.

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