Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to address the Australian parliament and talk about very important services around cancer support in my electorate. We have rural disadvantage. We have the tyranny of distance. In Mildura we have a substantial need for a radiation treatment plant. Currently people who have to get radiation treatment have to travel 400 kilometres and live away from home for a long period of time. It puts a burden on them, it puts a burden on their family, and it removes that support network when they are going through a very difficult time.

What we saw when a radiation treatment plant was set up in Bendigo, which is 400 kilometres from my town of Mildura, was that, when they did not think there was a demand, they actually found that there was a demand, because people who had prostate cancer had been choosing not to travel to Melbourne; they had been choosing instead to stay at home and, ultimately, die younger. That was because it was too much of a move to go and seek that treatment. But, when Bendigo opened that treatment up, people would travel. They would go to a country town. We have nearly 100,000 people in the catchment area of Mildura. We do not have radiation treatment services, and we need that.

The other service I also want to raise is in the township of Horsham, where we have really poor—and oversubscribed need for—oncology services. Currently 40 per cent of the cases in Horsham cannot get treated there. They have to get treated outside Horsham. Horsham has the lowest five-year survival rates for cancer. It is something we need to address. It is only a small budgetary request, and I am going to be presenting a letter to the Minister for Health on Wednesday asking for $1 million. That is all: $1 million in an area that has the lowest five-year survival outcomes for cancer. I will be asking that. Simply, it has to do with fairness. At the moment we have people who have to travel up to five hours if they come from Kaniva, travel through Horsham and travel down to Ballarat to get treated. They are stopping on the edge of the road; they are throwing up; they are having all the ramifications of the effects of chemotherapy. To be able to get full treatment available in Horsham is going to be essential.

I will fight very hard in this next federal budget to make sure we get a million dollars. A million dollars, incidentally, will only pay for a third of it. The community will put their own hands in their own pockets and come up with the rest of the money. This is something that is unique about the communities I represent. They know that with a little bit of government help, and with a lot of community work, they will get the services they need—and not only the services they need but the services they deserve. I do not accept for a moment that, just because you live in rural Australia, you should have second-rate health services. This is what I will fight for in this parliament.

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