Belinda Neal (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to keep members informed of the progress of my campaign to secure a public radiotherapy unit for the people of the Central Coast. The Central Coast has a rapidly growing population and a high proportion of older residents. New South Wales Health estimates that, by 2016, there will be 2,596 cancer patients in the Northern Sydney Central Coast Area Health Service region, an increase of almost 30 per cent on the 2006 levels.

I raised this issue in federal parliament in November 2007, and I have made the strongest possible representations to the Minister for Health and Ageing, Nicola Roxon. In that speech I informed members that the lack of public radiotherapy services was an intolerable situation. It is not tolerable, because cancer patients on the Central Coast are suffering inexcusable hardship. Sick and distressed patients are forced to travel either to Newcastle or to North Sydney for treatment, often by train. Others are forced to pay thousands of dollars for treatment at local private clinics. Most distressing of all is that some seriously ill patients with cancer have been forced to give up their life-saving treatment altogether because either they cannot manage the travel or they cannot afford the private clinic.

This is a heartbreaking situation and it is avoidable. The Central Coast must have an adequate public radiotherapy service, and I will be fighting very hard to ensure that they get this service. In February 2009, I presented a petition asking the federal parliament to pursue all means possible to provide this service. The petition was launched on the coast on 5 December 2008 and closed at the end of January. The petition campaign was supported by local health advocate Kathy Smith, who is a leading voice for cancer sufferers on the coast. She and fellow members of the advocacy group Cancer Voices certainly joined this campaign, and it quickly turned into a massive movement. When I presented the petition to the Petitions Committee, it held nearly 18,000 signatures from Central Coast residents who supported the cause. To collect so many signatures in such a short time shows the overwhelming support of local residents for this vital public health service.

It has been a wonderful community campaign and it has galvanised opinion across the region. The lack of a publicly funded radiotherapy unit is a public health shortfall that has gone on for far too long. That is why I will continue to fight for this service, and I certainly hope to see it come about while I am the member for Robertson.

Question agreed to.