Llew O'Brien (Wide Bay, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Citizens should be confident that their taxes are spent appropriately, while preserving our reputation as a humane and civilised country. They want to ensure that those struggling with terminal diseases have dignity. This dignity begins with service delivery, with the right level of taxpayers' money allocated through Treasury to the organisations charged with delivering them. It is frustrating for taxpayers to watch the organisations doing as much as possible with meagre resources, and going unfunded while money rains on ministerial whims. Expert care for cancer patients and MND sufferers is expensive, and often families can't afford the necessary treatment and support. Two of these organisations are the Motor Neurone Disease Association of Queensland and Ovarian Cancer Australia.

MND Queensland is the only MND state association in Australia not receiving any funding from its state government. With just $1.5 million a year, MND Queensland could ensure that all Queenslanders suffering from MND have access to specialist, integrated multidisciplinary care. They could remain at home with their families and avoid unnecessary hospital admissions. With this funding, MND Queensland could provide access to the MND expert advice, occupational therapy, speech pathology, physiotherapy, mobility equipment, communication devices and health aids that a person with MND would typically require through their journey. This support would include a regional presence through permanently locating MND advisers at key hubs, and monthly visits to regional Queensland by allied health professionals. I call on the Queensland government to do what is right and fund MND Queensland, just as other states and other jurisdictions have done.

Ovarian Cancer Australia is another organisation that deserves government funding to provide free-of-charge specialised psychological support for women with ovarian cancer, using a telehealth model that prevents women from falling into crisis. It would require funding of less than $1 million a year to offer specialist psychological support to more than 300 ovarian cancer patients. Four years of psychological support with specialised therapists would cost only $3.7 million. Every year in Australia more than 1,500 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and more than 1,000 will pass away from the disease. Around 70 per cent of women diagnosed with ovarian cancer experience a recurrence. The former coalition government provided the organisation with $16.2 million in funding for ovarian cancer research, and this research work continues. The federal Labor government should find this less-than-$1 million a year to help women in significant distress who live daily with the fear of ovarian cancer returning.

Both MND Queensland and Ovarian Cancer Australia offer tailored, specialised support, with clear outcomes showing value for money for taxpayers, and patients and their families both in the cities and in the regions of Australia. We can't change the fact that MND is terminal or that ovarian cancer is highly deadly, but we can ensure that sufferers can get sufficient quality of life to enjoy the time they have left with their loved ones. We must ensure that taxpayers funds are not frittered away on frivolous projects. No-one can call free telehealth psychology for a woman living with the side effects of two major surgeries, three long-term chemo treatments, four bowel obstructions caused by surgery, a permanent colostomy bag, as well as the trauma of all of the treatments she has undergone a waste. It would be difficult to argue that specialists providing walking aids to people— (Time expired)