Claire Moore (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have talked many times in this place about funding for cancer services in this country and the expectation that government at all levels, but in particular the federal government, should have a coordinated response to look at the issues of cancer in our communities. I am pleased to say that, leading on from this government’s first budget, we have put in place a range of measures which will work effectively with some of the things that were put in place under the previous government.

I make particular mention of the establishment and ongoing importance of Cancer Australia in our community. When we debated the introduction of Cancer Australia, one thing that was consistently raised was the importance of ensuring that, once a commitment was made by the government to insert such a very powerful organisation into our health profile, from that point onwards effective funding would be provided, budget after budget, to ensure that such an organisation would be effective, responsive to the needs of the community and would have integrity in processes of coordinating cancer care across the community and being a vanguard for research funding. Publicly making that statement would ensure that the Australian community could be proud of what was going on in this field.

This year the budget continues to provide effective funding for Cancer Australia to continue to exist, under the auspices of the Department of Health and Ageing, and to maintain their role of keeping a high-level, professional process going to ensure that effective research grants are provided and to ensure that we get the best possible services—not just medical processes but also drawing in community knowledge and support. One thing that came out in the two cancer inquiries conducted in this place over the last five years—the cancer inquiry under the leadership of Senator Peter Cook and, several years later, the follow-up inquiry around issues of gynaecological cancer, led very strongly by Senator Jeannie Ferris—was the need for that cooperative response.

During the lead-up to the budget, the Minister for Health and Ageing, Ms Roxon, talked effectively with places in communities across this country. The government gave a list of commitments during the election, that were fulfilled in the budget process, to ensure that there would be appropriate community funding in this area. The government is providing $15 million over three years to CanTeen to establish young cancer networks in Australia. From the cancer inquiry in 2004 we identified that young adolescents who were diagnosed and working through the process of cancer treatment were missing out on the most effective awareness in our communities. The committee were advised that this group of people were lost somehow between the issues of child and adult medicine. We found from a number of witnesses who came to us that there needed to be a particular response to look at the needs of young people who were going through the difficult enough period of adolescence and to look at their personal response to the issues of cancer care. Youth cancer networks have already been in place in some parts of this country. They run with the involvement of young people, some of whom are still working through their own journeys, and more importantly, they run with the involvement of their families and the people who support them so that they can give peer support to young people who have received the pretty tough diagnosis of cancer. The networks also support the families who are surrounding them. We believe that the $15 million over three years will be an effective support to keeping this work going in the local community and seeing whether it can be a step towards more funding in the future.

During the inquiries we also found out consistently about the absolute importance of clinical trials. There is evidence across the world that people who have had access to the areas of clinical trials with their own particular cancer diagnosis are significantly able to achieve better results in their treatment and in personally coping with the process. Our government, through the budget process, will invest $15 million over three years for independent clinical trials of drugs and research into cancer treatment and care. This funding is being allocated for a range of cancer research and treatment centres which are spread right across the country. I want to name just a few of them to show the range and geographic spread of where this money is going to be spent. There will be funding of $50 million over three years for the Comprehensive Cancer Centre co-located with the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney. Very importantly, people from all over the state of New South Wales who are diagnosed with this disease will have a cancer treatment centre of excellence to which they can go with their families and carers to receive effective medical treatment, the immediacy of support from people who know the experiences that they are going through, and also a range of services. That variety of services to be provided—direct medical services, complementary services and work with community organisations—can be part of a personal decision about how you wish to be treated through this process.

There will be funding of $15 million over five years to set up two dedicated prostate cancer research centres. Over the last few years there has been significant discussion in the community about the need for Australian men to take some personal ownership around the area of prostate cancer. There have been public campaigns, a range of speakers and a number of TV advertisements, but the key issue is that when you raise people’s awareness, when people accept that there is a process to which they should submit themselves and actually take personal ownership of what is going on, there must be effective services available. It is all very well to get the awareness and education, but if you do not have the medical services available that will be useless. So $15 million over five years for two more dedicated prostate cancer research centres will mean that, once again, we can tap into the amazing medical knowledge that is available in this country. It consistently makes me proud to see the high-quality research, knowledge and commitment available to us at a range of research centres across Australia. We must use this and we must continue to give these areas support, and $15 million is a start.

Linked to that, we have given money to a number of other places for prostate cancer research. In Adelaide, your home city Madam Acting Deputy President McEwen, we have made a contribution of $15 million—that seems to be a very popular figure—over two years in capital funding to help build a children’s cancer centre at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital. We have heard, and it has been talked about in this place a number of times, about the special help and support that is needed for families who are working with a child who has been diagnosed with cancer. There are examples in this country of superb hospitals that are dedicated to giving that particular support to families. What we have identified—and what came out during the election period and is now being funded through the budget to provide these services—is the need to have these incredibly expensive capital works at the Royal Adelaide Hospital to ensure that that particular service can be provided. Once again, that is not just for the people of Adelaide; it provides a hub, a centre, for people from across South Australia who, when they are working through this process and get the diagnosis, are seeking the best possible help and support. If they have a truly world-class centre in their capital city then they will not need to travel too much away from their home base. We know that when people are going through quite traumatic periods of extensive treatments, it is always particularly hard for them to be too far away from their home base, from their families and from familiar things. When you are working through cancer treatment, having that social support around you is incredibly important. Funding high-class services that are as close to home as possible makes for a better treatment process and results in a better journey for the whole family.

Another $15 million has been allocated towards the establishment of the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Centre at the Austin Hospital in Melbourne—again, a world-class service to be provided in an Australian city, this time connected with the wonderful work that the Olivia Newton-John Foundation has done, focused specifically on the areas of breast cancer and women’s cancer. That knowledge and research can be shared across so many areas. People will be able to see that success and it will give them the confidence they need to work through the whole area of treatment and recovery.

One area that is very dear to me is the $5.1 million over three years to the ongoing operation of the National Centre for Gynaecological Cancers, under the strong auspices of Cancer Australia. This is an area about which we talked with Senator Jeannie Ferris during the cancer inquiry. We believe that there are many streams of research and support that need to be followed through in the area of gynaecological cancer, particularly with the women and the families who are working through that process. Cancer Australia has a plan into the future to work on this. The $5.1 million, through the budget over the three years, will maintain the work in this area and, most importantly, draw more support and more involvement from other areas.

I had planned to talk about this issue anyway, but today is a particularly important day because $12 million over four years has been given by the government in the budget to the McGrath Foundation. Today there has been an outpouring of praise, sorrow and shared knowledge around the death of Jane McGrath, who encouraged many of us over the last 10 years to stay strong, stay involved and to be active in our community and, most importantly, to ensure that we put the woman and the family first and the diagnosis second. I have heard Jane McGrath speak a number of times about her own journey. One of the key roles of the McGrath Foundation has been to recruit, train and employ breast cancer nurses in country towns and rural areas. These are areas that perhaps do not have access to the most up-to-date services.  Through both the inquiries that we have been involved in, we consistently heard about the very strong role that an informed professionally trained nurse can play in working with people who are going through their own journey and with the families around them. The McGrath Foundation, with their amazing fundraising, which has been going on for many years now and will continue into the future, provides these nurses in regions that may not have been able to afford them in any other way.

The nurse network—and it is very much a network; it is not isolated; it is not a one-off; it is a network of people involved in the process—will provide information, supportive care and, most importantly, care coordination to women with breast cancer and their families. Care coordination is a key issue when we are talking about the treatment of cancer. It is not a single process; there is not one treatment to which someone must submit. There need to be a range of treatments and they must be coordinated effectively with the patient as the central person—and I say ‘patient’ because people have different views about people being called sufferers. You need to be central to your care when you are working through your diagnosis and your recovery, but there needs to be coordination around you. We found that one of the best mechanisms for that is a strong professional nursing network. That is part of the budget for the $12 million that has gone to the McGrath Foundation. I will just take the opportunity now to send my best wishes and my prayers to the McGrath family and to the extended family who are working through that particular part of the cancer journey with the family.

I have worked with a number of women in the area of mastectomy and I know the expense of working with prostheses. I know that Senator Kay Patterson worked on this issue when she was the Minister for Health and Ageing. The expense and support needed in this area have been ongoing issues. In this budget, women who have undergone mastectomy as a result of breast cancer will be reimbursed by up to $400 for both new and replacement external breast prostheses. The government has committed $31 million over four years to provide this reimbursement. This is a really expensive exercise for a woman who not only needs to have surgery but needs to then maintain this particular part of her self-image when returning to the community, so as to feel good and strong about herself post surgery. The cost of the prothesis can be quite expensive. This measure also ensures that there is an opportunity for people to have those prostheses replaced at different times and to feel good about it. Thirty one million dollars over four years is not a lot of money, but it is incredibly important to those women who are seeking those services.

Through the budget process we also have given funding to things like the National Tobacco Strategy. I am watching your face, Madam Acting Deputy President to see whether you are going to pull me up any second here!