Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to speak in the debate on the Cancer Australia Bill 2006. It pertains to an issue of great public importance not only to my electorate of Calwell but also to the broader Australian community. As many of my colleagues have indicated, cancer profoundly and personally affects almost every Australian family. There are very few people who have not come into contact with the effects and the consequences of this disease, which are felt in our homes, neighbourhoods, schools and suburbs. Cancer is a disease that cuts across age, gender, ethnicity and social groups. It has replaced heart disease as the biggest single cause of death among Australians, with some 36,000 deaths per year. Each week, an estimated 88,000 Australians are diagnosed with some form of cancer. That is almost 3¼ million cases a year.

Fortunately—and there is good news—cancer control in Australia is a largely positive story, with our survival rates being second only to those of the United States and the number of deaths falling every year. I understand that some 60 per cent of patients who will be diagnosed with cancer manage to go on and live long and happy lives. This significant progress is due to new and more effective treatments becoming all the more available and also to better and more targeted detection and screening procedures and a greater understanding of this disease and its symptoms.

This better understanding is the result of years of excellent and dedicated research by the medical and scientific community. We have brilliant scientists in this country who have been at the forefront of many breakthroughs in the treatment of cancer. They deserve our unqualified and unequivocal support because they have the potential and the capacity to help Australians and even, hopefully one day, to find the very cure that at this point alludes them.

However, the benefits of these improvements are not necessarily shared equally across the community, with disproportionate rates of cancer still occurring in disadvantaged groups including Indigenous Australians and those living in rural and regional areas. Reforms are also needed to ensure more efficient and effective use of resources and to ensure greater coordination between our talented and dedicated research community and those who are entrusted with the treatment of people suffering from cancer and also the many wonderful support organisations that the member for Riverina spoke so passionately about. This bill is an important step in this direction.

The bill seeks to establish a new national agency, Cancer Australia. Its stated aims include providing national leadership and coordination of cancer control in Australia to guide improvements in cancer prevention and care, helping to provide better support to those living with cancer and to cancer professionals and improving and strengthening palliative care services. Cancer Australia will also oversee a dedicated budget for research into cancer. It will make recommendations to the government about cancer policies and priorities and coordinate and liaise between the wide range of groups and providers who have an interest in cancer.

I support the government’s initiative in this bill, as I think would many members of the House. It is an initiative that has the potential to improve cancer care in Australia and to significantly ameliorate the quality of life for so many Australians. For too long, the lack of coordination of cancer funding, programs and councils has prevented Australia from reaching its full potential in delivering the best possible cancer care, treatment and research. However, it would be remiss for me not to make some criticisms of the manner in which the government has delayed the implementation of this essential agency.

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