Ali France (Dickson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is a difficult speech for me because it's personal, but it is not unique. I am telling it in the hope that the Queensland government reverses its decision to delay—effectively cancel—the construction of the Queensland Cancer Centre, which was to be a state-of-the-art hospital and centre for research and treatment excellence. The hospital was due to start construction last year, in 2025, and begin treating cancer patients from 2028. It was shovel-ready, with funding allocated by the former Queensland Labor government and the Albanese Labor government. It was a lifeline for cancer patients across Queensland—in particular, leukaemia and blood cancer patients. Years of planning, of staff and patients making do until construction, are all now in the bin.

My boy, Henry, lost his battle with leukaemia at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital on 20 February 2024. We were told on a Sunday afternoon that he would not make it, and by Tuesday he was gone, taking his last breath in the cancer ward—the general cancer ward at the RBWH. He spent 12 months almost constantly in hospital after a bone marrow transplant. While the dedicated nurses, doctors and healthcare professionals did absolutely everything they could for him, for us, his experience at the RBWH was fraught and distressing, not just because he was fighting cancer but because the hospital did not have enough space or enough isolation beds, and it had no beds specifically for 18-year-olds in an adult system.

His health and his mental health were constantly at risk because the RBWH, as a specialist centre for bone marrow transplants and blood cancers, is not fit for purpose in 2026. He regularly shared cramped four-bed, single-bathroom rooms with much older patients when severely immune compromised after his transplant. Many of those older patients were dying, extremely ill and incontinent and had Alzheimer's and dementia, and the impact on his mental health was devastating. One day he tried to run away. I found him in the hospital car park crying, begging to never have to go back.

No teenager should have to endure an overcrowded hospital, sharing rooms with much older patients in wards that compromise their health and increase their risk of an early death. I spoke to staff about the risk to Henry at the time, and their response was always the same: 'Sorry, there's no other option right now, but there's a new Queensland cancer hospital on the way. That will change things.' Now there is no light on the hill.

The Queensland Cancer Centre was due to start construction last year. Funding had been allocated, and the preferred contractor had been engaged to progress the design. It was shovel-ready. It was to be built within the Herston Health Precinct on the RBWH site. Plans called for 150 dedicated beds, four operating theatres, outpatient consultant rooms, pathology, pharmacy and chemotherapy services, but the Queensland Crisafulli government has put those plans on ice. They have pushed back construction of the Queensland Cancer Centre until 2031 at the earliest. There is no line item in last year's budget or the forward estimates. It feels to me like it's been erased.

It is quite difficult to comprehend the thinking behind this decision. It is cruel. It is a decision made on a spreadsheet, far removed from the reality of a parent watching their child get sicker. Now we're left with no centre and no construction date. The Queensland Cancer Strategy 2024 set out a plan to expand cancer services across regional areas and hospitals, as well as the construction of the Queensland Cancer Centre for more complex cancer services—all costed and budgeted for.

While the Crisafulli government seems to be talking about more cancer services in the regions, which I am all for, there is radio silence on the Queensland Cancer Centre. The urgent need for more dedicated beds at the RBWH impacts people right across Queensland who must come to Brisbane for a transplant. It is unacceptable that the lives of young people are being compromised due to a lack of beds. I urge the Queensland government to reconsider and to start construction of the Queensland Cancer Centre.

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