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

Queensland has a desperate lack of specialist public cancer hospital beds, particularly for patients with complex cancers like leukaemia. You would think that this might have been a priority for the Crisafulli state government in this week's state budget. Well, think again. The lack of specialist cancer beds impacts every corner of the state, and I know what that looks like. It means immune compromised patients sharing cramped rooms and bathrooms with up to three others. It means moving between general, surgical, orthopaedic and other wards. It means teenagers sharing rooms with much older dying patients. It means patients who are already fighting for their lives are being forced into situations that further put their health and mental health at risk.

Families of leukaemia and blood cancer patients, like mine, have been waiting patiently for the construction to begin on the new Queensland Cancer Centre since it was announced three years ago. We were relieved when the former Queensland Labor government announced that construction would begin in 2025 and devastated when the Crisafulli government effectively cancelled the construction of the Queensland Cancer Centre last year.

The Queensland Cancer Centre was shovel-ready. The landmark facility was ready to be built, with 150 dedicated beds and proton beam therapy facilities, the first and only in Queensland and one of the only such planned facilities in the whole country. This was a project that was ready to go. The project was funded, the business case was done, the designing and planning work was done, consultation was done, preferred tenderers identified and the site prepared. This project was a long, long way down the track, but, after three years and millions of dollars spent on consultation and detailed planning, the Crisafulli government put all of that in the bin.

They say that construction has been deferred to 2031 at the earliest. The Crisafulli government released their state budget earlier this week. Their budget cites $2 billion towards new hospitals—which is welcome, of course—including the Queensland Cancer Centre. You might start jumping for joy at seeing that sentence, but, when you look a little further and you try to find specific funding, a line item, for the Queensland Cancer Centre, that's when your heart sinks. The only mention is 'to progress the delivery of a number of hospitals, including the Queensland Cancer Centre'. That's where the information stops. That's because there are no real plans to start the build. There's a generic line item in the budget for money spent for hospitals across Queensland—which, of course, we applaud—but no specific plans to start the build of the Queensland Cancer Centre.

The Crisafulli government claims that the project was stopped because of cost blowouts, but we all know construction doesn't get cheaper while you sit and wait. Delay, delay, delay means costly plans get shelved. Consultation needs to be redone. It will cost a lot more in five to 10 years time, way down the track, and have impacted many, many families across the state, as they fight for their lives in hospitals across the state.

At a federal level, we've backed in the states with $25 billion in additional hospital funding for the states over the next five years. The Commonwealth has done its part. I beg the Crisafulli government to get started on this project. Queenslanders need this project. We need the Queensland Cancer Centre to be built. We need those beds. Queensland cancer patients deserve better. Please start the construction of the Queensland Cancer Centre. Make it a priority. Cancer does not wait. It doesn't pause for a review and it's not going to defer itself until 2031. Please stop the excuses and get shovels in the ground.

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