Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very pleased that in last night’s budget announcement $10 million was allocated by the Australian government for a Centre for Innovation in Cancer at Flinders Medical Centre. This project is an important project for the electorate of Boothby, and it has been a long-term priority for Flinders University, Flinders Medical Centre and the Flinders Medical Centre Foundation. I am particularly pleased as this has been the culmination of 12 months work. I want to pay tribute to Professor Graeme Young, Dr Rhys Williams and Ms Deborah Heithersay of the Flinders Medical Centre Foundation.

It all began last year, the day after the budget announcement—so one year exactly—when I realised there was money available for medical research and approached Professor Young about putting in a submission for this year’s budget. It required meetings with several cabinet ministers, visits to Sydney and visits to Canberra in September, October and November. The project will be a $21½ million project. There are other people who have made contributions. The state government has made a $2½ million contribution. There have also been a lot of donors, particularly from the southern suburbs of Adelaide. They have a great function, the Pink Ribbon Ball, which has had building this cancer centre as its goal.

The cancer centre will be a comprehensive cancer centre of a type that we do not have in Australia. It will have a particular focus on prevention. As our population ages, we will see an increasing cancer burden. It is estimated that over this decade we will see a 30 per cent increase in the incidence of cancer. That means that, while virtually all of the spending is concentrated on treatment and even on end-stage care, it is very important that we focus on prevention on the precancerous stage because that will actually help to reduce the burden.

The cancer centre will integrate research and clinical care. They will have translational research as well, which will mean the research they will be doing will be applied to patients. This will be particularly good for residents in the southern suburbs of Adelaide who use the Flinders Medical Centre. I am told that the facility should be open by 2009, and patients will get the benefit of a state-of-the-art, world-class facility at Flinders.