Joanna Gash (Gilmore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Earlier this year the government announced that it would be funding the establishment of a number of opportunities for linear accelerators. The 2009-10 budget has allocated $560 million for a network of up to 10 best practice regional cancer centres. The Shoalhaven is in dire need of one of these facilities, and we intend to put forward a very strong submission when tenders are called. Cancer patients in my electorate of Gilmore are forgoing treatment and even undergoing voluntary mastectomies instead of travelling to Sydney for radiotherapy treatment because there is no facility in the Shoalhaven and the two Wollongong machines cannot cope with the demand. Patients are currently forced to travel a minimum of 80 kilometres to their nearest linear accelerator facility, across a distance with little or no public transport. The train line stops at Bomaderry, and people in suburbs further south have no option but to drive or be driven. This situation is unacceptable.

The community have once again taken the initiative to raise almost $1 million for a facility, and we hope the federal government will recognise that determination and supply the remaining funding required as part of the National Cancer Plan budget program. It is in this context that I wrote to the minister in December 2007, immediately following the federal election, and again just a couple of months ago asking for our inclusion as one of the 10 regions. For the record, the previous coalition government committed $3.5 million to fund the establishment of a linear accelerator in Nowra. Unfortunately, history has put paid to that, but not to the resolve of the community for fair consideration.

As part of the ongoing effort to secure a facility, I travelled to Wagga Wagga with the Mayor of the Shoalhaven, Paul Green, and the state member for South Coast, Shelley Hancock. With me was Zita Cleary, wife of the late Professor Ray Cleary, who himself died of cancer. Ray headed up the Shoalhaven campus of the University of Wollongong and, even though he was a dedicated Labor supporter, he and I got on very well. Ray was also a strong worker for the cause of cancer research, and I would like to think that the securing of a linear accelerator for Nowra would be a fitting testimony to this man.

Wollongong based oncologist and Wollongong University Clinical Professor, Phil Clingan, is on record as stating the necessity of the device to be situated in the Shoalhaven. This is what he had to say:

People are electing to have mastectomies because it’s too inconvenient to have radiation … because it’s too difficult for them to travel to and from Wollongong.

He said:

The number of people foregoing treatment was part of the “compelling argument” for establishing a new cancer care centre in the Shoalhaven.

He also said:

The most logical place to put a third machine is in the Shoalhaven.

Professor Clingan says outright:

We really need something in the Shoalhaven.

Despite the overwhelming determination of the Shoalhaven community, the NSW government continues to disregard their constituency. There was no provision in this year’s state budget, and the state Labor member for Kiama, Matt Brown, whose seat takes in the northern part of the Shoalhaven, could not offer an explanation. He said he was unsure as to why the area health service had not committed funding for a linear accelerator for the Shoalhaven hospital.

Mr Brown is patently dismissive of supporting the aspirations of the people he purports to represent, and does so quite regularly. It seems he has lost the plot and, with that, his interest in his constituency. This is what the editor of the South Coast Register wrote in response to Mr Brown’s lack of enthusiasm:

In picking up territory right down to the Shoalhaven River in the 2004 redistribution, the urbane Mr Brown also picked up a lot of responsibility, not the least of which is a disastrous absence of radiotherapy services.

Contrast the lives of the cancer sufferers who travel up and down the highway each day to access the linear accelerator in Wollongong to that of Mr Brown, who is paid a princely sum just to go to work each day, and the disparity is glaring.

The southern half of his electorate expects the Member for Kiama to make good use of the big increase in his electorate allowance. High on his agenda should be making the time to visit Nowra, and perhaps take the bus with the cancer patients and hear their stories first-hand. He might gain an insight into the indignities they suffer—particularly those will bowel or prostate cancer.

This in turn may just inspire him to lobby a little harder for the Shoalhaven linear accelerator. While he gives plenty of lip service to the cause, his recent admission that he had not attended a meeting of the linear accelerator committee for two years would suggest otherwise.

I applaud the announcement by the state Liberal opposition to make it a No. 1 priority, if elected, to secure a linear accelerator for the Shoalhaven. The constituents, Shoalhaven council, Professor Clingan and the South-Eastern Sydney Illawarra Area Health Service are all united in working together to see that the Shoalhaven gets its linear accelerator.

I think that says it all, and I would hope this government takes note of those sentiments as it deliberates over who is deserving of getting one of these budgeted places. That is why we have sought a meeting with the minister, to allow us to present our case to recognise the Gilmore electorate and South Coast as an area of need for this funding. We will go to the federal minister with $1 million in funds. The mayor, Paul Green, will have land allocated, and with the will of our people, who are constantly raising funds, we simply just cannot be ignored.