Mark Furner (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This evening I rise to speak on a matter which I have been involved in for many years. When it comes to cancer, there is no need to reinforce my commitment to the cause. Since 2006 I, along with other committed senators, House of Representatives members, Queensland members of parliament, councillors, trade union officials and members of communities in Brisbane, have been raising dollars to combat cancer and hopefully find a cure for this insidious disease. Collectively to date we have raised over $55,000 to help the Cancer Council of Queensland to fund outcomes. Most of the activities have been concentrated on fundraising through the Relay for Life events in Pine Rivers, Redcliffe and Brisbane. However, on Saturday, 13 March I was invited, along with the member for Longman, Jon Sullivan, and the state member for Morayfield, Mark Ryan, to participate in an event held at the Caboolture hall to commemorate the passing of Toni Lee-Anne Connelly and to raise money for the Cancer Council of Queensland.

To have an understanding of Toni’s illness we need to go back to May 2005, when she was diagnosed with a brain tumour, having experienced muscular spasms in her left leg. She was operated on within a week of being diagnosed, her loving family by her side. The operation was followed by extensive radiation therapy. As normal procedure, scans were conducted at six-monthly intervals. By 2008 scans revealed the cancer was returning in the form of an aggressive blastoma multiforme cancer. Doctors were hesitant to operate and the family continued to search for a possible cure, as they had before. Subsequently, a debulking operation was performed in September 2008 at Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, with Toni’s loving family at her side once again. Chemo and stereotactic radiation therapies were administered in further attempts to stop the tumour’s progression.

Toni knew from her many visits to the cancer wards that there were countless others affected by this disease, not just the direct suffers but also their families and friends. Toni always tried to make her family happy and reduce their worries. She never complained about the effects of the treatment or the way it made her feel. Quite selflessly in November 2009, despite all the pain and treatment she had endured, Toni expressed a wish to raise funds to help young children and others affected by cancer. The family spoke with close friends and soon team TLC was formed.

Team TLC set about raising awareness and support for the cause, and a fundraiser was held in March 2010. The Cancer Council Queensland were contacted and they threw their support behind the team’s efforts. Team members reported widespread community support for the cause, and on 13 March 2010 the event became reality at the Caboolture Memorial Hall. The event took on the theme of a mad hatters tea party and auction, with items from the wider community, including political memorabilia from Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Queensland Premier Anna Bligh, and a multitude of local business donating various items for auction. Along with entry and sales from a sausage sizzle, the auction raised funds of over $16,500 on that day, and the sole beneficiary was Cancer Council Queensland.

Despite Toni spending her palliative days in the care of her family at home and passing quietly in the early hours of the morning of 1 March, 12 days short of the event, I am sure she would have been overwhelmed with the success of main convener Russell Veritz, the TLC team and supporters. Toni was loved by all who knew her. She was a very well respected member of the community, not just as a businesswoman but as a person. She is sadly and deeply missed by her sons and family and all who knew her. Like Toni and the TLC team, I shall continue my commitment to raising funds through my involvement in Relay for Life to one day find a cure for this insidious disease.

In respect of this government’s commitment, the Rudd government provided $500,000 in funding towards the Cairns Base Hospital chemotherapy initiative in the 2009-10 financial year and will provide $7.3 million over three years to establish an integrated cancer centre at Cairns Base Hospital. It will be a purpose-built facility offering a range of cancer treatments, including a radiation oncology service. Funding will also be injected into the states to support follow-up for National Bowel Cancer Screening Program participants who returned a positive test result. Queensland will receive $400,000 in the 2010-11 financial year. Through the Health and Hospitals Fund, the Commonwealth will provide $1.3 billion over six years to support infrastructure to deliver a world-class cancer care system. This will modernise cancer services and improve detection, survival and treatment outcomes.

Since 2007 the government has injected millions into cancer care, including $600 million to ensure Australians with cancer can get the medication they need, $120 million to replace BreastScreen Australia’s analogue mammography equipment with state of the art digital mammography equipment used for screening women with breast cancer, $87.4 million to expand the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program, $31 million for women who require breast prostheses as a result of breast cancer, $12 million for the McGrath Foundation to recruit, train and employ breast care nurses for four years, $15 million for a children’s cancer centre in Adelaide, $15 million for CanTeen to establish youth cancer networks, $15 million to set up two dedicated prostate cancer research centres in Brisbane and Melbourne and $15 million to establish the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre in Melbourne.

The Minister for Health and Ageing, the Hon. Nicola Roxon, recently announced the Rudd government’s plan to create a single national cancer control agency to further strengthen the government’s strategic focus on cancer control and to build a better health and hospital system. The government intends to amalgamate the national lead cancer agency, Cancer Australia, with the successful National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Centre, the government’s expert centre on breast and ovarian cancer control. The proposed joint agency will have a clear leadership mandate across all cancers and a capacity to better focus on Cancer Australia’s responsibilities under the Cancer Australia Act 2006. The benefits of such an approach are as follows: the amalgamated agency would allow the time, effort and expense spent on separate reporting requirements and administration to be redirected so that the maximum resources go to front-line cancer programs and research; all cancer stakeholders would have one Australian government agency to work with, regardless of cancer type; and the government would have one coordinated source of expert advice on cancer care.

Breast and ovarian cancer patients and their families can be assured that these cancers will remain a priority of the Australian government, as the new Cancer Australia will continue to focus on breast and ovarian cancer as it delivers the government’s broader cancer programs and research priorities. The proposed model has proved effective internationally and will create a more strategic approach to fighting cancer, building on the successes in treating specific cancers such as breast and ovarian cancer. When it comes to commitment to combating cancer, I am pleased to say that the Rudd Labor government and my team members who walk and run for 18 hours each year in Relay for Life are as one.