PM: Just let me say a few things about how pleased I am to be here in Rocky and here at the Rockhampton Base Hospital with Kirsten Livermore, who's a long-standing friend and colleague of mine who I work with closely in Canberra.
It's really important that we deliver better health and better hospital services to all Australians, and that includes people in regional Australia and major regional centres like here in Rocky, and that's why I'm pleased today to be here to announce that we are investing $67 million to establish a comprehensive cancer care centre here at Rockhampton Base Hospital.
This is a big investment. This is a lot of money, but in a practical sense what's it mean? It means that we're going to be able to ensure that we have the commissioning of two radiotherapy bunkers, the construction of a third bunker, 16 chemotherapy chairs. This will enable us to, of course, provide more comprehensive cancer care here.
The bunkers at Rockhampton will allow Queensland Health to install two linear accelerators, resulting in additional radiotherapy services for cancer patients here as well.
You see, when you look at this community and how many people use this great hospital, the basic question is this - why do I always have to travel to Brisbane for everything? We hear this message. That is why our message to the nation is we need a new National Health and Hospital Network, funded nationally by the Australian Government, delivered locally by local hospital networks.
You folk here know how to run your hospital, that's my experience, right round the country. What you need is better funding support to do it. You also need critical additional investment when it comes to cancer care.
The last thing I'd say is this - in Australia, the statistics tell us that for the one-third of our people who live outside the major cities, cancer outcomes are much, much worse than for their city cousins. That, frankly, is not good enough. We've got to change that. Too many of our fellow Australians are not getting the best access to cancer diagnosis and cancer treatment. Therefore, this is one step in that direction.
You might say 'why here in Rocky?' Well, you know, we're actually making a half billion dollar plus investment nationwide to regional centres like this right across Australia - places in West Australia, places in regional Victoria, places in regional New South Wales, here as well, and, you know something? That is a necessary step to dealing with what is one of the biggest killers in Australia today.
So, can I thank Kirsten so much for her strong lobbying effort on behalf of this hospital. I think if you put all this together, Kirsten, we must be investing about $150 million into this hospital. That is a $150 million investment long overdue. The people of this region, the good people of this region, deserve better hospital and health services. This is one practical step in that direction.
So, well done.