Mr CHRIS HARTCHER (Terrigal) [5.15 p.m.]: I have raised the issue of public radiotherapy services on the Central Coast for years, and on 17 November 2007 I presented a petition signed by 19,000 local residents to the Parliament calling for public radiotherapy services on the Central Coast.

In June 2009, Tony Whitfield, the Deputy Auditor-General, said in the report "Tackling Cancer with Radiotherapy":

Cancer is on the increase. The Cancer Institute New South Wales predicts there will be over 30 per cent more cancer cases in the next 10 years … By 2016, there will be an estimated 45,000 cases of cancer each year, costing around $106 billion over the next 10 years.

Recommendation 6 in the report is that New South Wales Health "conducts detailed analysis of options for radiotherapy services (including public or private sector provision) and sites in the geographic areas of need, including the Central Coast".

The Central Coast has twice the State average of elderly people, a demographic that has the highest incidence of cancer. It therefore has twice the need. I will put on the record some facts about public radiotherapy services on the Central Coast and Labor's false promises and announcements. On 10 September 2008, after John Della Bosca was reinstated as Minister for Health and Minister for the Central Coast following the Iguanagate affair, he stated that he would look at the need for a public radiotherapy service for the Central Coast. In December 2008, Belinda Neal started her petition for radiotherapy services on the Central Coast whilst her husband, John Della Bosca, knew that New South Wales Health had drafted a radiotherapy services plan but kept it secret due to a lack of funding from his Government.

......... In June 2009, the Central Coast representative of Cancer Voices New South Wales, Kathy Smith, met with John Della Bosca, the then Minister for Health, about Central Coast radiotherapy services. John Della Bosca told Ms Smith that a public radiotherapy service for the Central Coast was a Government priority and that she could expect an announcement in two weeks. A month later, in late July, after receiving no announcement, Ms Smith wrote to John Della Bosca asking for an update. A month passed again and no response was received from John Della Bosca about this "Government priority". John Della Bosca never replied to Ms Smith, and late on the night of 31 August he resigned as New South Wales Minister for Health.

On 23 June 2009, the New South Wales Auditor-General released a report into radiotherapy services, which uncovered the New South Wales Health draft radiotherapy services plan that Nathan Rees and John Della Bosca had kept secret. In the Auditor-General's report were 16 recommendations. In theory New South Wales Health supported all of the recommendations, including recommendations relating to the Central Coast, but they are "dependent on resources to undertake full reviews". Effectively this is saying it will not happen unless the Labor Government is willing to provide the funding. In the 2009 Federal budget, the Government announced "$560 million to establish 10 best-practice regional cancer centres across Australia, to which Gosford Hospital can apply". There are no guarantees and no announcement has followed.

On 2 September 2009, the day after John Della Bosca resigned, the Minister Assisting the Minister for Health (Cancer), Jodi McKay, announced a "project management team" had been appointed to plan for a public radiotherapy service on the Central Coast, but she would not give a time line or a date for completion and said funding would depend on budgetary constraints. Again, nothing will happen unless the Government is willing to provide the funding.

In the 2008-09 budget estimates hearings for General Purpose Standing Committee No. 2 Dr Matthews, Deputy Director General for Strategic Development, said that the Central Coast public radiotherapy service was not in the 10-year plan, that it was again subject to budgetary restraints, and that it was a decision of the budget subcommittee of Cabinet. Again, this relies on the willingness of the Government to provide the funding. In a recent edition of Belinda Neal's latest newsletter, disguised as a community newsletter, she claimed much success since tabling a petition for the Central Coast radiotherapy service in the Federal Parliament because she had no success from her husband, the then New South Wales Minister for Health, who could have made it happen with a stroke of his pen.

Mr Speaker, while Belinda Neal was collecting signatures for her petition for the radiotherapy service her husband, John Della Bosca, the then Minister for Health, publicly said that he was supportive and offered sympathy, but he knew it was never going to be funded by his Government. Are we to believe that the project team, with no end date to report, no funding commitment and no timeline will deliver a radiotherapy service to the Central Coast? No. Will the announcement by Belinda Neal about Federal Labor guidelines that Gosford Hospital might apply deliver a radiotherapy service to the Central Coast? No. If Labor, both State and Federal, wants to deliver a public radiotherapy service to the Central Coast it can do it. The Premier, in the news, says he's got the message about the need for public radiotherapy services on the Central Coast. Well, where is it? [Time expired.]