Proton Therapy in South Australia

Mrs HURN (Schubert) (14:35): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Is the government committed to delivering a proton therapy cancer treatment centre in South Australia?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Police) (14:35): I thank the member for Schubert for her question. It's an important one because it's not just the South Australian community, it's the national community that has been left in the lurch by the failure of the supplier of the proton therapy unit, ProTom International, not being able to deliver against their contractual obligations in the contract that they entered into with SAHMRI.

As I previously informed the house, I became increasingly concerned during the course of 2023 that we were getting repeated requests, or SAHMRI was getting repeated requests, and then, of course, referring that to Treasury to release funds in advance of the contractual milestones. We were concerned that this was becoming a level of behaviour which was indicating a lack of capacity for ProTom to deliver.

With that in mind, as I have previously advised the house, a delegation from SAHMRI, from SA Health and also Treasury travelled to the United States, where the company is based, to try to see firsthand and get some sense as to how far progressed they were and whether we could have any confidence as a state that they could deliver. Unfortunately, the advice that came back from those officials was that we should not be making further payments and we should expect ProTom International to indicate to us very clearly how they were going to get the project back on track and deliver.

Since that time, I am advised, we have had key technical personnel leave that company, further diminishing their capability to deliver on the contract, and as a result SAHMRI has now cancelled the contract and is in the process of winding up those contractual arrangements between itself and ProTom International.

What we have been doing in the meantime is providing support from the state government to help SAHMRI understand whether another more credible international supplier for proton therapy equipment could be procured to fit their equipment, their model of proton therapy unit, into the space that has been constructed in the basement or what has been referred to as the bunker of the Australian Bragg Centre building.

That building has reached practical completion. There are some tenants who have moved into that building as a result of some of the financial commitments entered into by the previous Liberal government to support the project. There are some five floors, I think, of now Department for Health and Wellbeing staff who have moved in and we are continuing to progress the investigations as to whether another supplier's unit can fit into that bunker, to what extent there would need to be building modifications, whether that is practical or reasonable, and also whether the building owner, Dexus, is prepared to support that endeavour. That has been the work, basically, that has been undertaken to date.

SAHMRI, the state government and certainly the clinicians who have led this project are all doing their absolute best to try to ensure that we have the best opportunity of securing this. It is my view, and I think the view of the government, that South Australia still enjoys a bit of a competitive advantage opposed to the other states and territories around the nation in that we already have a facility that can be made suitable for a proton therapy unit whereas all other states and territories do not. So I would like to think that, of anyone in the country, we have the best chance of securing it here, but we do have to resolve these technical issues about whether a unit can be installed in the bunker of the Australian Bragg Centre first.