Proton Therapy in South Australia

Mrs HURN (Schubert) (14:36): My question is to the Treasurer. Will life-saving proton therapy treatment be delivered in South Australia and, if so, when?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Police) (14:36): I thank the member for Schubert for her question. It's an important question because the Minister for Health and I have been working very hard, particularly over the last 18 months, to try to ensure that the proton therapy project stays alive here in South Australia.

Yesterday we had the Auditor-General provide a report to the parliament outlining the sequence of events over the last eight or so years which have led us to the current situation where the contracted supplier of the proton therapy unit, ProTom International, has been unable to deliver on its contract to SAHMRI. This has placed SAHMRI in an incredibly difficult position. SAHMRI entered into a series of agreements with, firstly, Commercial & General, which then onsold its interests in the Australian Bragg Centre building to Dexus to try to ensure that another proton therapy unit can be procured and successfully installed in the space below the Australian Bragg Centre building, what is referred to as the 'bunker space', which was specifically built for ProTom International.

Some of the work that we have done between SA Health and Treasury is to get some independent expert health infrastructure advice about what the state of play is in the global industry for proton therapy units and whether it might be feasible for an alternative supplier, obviously one that is a bit more capable and financially credible, to provide one of their units that can be installed in this bespoke space.

Our initial advice is that it's likely that is feasible, although it may well require some modifications, albeit relatively minor, to the building. But what it does require is an agreement from the commonwealth to fund the project again. The reason I say that is because this was intended to be an initiative which would provide medical services not just for South Australians but to all Australians, so in that respect, of course, it's not reasonable that South Australians should be paying for the development and delivery of a service which will benefit all Australians, including beyond our borders.

But the good news, to get to the nub of the question that the member asked, is that the federal health minister, Mark Butler, has remained open-minded and indicated in principle his support for procuring and installing a proton therapy unit for the benefit of Australians. We are engaged in detailed discussions with his federal Department of Health officials to work through the logistics of what would be required to install a proton therapy unit in that bunker.

I can't be any more specific than that, except to reassure the member and the house, as well as the broader community, that we are doing everything we possibly can and we are leaving no stone unturned to try to ensure that we make a success of this. As I have said to the house before, I still believe that we remain a frontrunner for this because we are the only jurisdiction with a building. It just requires those other elements I have just gone through to be successfully navigated, and that is the work that we continue to be committed to.