Proton Therapy in South Australia

Mrs HURN (Schubert) (14:40): Supplementary to the Treasurer: has he received a commitment from the federal government that they are willing to inject additional funding so that proton therapy can go ahead in South Australia?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Police) (14:40): I thank the member for the supplementary question because I think it is the question that has been on most people's lips about where the federal government is up to with that. To date, we haven't got that commitment, but I must say, to be fair on the federal government, I am not sure that they are in a position where they can give that commitment.

As I have tried to explain to the house, the federal government needs to be assured that there is a viable, deliverable solution for the building that we have: to get an alternative proton therapy supplier and their equipment and have it successfully installed in the space that was built for a different supplier, ProTom International. We think that is feasible, but there is a lot of technical work that needs to be done, and that is part of the discussions that we are having with those federal departmental officials.

I have to say, again, Minister Butler has been very open-minded about this but, to be fair, I don't think we can expect him to make a commitment until he can be confident that we are not going to commit further funds to this endeavour and get into the same sorts of difficulties that SAHMRI got into with ProTom International. We remain hopeful and we will do everything we can to put Minister Butler and the commonwealth government in the position where they can provide a positive response, but we are not quite there just yet.