The failure to deliver life-saving cancer treatment for Aussie kids

Governments are being criticized for failing to deliver a life-saving cancer treatment for Australian children. Millions of dollars have been spent on establishing a proton therapy unit, but the project has been mismanaged, resulting in significant taxpayer losses and delays in providing this critical medical technology.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Yes, good afternoon. In what's being described as a national disgrace,
millions of dollars have been pulled in to establish Australia's
first proton therapy unit. This building in Adelaide has been
redesigned to house the cutting edge medical technology, but last
year the state government tore up the contract with the
companies supplying the machine, citing funding issues. Now an Auditor

(00:27):
General report into the decision has found significant gaps in
the way the South Australian government managed the project, including
a lack of effective oversight and risk management for a
project that has significant costs and national consequences.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Australians are quite literally dying because they aren't able to
get access to the proto therapy technology that they will
promised eight years ago. It's a complete debarker.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
One hundred million dollars of taxpayer funds have already been
spent on the failed project.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
We are trying to work out really how much of
that money is going to be able to be recouped,
if at all. But it seems quite clear to me,
on the best advice I have from the Department, that
there is going to be a significant taxpayer loss here.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
The Federal government also conceding today it'll be years before
Australia has a proton machine, meaning almost one thousand Australian
families every year will still have to travel all the
way to America for the life saving treatment