Olivia’s cancer center’s future hangs in balance due to funds crunch

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDMar 7 2011

After the new Victorian government said that there is a “black hole” in funding the project, the proposed Olivia Newton-John Cancer Centre in Melbourne may face difficulties in coming into being. About 2,000 Victorians are expected to receive treatment at the centre, which was due to open in early 2013.

At present nearly six of the eight floors of the site at the Austin Hospital in Heidelberg are complete, but some $40 million is needed to complete the internal fit-out of three wards, including 92 beds, and another floor for research. The earlier Labor government committed $38 million to the centre during the election campaign last November.

However Health Minister David Davis said a decision on whether or not the coalition government would fund the project would be subject to normal budget processes. Mr. Davis said, “We will give that close attention in the budget process and we'll do everything that we possibly can to ensure that project is funded…It was not one of our election commitments…But this is a project that I am very favourably disposed towards and would seek to work through at a budgetary level.” The budget will be released in May. Mr. Davis went on to blame the former Labor government for only funding the shell of the second stage of the project and not the internal fit-out. “It’s clear that there is a black hole in the funding,” he said.

Opposition health spokesman Gavin Jennings said it was up to the government to match Labor’s commitment as 10,000 Victorian families are touched by cancer each year. “Beating cancer should be bipartisan,” Mr. Jennings said. “It was always the intention of the Labor government to make this commitment happen and we had invested more than $140 million for the first stages…If you can’t find cancer treatment as a priority, then you have to actually say ‘where is your heart?’”

AFL chief Andrew Demetriou, chairman of the centre's public appeal, said he hoped to meet the minister to discuss the need for extra funding. “We have received wonderful support both from the previous state government and the federal government…Hopefully we’ll get an opportunity to present the advantages and the merits of the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Centre in due course,” he said.