Cancer Care

Lismore MP Thomas George welcomed the announcement in Tuesday’s NSW budget of $12.2 million to start work on the $27m Lismore integrated cancer care unit.
“This is a great win for the community, one of our biggest priorities has been the cancer unit, and they’ve allocated exactly what is needed,” Mr George said. “It is great recognition of the community who continually fought for this.”
Also included in the budget was $2.9m for the Rural Cardiac Catheterisation Lab Strategy; provision for the replacement of demountable classrooms with permanent facilities at Wyrallah Road Public School; more than $1m for community transport services for the elderly and people with disabilities; $88,000 for court upgrades and the Justicelink project; and $27m for road projects in the area including the Lismore to Coraki Road and Dunoon Road.
“The cardiac catheterisation lab strategy means people will be able to access the public system for heart tests in the region,” Mr George said.
Greens MLC Ian Cohen said he thought the Iemma government had its priorities mixed up by allocating such a large amount for the desalination plant at Kurnell in Sydney.
“In this year’s budget, they have allocated almost as much on their white elephant desal plant as they have budgeted for the entire operations of the Department of Environment and Climate Change: $886m versus $986m,” Mr Cohen said. “The government leads by example when it comes to promoting the consumer ahead of the conserver society.
“This is an incentive to consume more, not less and is symptomatic of the mindset of our leaders who, when they see the community pointing to sustainability ahead, u-turn back to consumption.
“Right now, 1046 native species, populations and ecological communities are listed as threatened with extinction in this state. This list has grown by 33 since last September. It is significant that the long-awaited biodiversity strategy was not mentioned in Tuesday’s budget.”

Source : www.echonews.com