The Leukaemia Foundation has described the Crisafulli LNP Government’s announced fuel subsidy increase from 34c to 45c per kilometre as a welcome but ultimately incomplete step for regional Queenslanders who need to travel for life saving treatment.
Regional cancer patients continue to face severe financial hardship due to a stagnant accommodation subsidy that has failed to keep pace with the real-world costs of travel.
The Foundation is calling on the Queensland Government to deliver a long-overdue uplift to the current $70 nightly rate.
Leukaemia Foundation Chief Executive Officer Chris Tanti warned that an 11-cent increase to fuel costs ‘barely touches the sides’ of the crisis.
“While more money for fuel helps with the journey, it doesn’t solve the crisis facing patients once they arrive at the hospital gates,” said Mr Tanti.
“Increasing the fuel subsidy is a start, but you can’t drive 600 kilometres for life-saving chemotherapy and then sleep in your car because you can’t afford a bed.
“A fuel increase alone is a half-measure that ignores the biggest bill and financial burden facing regional families – the skyrocketing cost of staying near a hospital.
“The reality is that the current $70-a-night subsidy hasn’t kept pace with inflation, and it certainly hasn’t kept pace with the housing and cost-of-living crisis.”
By contrast, the Malinauskas Government in South Australia recently lifted their nightly accommodation subsidy rate to $110.
If Queensland fails to act, the state will lag behind in the national league table for patient support.
“We’ve met with Minister Nicholls to express how critical this review is,” said Mr Tanti.
“He was the Treasurer who oversaw the last major uplift to this scheme in 2013, and we are calling on him to show that same leadership again.”
As Australia’s most decentralised state, more than half of all Queenslanders live outside Greater Brisbane. With specialist cancer services concentrated in metropolitan hubs, thousands of regional families must relocate for weeks, months or sometimes years at a time for treatment.
David MacGregor from Gladstone was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia in 2024 and had to relocate to Brisbane for lifesaving treatment – staying at the Leukaemia Foundation accommodation centre for the following seven months.
“Without the support of the Leukaemia Foundation, we would have been financially ruined,” said Mr MacGregor.
“We were over 500 kilometres from home and unable to work that whole time – it would have costs us tens of thousands of dollars to stay near the hospital and travel back and forwards.
Mr MacGregor says the subsidised accommodation and travel offered to him by the Foundation allowed he and his family to focus on his treatment and what was most important to them – staying together and getting well. But the impact of cancer still haunts him.
“I’m still unable to return to full time work and sometimes struggle with day-to-day activities due to the treatment I received for blood cancer.
“I travel over six hours to have my regular check ups at the hospital in Brisbane and with the cost of fuel and accommodation it’s very expensive and stacks up and up. It’s just another hurdle while you’re trying to recover physically and mentally.”
The Leukaemia Foundation is calling for an immediate ‘catch-up’ uplift of the accommodation subsidy to at least $100 per night, followed by annual indexation to ensure the scheme never again falls a decade behind reality.
Mr Tanti added, “We need a streamlined, uniform system across all Hospital and Health Services to ensure equity of access for the 50% of Queenslanders who live in regional and remote areas.
“We must ensure that in Queensland, your postcode does not impede your access to life-saving treatment.”
The Leukaemia Foundation encourages people impacted by cancer to contact their local MP given the urgency of this issue and the announcement in today’s State Budget. It is time for the Government to provide fair, realistic support for regional patients traveling for treatment.
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