We have just been told that science has developed a new drug that is delivering almost instant cures for Melanoma - and Australia is the Melanoma capital of the world. Unfortunately, few Australians will be able to benefit from it, because the Australian government is refusing to list it under the Pharmaceutical Benefits scheme. The reason is - cost ! A treatment cycle will require either the patient - or the PBS - to shell out a whopping $ 120,000.
It would be nice to think that our government was careful with the money it spends - because that is our tax money and most people would think that high on the list of priorities would be saving Australian lives. Health care bites deeply into the national budget - and it will distress many people to know that some will be left to die a painful death simply because we can't afford to offer them an expensive treatment that would extend their life span.
It comes as a bit of a shock to learn that our Foreign minister, Bob Carr - has just given away a million dollars to the small nation states that are our neighbours in the Pacific ocean area - to fund them sending representatives to Rio+20, a talk fest to be held in Brazil on the subject of " how to sustainably manage the world's oceans ".
We are well aware that global warming is causing ocean levels to rise and that the amount of carbon in the air is causing the oceans to become more acidic, but it is hard to understand what these tiny little island states could possibly do to change that situation. In reality, some lucky person from their government will have a nice holiday at Australia's expense, sit and listen to a regurgitation of what is already known - and come back and write a report on what he or she learned.
No doubt it will make some people in Australia feel good. We are not ignoring our nice little neighbours and their problems of rising seas. At least we are enabling them to sit down alongside the big and powerful nations and voice their concern. As usual, the outcome will be a lack of pledges to take any meaningful action, but it will have been a nice courtesy - and anyway - what's a million dollars between friends ?
It could have funded eight Australians to be treated - and saved - from death from Melanoma. It is all a matter of priorities. Paying for people to attend that conference would have value - if it delivered some sort of improvement to the problem - then it would be a reasonable outcome, but if it was simply a wasted effort, then the money could have been better spent.
Some of the people facing death from Melanoma would probably agree with that thought !
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