Mr WETTENHALL (18 August 2009) (10.52 pm): This evening I would like to pay tribute to the life of Elizabeth Plummer, a courageous Cairns woman who lost her five-year battle with cancer on 14 July this year at the age of 58.

A fighter to the end, Liz Plummer was a key figure in the campaign to bring
improved cancer services to Cairns.

She was born in 1951 in Greece and migrated with her family to Australia in 1955. She first lived in Perth before meeting her husband Max Plummer in Canberra in 1978, marrying a year later. She moved to Cairns in 1980 working for TAA and then Qantas, then switching her talents to helping to find work for long-term unemployed young people in 1999 following the upbringing of her children and retirement from Qantas.

Liz was diagnosed with cancer in 2004 and underwent treatment in Townsville. She went into remission in 2005 but then began her campaign to seek government support for radiation oncology services in Cairns.

I first met Liz at her home when I was a candidate in 2006. Following that meeting I was moved to write to then Premier Beattie highlighting the difficulties encountered by those people who had to travel away from home, family and friends to receive cancer treatment in Townsville or Brisbane.

Cancer returned late in 2005 and Liz went public with her goal of establishing radiation oncology services at Cairns Base Hospital. There was overwhelming support from patients, their relatives and friends and the wider community who backed her idea.

Liz became the voice and face of the Committee for Oncology Unit Cairns Hospital or COUCH. Co-founded by Liz and Max Plummer, Pip and Charles Woodward and Bob McGill in September 2006, COUCH campaigned for radiation oncology services to be made available in Cairns. Happily the campaign was successful, with the government deciding to provide those services.

Liz's legacy will live on, with Premier Anna Bligh visiting her earlier this year to announce the government would fast-track construction of new radiation oncology facilities in Cairns. Due for completion in late 2010, the centre will be a lasting testament to Liz's efforts in campaigning for those facilities in Cairns.

Fittingly the new centre will be known as the Liz Plummer Oncology Unit.

Now that the Bligh government has committed to the provision of those facilities as part of the redevelopment of the Cairns Base Hospital, $600,000 raised by COUCH to date can be used for health and wellbeing services to complement the new treatment facilities.

Liz was an inspiration and on behalf of the far northern community I express our gratitude for her achievements and our condolences to her husband Max and her children, extended family and friends.