Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

At the request of Senator Bilyk, I move:

(1) That a select committee, to be known as the Select Committee into Funding for Research into Cancers with Low Survival Rates, be established to inquire into and report on, by 28 November 2017, the impact of health research funding models on the availability of funding for research into cancers with low survival rates, with particular reference to:

(a) the current National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) funding model, which favours funding for types of cancer that attract more non-government funding, and the need to ensure the funding model enables the provision of funding research into brain cancers and other low survival rate cancers;

(b) the obstacles to running clinical trials for brain cancers and other cancers with relatively lower rates of incidence, with regard to:

  (i) funding models that could better support much-needed clinical trials, and

  (ii) funding support for campaigns designed to raise awareness of the need for further research, including clinical trials;

(c) the low survival rate for brain cancers, lack of significant improvement in survival rates, and strategies that could be implemented to improve survival rates and;

(d) other relevant matters.

(2) That the committee consist of 8 senators, 3 nominated by the Leader of the Government in the Senate, 3 nominated by the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate and 2 nominated by minority groups and independent senators.

(3) That:

(a) participating members may be appointed to the committee on the nomination of the Leader of the Government in the Senate, the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate or any minority party or independent senator; and

(b) participating members may participate in hearings of evidence and deliberations of the committee, and have all the rights of members of the committee, but may not vote on any questions before the committee.

(4) That the provisions of standing order 29 apply with respect to quorum.

(5) That the committee may proceed to the dispatch of business notwithstanding that not all members have been duly nominated and appointed and notwithstanding any vacancy.

(6) That the committee elect as chair one of the members nominated by the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate and, as deputy chair, one of the members nominated by the Leader of the Government in the Senate.

(7) That the deputy chair shall act as chair when the chair is absent from a meeting of the committee or the position of chair is temporarily vacant.

(8) That, in the event of an equality of voting, the chair, or the deputy chair when acting as chair, have a casting vote.

(9) That the committee and any subcommittee have power to send for and examine persons and documents, to move from place to place, to sit in public or in private, notwithstanding any prorogation of the Parliament or dissolution of the House of Representatives, and have leave to report from time to time its proceedings and the evidence taken and such interim recommendations as it may deem fit.

(10) That the committee have power to appoint subcommittees consisting of 3 or more of its members, and to refer to any such subcommittee any of the matters which the committee is empowered to consider.

(11) That the committee be provided with all necessary staff, facilities and resources and be empowered to appoint persons with specialist knowledge for the purposes of the committee with the approval of the President.

(12) That the committee be empowered to print from day to day such papers and evidence as may be ordered by it, and a daily Hansard be published of such proceedings as take place in public.

Question agreed to.