Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

One wonders whether the Audit Office has ever signed off in relation to this. A government ever keen to exploit the politics of this could simply disburse the money the way it wants. This government, clearly, is work-shy when it comes to this particular legislation. It has not done the nitty-gritty, hard policy work, and it has not set up this fund in the truly bipartisan way that it should have. Behind the scenes, it is quite clear from the way it has been done that the Prime Minister's office has made another captain's call.

No-one in this place would dispute the fundamental importance of health and medical research. Scientific innovation and inspiration, at home or abroad, has improved and saved the lives of many we love and cherish, and no political party has ever been more supportive of health and medical research in Australia than Labor. We invested more than $3.5 billion in such research when we were last in government, including more than $700 million to build and upgrade health and medical research facilities across the country. When we were in government, we did consult with the health and medical research sector, the Department of Health and the Chief Scientist. We always had a science minister, and had the phone number of and knew how to contact the Chief Scientist.

We do not believe in any way, shape or form that you should fund the cures of tomorrow at the expense of those who are sick today. We should not. That is the problem with this legislation, and that is the problem with the way this government has established this fund. For that reason, I support the amendments as proposed by the Shadow Minister for Health.

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