Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

Thanks to the member for Kooyong for that question. As she knows, Australia punches way above its weight in health and medical research. We're about No. 7 in the world, although we don't even rate in the top 50 by way of population. That was the objective, the mission, of Billy Hughes 80 years ago this year when he established the NHMRC, and we've achieved it. We have year upon year added great potential for health care, not just for people here in Australia but for people right across the world. But I acknowledge people have wanted us to do more, including the member herself.

The member for Melbourne, who has the great honour of representing one of the most important biomedical precincts on the planet, at Parkville, has been a strong advocate. The member for Chisholm and the Minister for Housing have that rival precinct down in Clayton and have also been strong advocates. And there are many, many others besides. I want to acknowledge the Treasurer, who, with a very busy workload, thought about this very carefully after the 10-year review of the MRFF and lobbying from many in the community.

That is why I was so very pleased to be able to find, in a very challenging budget, around half a billion dollars in new funding to start to see those disbursements ramp up from $650 million a year to $1 billion a year by the end of this decade. As the member probably knows, we've also found $15 million to do the next stage of the one-stop shop for clinical trials to improve the clinical trials and research environment in Australia. Once we hit that $1 billion mark, when you put it alongside the NHMRC funding, we'll be investing $2 billion or more every single year in our world-class health and medical research workforce. It is going to be a terrific thing when we get to that.

To the national strategy—as the member knows, and many members on our side have engaged in this as well, we asked Rosemary Huxtable, a very esteemed former public servant who was secretary of Finance and deputy secretary of Health as well as holding many other positions, to do a unified strategy rather than having an NHMRC strategy and an MRFF strategy. That has been delivered to government. I want to wait until we have a budget outcome around MRFF disbursements as well as the one-stop shop before we look at releasing that, but I'll have more to say about that in the coming days.

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