Anne Aly (Cowan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Recently I attended the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation ball in Perth. It was a wonderful night, and they raised a record amount for the development of crucial research towards finding a cure for this debilitating disease. Today, I met with the adorable little Lawrence. Lawrence is five years old and was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at just 13 months old. He has never known life without diabetes. His mum describes type 1 diabetes as a relentless illness, but there is hope for Lawrence to live free of this disease.

Hope lies in the kind of research being done by the Clinical Research Network, which was initially funded with bipartisan support, but funding runs out next year. Funding has supported more than 30 projects across 65 institutes, and the next phase will focus on the key areas of trials, translating research into clinical practice and supporting emerging talent in research. It needs a funding commitment of $10 million a year over the next five years. That would support the ongoing funding of this kind of research, which is making a huge difference to the lives of type 1 diabetes kids and their families and is the best hope of producing a cure for this disease.

I'd like to thank Lawrence and his mum for coming to visit me, and to also to thank Lawrence for the beautiful picture that he coloured in for me while he was in my office.