Julian Simmonds (Ryan, Liberal National Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health and Aged Care. Will the minister please update the House on how the Morrison government's plan for a stronger future includes a medical research plan to support all Australians through the discovery of new medicines and medical treatments, including for those living with ataxia and mitochondrial disease?

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Ryan. Last week, we visited the Wesley Medical Research institute in his electorate, and there we saw the Medical Research Future Fund plan—the 10-year plan—in action. It was funding for a clinical trial for children with ataxia, a neurodegenerative condition which takes their lives. That condition was at the heart of this clinical trial. This clinical trial was sponsored and fought for by parents such as Cristina and Simon, the parents of Goldie Digby. Goldie Digby is a young girl who already has significant signs of this degenerative condition. But this clinical trial is a world first, applying an enzyme to provide a potential treatment for up to 40 children who otherwise would not see, on average, their 25th birthday. That's real, significant and important. It's the plan that's in action, a plan which is delivering life-saving treatment. That treatment, if it is found to be successful, then goes on to become new medicines, which are listed. Those new medicines have been at the heart of what we have done to save and protect lives over the course of the last five years and beyond.

In particular, we know that this Medical Research Future Fund plan sets out a $750 million commitment to clinical trials for rare cancers and rare diseases, something which I would hope every member of this House would support, and I am sure that they do. Moreover, the plan also includes funding for mitochondrial disease—$15 million to support the work of Maeve's Law. I am pleased to advise the House that the Senate joined the House last night in supporting Maeve's Law for mitochondrial disease. It is named after Maeve Hood. Maeve's parents are Joel and Sarah. They also fought for their daughter to have access to new medicines and new treatments and for all other parents who may come afterwards to have access to mitochondrial donation to ensure that their children have the chance of being born without this condition.

So we have seen through that the best of this parliament and what we can be as a parliament, as a nation, working to a plan—working to a funded plan and working across the aisle to ensure that we give children and families real hope. For Maeve and for Goldie, the plan is what we do. But Maeve and Goldie are why we do what we do.

Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House of Representatives) | Link to this | Hansard source

on indulgence—I join the minister in welcoming the passage of Maeve's Law in the Senate. I thank him particularly for the work that he has done to make that law a reality and for reaching across the aisle, particularly with my predecessors, the member for McMahon and the member for Ballarat, in ensuring this was as far as possible a cross-aisle effort in both houses. I also, on indulgence, thank the minister, after what I imagine was his last answer, for a long and successful career in this place. We all look forward to the Prime Minister now telling the Australian people, in the middle of a pandemic, who he proposes as the next health minister if he's successful.

Andrew Wallace (Speaker) | Link to this | Hansard source

That's going beyond an indulgence. The Leader of the Opposition.