Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Medical Research Future Fund was established with the promise of $1 billion a year to support Australia's world-class medical research sector. For 10 years, it has supported high-value research projects, investigating innovative solutions and translating them to real-world use. But, despite the Parliamentary Budget Office advising that the fund can now deliver $1.4 billion a year, less than half of that is being distributed by this government. While the fund keeps growing, it is bloated with unrealised opportunity. We have an opportunity to support brilliant research, but many high-quality projects and clinical trials never get off the ground because of lack of funding. Whole areas of chronic disease are undersupported, and we risk falling behind on developing technologies like proton therapy and AI. At the same time, we could right now be benefitting from the administrative instability in the US by recruiting world-leading researchers to swell our ranks. This government has no excuse—no reason—not to unlock the extraordinary potential of our medical researchers and our universities by supporting them with the funds of taxpayers that have been put aside for that very purpose. I would argue that the government has a duty to do so, and it should do so immediately.