Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

He was over the moon, absolutely over the moon, as many other researchers are about the government's commitment to medical research. Not only are we providing record amounts now to medical research, but we will increase that investment as we go forward. As a nation, we face a great threat as our population ages in relation to dementia and diseases of the brain otherwise. In fact, it is projected that by 2050, 7,500 Australians each week will present with dementia. We have to make the investment today to make sure that we can provide the opportunities for research and discovery that will assist our doctors and our scientists to make those discoveries and to implement the medications and the advice that flow from them. I am very proud of the fact that we are in this portfolio at this time able to say that we will increase health expenditure over the forward estimates in 2014-15 by 3.7 per cent. In 2015-16 it increases again to $68.2 billion. It increases in 2016-17, it increases in 2017-18, and health funding will continue to grow in this budget.

There are other people who have been complimentary of the government's $20 billion Medical Research Future Fund. Let me go to Professor Doug Hilton, who is the Institute Director at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research. He says:

This investment from the government is game changing.

He also says, 'It is a fabulous time to be a medical researcher in this country.' The Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes said:

Creation of this $20 billion fund into perpetuity is amongst the most significant initiatives in the history of medical research in Australia.

We will set this health system up for the future, not just for today. We will protect it against the Labor Party into the future. This fund will have its capital protected, because it will be guarded by the Future Fund guardians. We will not allow Labor to attack the $20 billion. We will make sure that the $1 billion a year that will flow from this $20 billion capital fund will supplement the money that we are putting into medical research now—which will grow to about $2 billion a year—and we will stop the Labor Party from spending that $20 billion at any time in the future. This fund is about setting the future up for this country and that is what this government is about.

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