Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment) Share this | Hansard source

I reject these opposition amendments. I want to talk about how proud I am that this government is committed to ensuring that our nation remains at the very cutting edge of initiatives in medical research. We have done and will continue to do this through ensuring that our medical researchers are on the forefront of developing technologies, treatments and research. In last year's budget, we as a government committed to the creation of a $20 billion Medical Research Future Fund. This is, by far, the biggest endowment fund of its kind in the world and will be an asset to our nation, delivering benefits for all Australians now and well into the future. When I reflect on the initial purpose of the Medical Research Future Fund Bill 2015 and what it proposes, I think of the enormous benefits that can be delivered. This bill will fund vital research, which will enable more researchers and more scientists to discover and innovate new technologies and new medicines.

I know that the Hunter Medical Research Institute, the HMRI, encourages innovation at all levels of health and medical research and that the institute will directly benefit from the establishment of this Medical Research Future Fund, which will provide a secure and reliable revenue stream for further medical research. The fund will enable our nation to support a sustainable health system into the future. The cure to breast cancer, the cure to brain cancer, might only be a number of years in the making. A financial injection such as this, into vital research, may project to such landmark findings that will shape the future and, importantly, save lives. They may only be a few years away.

The Hunter Medical Research Institute recently began a project on virtual biopsies for prostate cancer that could bring new-found accuracy in the diagnosis and monitoring of the disease. This was done through the HMRI opening a magnetic resonance imaging centre, with the most advanced scanning technology in the Southern Hemisphere. This technology is also used for further research into early detection of breast cancer. In August 2014 it expanded into detecting prostate cancer using spectroscopy, a 'virtual biopsy'. This is at the very forefront of prostate cancer research being undertaken on such an advanced MRI scanner. This research is undertaken at the Hunter Medical Research Institute, in the Hunter Valley, and this new technology has been dubbed 'the Ferrari of medicine'.

The Director of HMRI, Professor Michael Nilsson, has also recently teamed up with researchers in Sweden to develop new methods to combat sleep apnoea and help sufferers of severe snoring. I am proud to hear of these outcomes in my patch, my home, the Hunter. The HMRI are also on the forefront with the development of a new generation of targeted melanoma drugs, with HMRI researchers' findings in this sphere likely to lead to future collaborations with the world's top cancer researchers. This news is particularly welcome and significant for the Hunter region, which has above average rates of melanoma. Cancer Institute New South Wales figures show that the Hunter ranks fourth in a list of five red-zone regions, behind northern New South Wales and the Central Coast, for instance. The HMRI cancer program has had research results recently published in the US Journal of Cancer Research for the latest innovations—just an example of how valuable this investment is for our nation and for our communities.

I am proud of what the government is achieving in relation to advancing the scope and potential in both the research and medical fields through the Medical Research Future Fund Bill. To close, I would like to note that this bill is an investment in Australia, an investment into medical research, an investment into quality of life and, more importantly, an investment into generating a better understanding of illnesses and diseases, delivering real outcomes for saving our lives. But the work is not done for Hunter Medical Research. Institute. An investment of $93 million established the first real and meaningful building for the research. Now planning is underway to build a second tower, which will house clinical trials of some of the research, will provide greater opportunities for commercialisation of some of the research outcomes that they have delivered. Importantly, remember, this is a tripartite establishment. Our community holds the chair. It is working with the University of Newcastle and Hunter New England Health to deliver real and meaningful health outcomes for all of our nation, and indeed the world, through the work that is done there.

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