Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

To suggest, as the member for Ballarat and as the opposition did when this bill was introduced into this place, that this is a slush fund is a disgrace. I know Labor knows a lot about slush funds, because they have had such good experience with them. You only have to think about pink batts, BER or the Early Years Quality Fund. Labor should have known perfectly well not to identify this as a slush fund. Identifying it in that way was an insult to every medical researcher in this country. In all the conversations I have had, we have heard very positive responses about what this fund will do, how it will do it and the way it will be distributed. This has been met with incredibly broad support. It has not been suggested to me by any individual anywhere that we have been going about this in the wrong way.

Yes, it is a competitive field. The overwhelming message that comes back to the government is this: 'Please, we want more money.' That is what this fund does, by building up a corpus of $20 billion and distributing $1 billion every single year. There is a secure, on going and sustainable stream of funding for medical research which there has never been before, which is world leading and world beating and which we know will produce remarkable results. There will be an independent expert panel: the advisory board, as the member describes. There was always an independent expert panel. There is, I believe, certain scope for a strategic look at the way medical research is done, with some opportunities that those experts will feed into a process led by the Chief Scientist, fitting into the Australian government's national research priorities.

To suggest that that smacks of vested interest, again, is an insult to all of those people who I know will have a strong say in that process. We very much support the curiosity driven, bottom-up research that the NHMRC produces and we know that the average $800 million a year disbursement from that will continue. We also have the support of the two organisations, with each other, for their disbursements going into the future. I am sorry that the member for Ballarat, having initially called this fund a slush fund, is here trying to smear what I know will be a positive contribution to the nation's future. Really, this should not be the least bit political.

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