Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I can think of few programs that are more important to our nation's future than the Medical Research Future Fund. By introducing this fund, the coalition government are confirming our ambition for a strong, vibrant and well-established medical research sector in this country.

We have always been a clever country. Despite our comparatively small population, Australians have been at the forefront of some of the world's greatest medical advances. Many Australians will be aware of the pioneering work of Howard Florey in the 1940s. His breakthroughs in the manufacturing and processing of penicillin, the world's first antibiotic, won him the Nobel prize and saved millions of lives worldwide. More recently, Australians have been behind the development of the ultrasound and the bionic ear and advances in in-vitro fertilization, or IVF. And Queenslanders are particularly proud of the work of Professor Ian Frazer, a researcher from the University of Queensland, in the electorate of Ryan, who led the development of the Gardasil vaccine for cervical cancer.

Australia punches above its weight when it comes to basic research. We have 0.3 per cent of the world's population but generate 10 times that much—three per cent—of the world's basic research. But, with so many talented scientists generating so much promising research, the competition for research funding is fierce. Only around 15 per cent of last year's grant applications to the National Health and Medical Research Council were successful in receiving financial support. That is not to say that the other 85 per cent of proposals were not worthy of funding. There is simply a finite amount of funding to be distributed.

Clinical trials can take many years and can be prohibitively expensive. As Australia is a small nation, our medical researchers face the additional challenges of a small population from which to draw trial participants and an undeveloped venture capital market. What this has meant in recent times is that, far too often, promising research falls by the wayside for no other reason than a lack of funding. Researchers tend to refer to such projects as having entered the 'valley of death'.

For this reason, medical research in Australia has reached a crucial time in its development. Our basic research is world class. We have an abundance of well-qualified researchers, established research institutes and highly regarded tertiary institutions. And yet we are losing our best and brightest researchers, along with their research, to other nations or, worse, from the industry entirely because as a nation we have not been doing enough to support them developing their research from the laboratory to the market.

That is why the Medical Research Future Fund is so important. The Treasurer has referred to it as a game changer for Australia. With this fund we have committed to take decisive action to ensure that medical research in Australia has a long, sustainable and successful future. It is always a pleasure to read about Australian medical researchers making discoveries that will change people's lives. But, for the good of this country, I want them to be Australian researchers based in Australia at places such as the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, at the University of Queensland.

I am pleased that this sentiment is shared by eminent representatives of the medical research field in Australia. When the enabling bill was introduced to parliament, I received a letter from Peter Scott, Chair of the Medical Research Future Fund Action Group. In the letter he said:

The MRFF legislation is the sort of bold, far-sighted policy we so often seek from our politicians. By preserving the $20 billion fund into perpetuity, the MRFF will provide a secure and stable source of funding for health and medical research … helping safeguard the future health of Australia's ageing population and improving their quality of life for generations to come.

This is high praise indeed from a group representing some of the leading medical research institutes in Australia.

It is expected that this fund will support investment across the research spectrum from the laboratory through to clinical trials, the commercialisation of new drugs and devices and the translation of new techniques or protocols into clinical practice. I am pleased that the Treasurer has acknowledged that commercialisation and translation are to be supported. For too long these steps have been the missing link in the progression of medical research in Australia. They have recently begun to attract the focus of government, and it is heartening that they will now receive the funding to go with it.

It is my hope that in decades to come, long after we are all gone from this place, future generations will look back on this fund and see it as the starting point for the next great Australian medical breakthroughs.