Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Assistant Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the senator for his question and for some advance notice of it. I can assure the senator that the coalition is committed to ensuring that the Australian public can be well informed with high-quality research on this issue. The NHMRC intends to announce a targeted call for research in this area once NHMRC's information paper has been finalised. The NHMRC is aware that some literature has not been captured in this systematic review as it was published after the search time frame. Public consultation will ensure all relevant evidence is identified and considered. It would be useful for senators to note comments from Professor Anderson from the NHMRC, as stated in Senate estimates:

Our position paper was put out in 2010. We will update our position paper after we have completed the feedback from the community on the information paper, looked at the evidence that has occurred since then, as we have said on our website, and then finalised the information paper. Then we will consider what extra research needs to be done. Since the research so far is poor quality, it is almost certain that there is research that needs to be done.