Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

As I indicated in my second reading summing-up speech and as the government has openly and transparently indicated all the way through, the Medical Research Future Fund will be made up of contributions from a number of sources. About $1 billion in uncommitted funds from the Health and Hospital Fund and the 2014-15 budget savings in the health portfolio which have passed or will pass will go into the fund until the fund reaches $20 billion.

The government openly and transparently published those measures in the budget, as a government does—this government has and previous governments did—and Senator McLucas is exceptionally well aware of what those savings measures are. Indeed, the Australian community is aware of what those savings measures are. They were published in the budget. Those that are more controversial, for better or for worse, have been widely debated in the public domain for some time now. This is just a political stunt by Senator McLucas. When she asked me the same question in estimates—essentially asking me to relist all of the things that are already published in the budget papers—in an abundance of helpfulness, I answered the exact same question. I do not propose to hold up the Senate any longer with this sort of delaying tactic.

Obviously, in relation to the measures that have not passed yet—this is past history and everybody knows what has passed—I do not have a crystal ball to somehow identify what the Senate might be inclined to pass or not pass moving forward. That is going to be a matter for the Senate into the future. From the government's point of view, we hope that all of our remaining 2014-15 budget measures in the health portfolio and indeed across the whole of government will ultimately be supported by the Senate. But that is going to be a matter for the Senate at the appropriate time. That is not something that we are dealing with at this moment.