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

In an abundance of helpfulness I will make the point again and I will try to make it succinctly. Firstly, the decisions of the advisory board are binding on the minister. The decisions the advisory board make are decisions about priorities and strategy. The advisory board does not make decisions about specific funding allocations—and they should not, because we believe that that would make the system unworkable for the reasons that I explained in my previous contribution. As far as parliamentary approvals are concerned—Labor has been in government in the past and I suspect that, sadly, they might well be in government at some point in the future—are you really suggesting that every single funding decision should be subject to a vote of the parliament? Really?

That is just insane. There is an enormous impracticality about how Labor proposes to administer this funding. Effectively, Labor is proposing that every decision by the health minister to debit funding must go to a vote in both houses of parliament. This would put every single decision on funding into the political system. It would make some funding decisions susceptible to political lobbying and undue influence by the loudest voices.

Political lobbying can not only be directed at the government of the day; it can also be directed at the other possible majority in the Senate that is not necessarily a government majority of the day. This would detract from the dispassionate, expert-driven model which is in the government's bill. This model is also highly impractical where there is a need for an urgent response to a health crisis. Finally it would be damaging for Australia's international reputation if major research companies have their investment plans upended by political decisions after they have passed through rigorous application processes run by professional administrative authorities.

How do you think that reputable, serious research organisations would put themselves into a process where any individual funding decisions ultimately becomes a political football in the Australian Senate? It is a ridiculous proposition. It does not do the Labor Party any credit to come up with proposals like this. In my initial response I sought to be kind and I did not want to go into too much detail in relation to this. It is not a serious proposal. The government has very seriously and deeply considered the best way to approach this. To suggest that the parliament should be put in a position of having to make a decision on every single funding application is just ridiculous.