Medical Research Future Fund at risk of being another Gonski

Professor Geoffrey Dobson wants to develop a new therapy to address severe burns, in a field of practice where there has been little innovation in around thirty years.

Associate Professor Melinda Carrington says a clinical trial could prove that employing practice nurses to monitor patients' blood pressure could deliver better health outcomes for the patient, and economic outcomes for the hospital.

Around 70 per cent of the causes of major disease are behaviour-related, and Professor Sandra Jones wants to develop Australia's first evidence-based guidelines for the most effective ways of communicating those risk factors to patients and more broadly.

These and thousands of other worthwhile health and medical research projects are currently without funding, and are exactly the type of thing that could be delivered by a Medical Research Future Fund.

When the Coalition included the fund in the 2014 budget, it was hailed by the health and medical research sector as a watershed announcement that finally answered our calls for significant, predictable funding that will deliver enormous benefits for the Australian people and economy.

It's our Gonski.

When it reaches full capacity early next decade, the Medical Research Future Fund will deliver around $1 billion a year for new therapies, treatments, drugs and devices that will directly benefit Australians.

And aside from the positive human health impacts, every dollar that is invested in Australian medical research delivers $3.39 in future health and productivity gains (Deloitte 2014), meaning the fund will help Australia reap enormous, income-producing, cost-saving, economic benefits.

When – or if – it reaches full capacity, Australia will have a funding stream in place that underpins the cutting-edge, ground-breaking discoveries that keep our population healthy, our health system sustainable, and our health economy great.

It is good economic policy, good social policy and good health policy, and right now, its future is uncertain because while all of the major parties supported the legislation to create it, and the principles behind it, there is not a multi-party commitment for fully funding and delivering it.

Again, it's our Gonski.

This election is the opportunity to turn that around.

While the implementation has slipped a year under the Coalition, and the budget is down slightly against the original positon in the forward estimates, we are encouraged from its recent statements that the Liberals and Nationals will work to keep the implementation on track.

The health and medical research sector has also welcomed positive sentiment about the MRFF from both Labor and The Greens, and hopes to see concrete announcements throughout the campaign about their proposed funding envelopes, mechanisms and timelines.

There are, of course, a myriad of different possible results from this election – on a seat by seat, party by party, and house by house basis – but Australia could do worse than have one of the results be a multi-party, funded and sustainable commitment to the Medical Research Future Fund.

The opportunity here is to form broad consensus that defends and future-proofs Australia's current health system and future health economy, and if we don't seize that opportunity, the fund is at risk of becoming a political football, or worse, a casualty.

Other countries are already reaping the benefits of initiatives such as the Wellcome Trust in the UK, which has funded billions of dollars' worth of medical research projects over the past years, and Australia needs to be there seizing similar life-saving, economy building opportunities.

Research Australia is an alliance of 160 health and medical research organisations, and on behalf of the sector we call on all parties to commit to the policy, to both agree to, and commit to, suitable funding mechanisms, and to make it happen.

Every year it is delayed is another year that promising research projects are delayed, and every dollar diverted from it is a dollar diverted from Australia's potential for new discoveries that save lives, improve quality of life, and form the basis of our future economy.

We can't let the politics of politics get in the way of the Medical Research Future Fund, and the promise of a healthier Australia. This is an initiative that is too important to fail.