In a further sign of the chaos and dysfunction within the Abbott Government, the coalition now looks set to abandon another of its core health policies.
After having lectured all and sundry as to why its Medical Research Future Fund must be established, Health Minister Sussan Ley has today given strong indication she is about to ditch the fund.
The government has only itself to blame for this mess, after creating such high expectations in the research community that it would deliver the promised $20 billion fund.
“The cures of tomorrow are the research of today and that’s why it’s so important that we get cracking.”
Tony Abbott, Radio 2GB, 20 June 2014
The government has got itself in a world of pain when it comes to health policy. It is just another example of its litany of failures and is symbolic of a much deeper problem within the government
Department of Health officials confirmed at Senate Estimates in June that they only found out about the fund weeks before it was announced in the Budget, confirming it was only ever a desperate attempt to distract attention from the GP Tax.
Labor has consistently said while we support medical research, it is bad health policy to fund medical research off the back of taxing sick people, a position supported by many in the medical research community.
The minister’s dissembling simply highlights the chaos and dysfunction in the Abbott Government as she scrambles to backflip on her government’s unrealistic promises.