CHRIS BOWEN MP
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR MCMAHON
CATHERINE KING MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND MEDICARE
MEMBER FOR BALLARAT
JULIE OWENS MP
MEMBER FOR PARRAMATTA
LABOR TO EXPAND CHILDREN’S MEDICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE
A Shorten Labor Government will invest $21 million to expand the Children’s Medical Research Institute (CMRI) to ensure it has the resources it needs to do its life-saving work.
This election is a choice between Labor’s plan for better hospitals or bigger tax loopholes for the top end of town under the Liberals.
CMRI has a proud history and has long been at the forefront of research and innovation in microsurgery, immunisations against lethal childhood illnesses and care for premature babies.
The work of CMRI has saved and improved the lives of countless Australian children over its 60-year history – and this investment will benefit countless more into the future.
CMRI’s current programs include research into serious childhood diseases, including cancer, genetic diseases and birth defects.
Labor’s new investment will allow CMRI to expand their important work – enabling their researchers to develop technologies, medicines, techniques and skills that will benefit children in Australia and around the world.
Labor’s $21 million commitment will help CMRI to build a new facility adjacent to the Westmead Children’s Hospital. This new facility will form part of the Westmead Research Hub, of which CMRI is a founding member.
As part of this, CMRI will build Australia’s first Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) facility for producing specialised clinical-grade gene delivery vectors to treat children with serious genetic diseases.
This investment is a part of a Shorten Labor Government’s plan to invest $1 billion in vital upgrades to Australia’s public hospitals: building new wards with more beds, upgrading emergency departments and theatres, and establishing new palliative care and mental health facilities – and investing in research programs like this one at CMRI.
This investment blitz – one element of Labor’s $2.8 billion Better Hospitals Fund – is a key part of Labor’s Fair Go Action Plan to improve health care and strengthen Medicare.
We can afford to spend more on health care because we’ve made the tough decisions to make multinationals pay their fair share and close unfair tax loopholes.
A Shorten Labor Government will always invest more on health and hospital services than the Liberals, who have inflicted cut after cut after cut on our health system.
That’s why Australians today are paying more than ever to see the doctor, and why people are languishing longer than ever in emergency departments and on elective surgery waiting lists.
Labor knows there’s nothing more important than your family’s health – that’s why we will always fight for better health care and why only Julie Owens and Labor can be trusted to fix Australia’s hospitals and deliver a $21 million upgrade to CMRI.
WEDNESDAY, 1 MAY 2019