MOTIONS › International Childhood Cancer Awareness Month
Senator McGRATH (Queensland—Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) (16:04): I seek leave to make a short statement. The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Leave is granted for one minute. Senator McGRATH: The coalition government is providing record levels of funding for medical research and new treatments in the global fight against childhood cancers. Paragraph (a)(viii) of the motion is incorrect; we are funding both projects. Paragraph (b)(ii) is irresponsible. The suggestion that parliament should override our medical experts is wrong. We provided $20 million to the Zero Childhood Cancer initiative, which has already started enrolling patients. We are providing $5.8 million in funding for Cancer Australia to support new paediatric clinical trials, with the first project being AIM BRAIN. In the budget, we provided $68 million to build Australia's first proton therapy cancer treatment and research facility. Under the Medical Research Future Fund, we've provided $13 million in funding for rare cancers. Question agreed to.