Submission to the Australian Commission of Audit: Commonwealth Government Funding of Health and Medical Research

This submission to the Commonwealth Government’s Commission of Audit sets out the breadth of Commonwealth funding for health and medical research (H&MR) so that the Commission is aware of how decisions in apparently unrelated areas could affect the sector. It notes that estimates of Commonwealth H&MR expenditure in 2011–12 range from $1.37 billion (Department of Industry) to $2.9 billion (Strategic Review of Health and Medical Research, the McKeon Review) and $3.86 billion (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare), and maps the programs involved: about $850 million in National Health and Medical Research Council grants, an estimated $93 million of Australian Research Council grants, around $550 million of university research block grants, Department of Health programs, CSIRO, Commercialisation Australia, the R&D Tax Incentive and infrastructure funds. It also describes State and Territory investment of about $1.1 billion, which it maintains complements rather than duplicates Commonwealth funding. Citing the biomedical sector’s roughly $4 billion in annual exports and Monash University modelling of the economic gains from better health among older workers, the submission maintains that H&MR is an interwoven system vulnerable to piecemeal cuts. With national health expenditure at $140.2 billion in 2011–12, it recommends that the Commission consider adopting the McKeon Review’s recommendations, particularly greater investment in health systems, health services, public health and preventive health research, as a means of reducing cost and inefficiency in the health system.