Labor will extend funding for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s Clinical Research Network, an effort we established in 2010, which takes research where it’s needed most – directly to the people living with this chronic disease.
More than 120,000 Australians have Type 1 diabetes and Labor has a proud record of supporting them. Today’s announcement is all about helping kids living with diabetes and finding a cure to protect them in the future.
Under the Liberals, the Network’s funding is due to expire in June 2019 – less than six months away. In its first Budget, a Shorten Labor Government will extend and increase that funding for a further five years to 2024 – meeting the request of JDRF and its thousands of advocates.
Labor’s extra funding would allow the CRN to enter phase three of its mission, which would involve:
- Increasing the volume and impact of type 1 diabetes clinical trials;
- Translating research findings into new technologies and treatments; and
- Supporting Australia’s world-class type 1 diabetes researchers in their bid to find a cure.
Labor’s commitment will cost $50 million from 2019-20 to 2023-24. Labor is able to make investments like this in health because we’ve made the right calls on unaffordable tax giveaways to wealthy Australians.
Of course Scott Morrison could end the funding uncertainty immediately – and we urge him to do just that by matching Labor’s commitment. The JDRF CRN is a world-leading research effort that deserves strong bipartisan support.
So far the Network – a collaboration between researchers, patients and industry – has enrolled 13,000 Australians in clinical trials of new drugs and devices, as well as prevention and early detection projects.
In addition to establishing the JDRF CRN in 2010, we went to the last election with a major commitment to expand support for Continuous Glucose Monitoring devices so that pregnant women and high-risk adults could get access to this life-changing technology. We are glad that the Liberals have recently emulated this policy after consistent advocacy from Labor and diabetes groups.
Labor believes in making health care affordable and accessible to all Australians, and in the power of health and medical research to achieve breakthroughs that improve lives.