Budget cut rumours alarm health researchers

Health and medical researchers are up in arms over rumours that the federal government will cut up to $400 million over three years from the National Health and Medical Research Council budget.

The rumoured cut to funding is widely believed to be a part of the government’s efforts to bring the budget back in to surplus, which will require significant cuts to existing expenditure.

However, scientists have suggested that such severe cuts could have a dramatic impact on health and medical research in Australia.

Speaking on the ABC, Professor Julie Campbell, President of the Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes, said the cuts would hit researchers hard.

“It'd be absolutely disastrous to the health and medical research community,” she said. “It's going to mean that a lot of medical researchers are going to be unemployed.”

The NHMRC budget in 2009-2010 was a little over $700 million, so the rumoured cuts, which amount to $133 million each year over three years, amount to an almost 20 per cent cut in funding.

In contrast, the Australian Society for Medical Research made a request in January of this year that the government increase funding to the NHMRC by three per cent if Australia is to maintain a leadership position in health and medical research.

According to Campbell, the source of the rumours is from within the government, and the government has made no official overtures to dispelling the rumour.

This has led some to speculate that the government is attempting to soften the blow of the budget, which may include cuts of a lower magnitude than the rumoured $400 million over three years.