Thousands turn out to support medical research

Thousands of people have attended rallies in major cities across Australia in support of health and medical research and to protest the rumoured cuts to research in the next federal budget.

Rallies were held in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Canberra, with a rally scheduled to be held in Perth on Thursday.

They rallies were inspired by rumours that the federal government is considering slashing $400 million over three years from health and medical research in the next budget.

The research community has responded with shock to the notion of such severe budget cuts, which amount to around 20 per cent of the National Health and Medical Research Council budget.

The government has refused to quash the rumoured cuts, with Health Minister Nicola Roxon and Finance Minister Penny Wong both reinforcing the broad point that “tough choices” will need to be made in order to bring the budget back to a surplus in 2012-13.

According to Michelle Gallaher, Chief Executive Officer of the BioMelbourne Network, around 4,000-5,000 people attended the rally in Melbourne held today.

Gallaher is also critical of the proposed cuts to health and medical research funding. “This country needs to focus on building a knowledge economy, utilising the power of our scientific communities for economic growth,” she said. “Budget cuts are not a growth strategy.”

The rallies were organised through the Discoveries Need Dollars website, an initiative set up by the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research.