Ms ELLIS (4:42 PM) —I too welcome and fully endorse the motion put forward by the member for Curtin, which draws attention to the need for additional funding for the National Health and Medical Research Council, to be allocated specifically in this case for research into the various forms of muscular dystrophy. In doing so, it is in fact a bit difficult—difficult in a constructive sense, I would like to think—because, when calling for additional funds for muscular dystrophy, it is hard to forget cystic fibrosis, asthma, cancer, childhood arthritis and a range of other disorders and diseases, all of which I am sure we could stand up for here today and fully support a call for additional funding. I do not mean that in any sense to denigrate this call so much as to remind all of us of the areas desperately needing dollars to go into the area of research.

I will just digress very slightly for a moment. In Backing Australia's Ability—the government's research policy paper tabled last year—the government wanted to set priorities. They included a range of priorities which I think we would all applaud. I would like to think that, if the government were serious about funding not only muscular dystrophy but also a range of other medical research requiring suitable funding, if the government applied the criteria that is in that paper, they would find themselves able, at least in principle, to come along and support entirely any call for an increase in funding that would be required for research into muscular dystrophy, any of the other diseases that I have mentioned and the numerous others that exist.

But I will come back to the motion moved by the member for Curtin. I believe that the United States, along with some other overseas countries, actually contributes more to research into muscular dystrophy in Australia than is currently provided by the government. That is not me knocking the government so much as putting into perspective where the funding is coming from and where we believe we should be upping the ante, to coin a phrase. In 2001 the NHMRC had something like $335,000 that could have been used for this purpose. Between 1999 and 2003 the Australian Research Council had $470,000. There is a list of state governments and private or non-government fundraising efforts over the years. Red Rooster is a famous one. I think over a period of 18 years they have raised something like $1 million—all for muscular dystrophy research.

Medical research has a proud record in this country. Genome mapping and stem cell research I think are going to offer more help yet. But the research needs to be targeted, and I am sure I am not the only person in this place who has received letters from parents in the last few months particularly urging us all to support stem cell research for the reason that they can see a potential that could help and widen the opportunities for research and for success in muscular dystrophy as in a range of other disorders.

As other speakers have already mentioned, muscular dystrophy is an appalling thing that you would not wish on anyone. Duchenne is the worst and the most prevalent. The symptoms sometimes in their early stages would not necessarily be linked to muscular dystrophy. It could be cardiac problems, cataracts, testicular atrophy, respiratory and gastrointestinal disorders, a slight form of mental retardation, scoliosis or muscle wasting—there is a range of indications that can lead to muscular dystrophy.

It is fair also to mention, as the member for Curtin has pointed out, the inheritance of this disease. I understand that if one parent has the disease, even if only mildly, there is probably a fifty-fifty chance that it can be transferred on. I would like to urge all members of this place to support this motion and, in doing so, continue to urge the government of the day to think more carefully about how they can spend their science dollar and look very carefully at medical research, particularly in those disorders that affect our children and therefore affect many lives rippling out from that child. Muscular dystrophy, and the Duchenne version of it, is a terrible thing and we would not want to see anyone suffer from it. I fully endorse this motion and urge all efforts that we can raise into getting more money into the medical research end of this particular disorder.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Jenkins)—Order! The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption for this debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.