Tuesday, 16 August 2022

Medical research

Mr McGUIRE (Broadmeadows) (13:10): In the era of distraction, value can too often be lost in the blink of a tweet, so I want to highlight that a world-first mRNA manufacturing facility on a university campus was announced yesterday at Monash, with Moderna. Melbourne, like Boston and London, is a world leader in life-changing and life-saving medical research, emanating from our internationally acclaimed academies, especially the University of Melbourne and Monash. mRNA provides next-generation vaccines against the pandemic and is crucial for breakthroughs against cancers and other diseases. I was delighted to join Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, the Premier and federal and state ministers for this defining announcement for health, science and national security.

As Victoria’s first Parliamentary Secretary for Medical Research, my driven pursuit has been internationalising collaborations and delivering community results. My initiatives have ranged from identifying new multibillion-euro opportunities with the United Kingdom and the European Union to advocacy internationalising the Cancer Moonshot with the White House, which brought Joe Biden to Melbourne in 2016 for the opening of the billion-dollar jewel in Australia’s medical research crown, the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre. I have also driven plans to redefine the social determinants of life in postcodes of disadvantage, designing Broadmeadows as the prototype. I look forward to new investments in public health addressing the causes of pandemic outbreaks and lockdowns by coordinating the expansion of the Broadmeadows Hospital and the Broadmeadows super clinic and training the nurses and allied health workers vital for our most vulnerable communities, with Kangan Institute. Such investments are vital.