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Legislative Assembly
 
PUBLIC ACCOUNTS AND ESTIMATES COMMITTEE

18 March 2020
Report on the 2019–20 Budget Estimates
Frank McGuire  (ALP)

 


Mr McGUIRE (Broadmeadows) (10:20): I refer to the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee inquiry and the contribution from the Treasurer. We confront a once-in-a-century pandemic and a once-in-a-generation recession, coinciding with social media disruption, which is often incorrect, inflammatory and causing panic. Convergence of such life-changing events means that we should listen and act on advice from the national unity cabinet, where the Premier is playing a leading role with the Prime Minister and other first ministers to slow the spread of the coronavirus to save lives.

I renew my call for a centre for disease control and prevention to be centred on the world-leading medical research in Victoria as a single source of truth and emergency response in the future. The Medical Research Future Fund, rising to $20 billion, is tailor-made to establish a mission for infectious diseases to deliver this result and leverage the Victorian government’s budget investment of $116.5 million into medical research and an extra $6 million targeted at a vaccine for the coronavirus.