Abbott’s Medical Waste

I knew it. The much-vaunted Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) is nothing more than an economic sleight-of-hand. This morning, Matthias Cormann has confirmed it in the Australian:

Plans for a $20 billion medical research fund are being locked into the Abbott government’s budget strategy despite growing concerns about the idea, as ministers insist on keeping the scheme, as well as a controversial GP co-payment to pay for it.

Fighting off calls to scrap the idea, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann is arguing for the fund as a vital structural reform that will cut net debt and pour money into long-term research without deepening the deficit.

“That fund will not be spent but invested, generating a regular return … That capital fund becomes an asset on the government’s balance sheet, reducing government net debt by $20bn once fully accumulated.”

 You read it first in Quadrant’s July-August issue, where I said precisely this in the opening paragraphs of my article on the…