Coronavirus Vaccine

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (16:43): Has the government received an application for funding from Vaxine?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (16:44): I'm not sure whether there's been a formal application. My understanding is that the health portfolio and, it may well be, other parts of government have received requests for support from Vaxine in different forms. Whether or not it's a formal application, I wouldn't be surprised if Vaxine had requested funding.

My response would be the same, which is that the commonwealth is the lead provider of funding. We provide very limited financial contributions. Earlier this year, the Premier made a reference to the Productivity Commission and asked the Productivity Commission to look at health and medical research, so it will be an opportunity for us to look again at what we are doing in the health and medical research space.

The state government in the past has made significant contributions to institutes such as SAHMRI, but my understanding is that the state government has never tried to compete with the commonwealth government as the primary funder of individual grants to clinicians and research teams.