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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-09-24 Daily Xml
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INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:49): My question is again to the Minister for Health. Has the minister or his department commenced or made a contribution to the review of the state intellectual property policy? The policy was published in 2006 and was due for review in two years from its introduction, that is, by June 2008.

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health, Minister for the Southern Suburbs, Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts) (14:50): I am not sure entirely what the deputy leader is driving at, but, certainly, in health we have contributed to the making of intellectual policy. In fact, we determined a year or so ago on a new approach to intellectual property that was developed within the health system and then commercialised to the extent that we now have an arrangement in place which is similar to the arrangement in place within the universities; that is, the individual researchers of the research team which produced the intellectual property which is commercialised get one-third of the commercialised benefits. The institution from which they were working, whether it is the Women's and Children's Hospital or the RAH or wherever, or the unit within those hospitals, gets one-third of the commercialised benefit. Then a third goes into the Health and Medical Research Fund we have established. That fund is then able to be used to further encourage research activity within the state.

All this was considered and thought through by John Shine, who is the head of the Garvan Institute in Sydney, and Mr Alan Young, who is the head of the Flinders Foundation. We asked them to provide us with a report on research in South Australia. They have given us a very good report, which we are in the process of implementing. The goal of that is to increase the amount of research activity within our hospitals and universities, and to bring together the various institutes that we have that are focused on health and medical research into one large institute which is more capable of attracting national and international funding.

We are also going to beef up, where we can, that health and medical research fund to stimulate research in South Australia. We want it to be a fund that is focused on the very best research activity that we can get in South Australia, and also on new and emerging research teams and individuals, and we are working through the recommendation that we should have a new iconic centre for research activity in South Australia and create more capacity.

So, I think health made a very large contribution to the discussion about intellectual property and the development of good policies. The application of that, a one-third/one-third/one-third arrangement within health, makes us consistent now, of course, with other states and with the university sector, and that means that we are more likely to hold onto good research teams in our state and within the health system.

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