ANDHealth has commended the Australian Government for putting in place a broad budget which balances immediate cost of living challenges alongside significant funding towards a “stronger future” for Australia. Delivered against the backdrop of current global and national challenges, ANDHealth supports the budget’s focus on strengthening the health and medical research landscape and providing further investment in the infrastructure necessary to deliver digital health initiatives.

ANDHealth has commended the Australian Government for putting in place a broad budget which balances immediate cost of living challenges alongside significant funding towards a “stronger future” for Australia. Delivered against the backdrop of current global and national challenges, ANDHealth supports the budget’s focus on strengthening the health and medical research landscape and providing further investment in the infrastructure necessary to deliver digital health initiatives.

ANDHealth CEO, Bronwyn Le Grice, commented, “We welcome the Government’s investment in telehealth, interoperability and data integrity as critical infrastructure necessary to deliver a digitally-enabled and patient-centred healthcare system, as well as a raft of measures which will drive a more innovation-focused future.

“Sovereign capabilities across the health and medical research, development and commercialisation landscape are critical as we look to a diversified and strong economic recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic.  Leveraging this investment into a robust evidence-based digital health industry will support the Government’s goals of increasing employment and boosting innovation and local capability, and position Australia as a global leader in evidence-based digital health and digital medicine.”

ANDHealth has welcomed the expansion of the Patent Box initiative, with legislation yet to come before Parliament, taxing corporate income derived from eligible Australian patents in the medical, biotechnology and agriculture sectors at a concessional rate of 17%. The Government is encouraged to consider aligning this to compete with other countries, such as France and Britain, with a rate of 10%, providing a real incentive for Australian companies that can drive investment, create jobs and encourage commercialisation.

The changes to employee share schemes regulation are a significant step forward that will enable our fast-growth digital health companies to attract the talent critical for Australia to become a globally competitive centre for innovation. Transforming our economy and maintaining our leadership in health and medical technologies will require becoming a destination of choice for the very best talent from around the world.

ANDHealth is highly supportive of continued funding to ensure telehealth remains a permanent part of Australia’s health system. Telehealth provides the necessary infrastructure for more advanced remote monitoring and other patient-centred interventions which are transforming the prevention, diagnosis, mitigation and management of disease in a global context.

In addition, the investment of $72 million into digital health will facilitate the delivery of innovative methods to provide care and continue the momentum for embracing new technologies. Further funding to build interoperability within the national digital health infrastructure ($64.5 million) and safeguard national health data ($2.9 million) is a critical investment in delivering a world leading healthcare system.

ANDHealth also welcomes the following investments:

• $750 million boost to the Modern Manufacturing Initiative; $53.9 million for round 3 of the Manufacturing Modernisation Fund; and $4.7 million to support women to build a career in Australian manufacturing

• $37.4 million to 2025-26 to establish a new CSIRO Research Translation Start program to build further cooperation between researchers and industry and supercharge their commercialisation journeys

• $42.4 million to grow the pool of women in STEM by providing up to 500 university scholarships, co-funded with industry.

It was disappointing that there was no specific funding for the continuation of Industry Growth Centres. As an organisation which was seed funded by MTPConnect and which has gone on to generate hundreds of jobs, millions of dollars of new financing for SMEs and impacted over 500,000 patients, ANDHealth looks forward to working with the Government to support the continuation of this high impact program.

ANDHealth looks forward to working closely with the Government to ensure development and commercialisation of evidence-based digital health technologies and global commercialisation scaling remain front of mind so that Australia’s evidence-based digital health industry realises its potential to become an economic and health outcomes powerhouse for Australia.

Summary of Key Areas of 2022 – 2023 Federal Budget