Australian Greens party announce ME and CFS policy

[MyalgicE]

The Australian Greens party announced their policy on ME and CFS, it’s great news that they have a policy in the lead up to the upcoming federal election. We hope the two major parties do the same.

Former senator Scott Ludlam started this work, continued by Senator Steele-John.

The policy platform is:
$15m for biomedical research
A national ME and CFS summit
More funding for patient advocacy
Better access to the national disability insurance scheme (NDIS)

https://jordon-steele-john.greensmps.org.au/sites/default/files/ME and CFS Policy Doc.pdf

 

[Sean]

 

[Hoopoe]

Is this the first political party to make ME/CFS part of its platform?

 

[ME/CFS Skeptic]

It says:

part of our plan to boost disability advocacy funding by $11.3 million over four years.

So that would be 2.825 million per year. That seems like a lot for advocacy organizations. Is the 15 million figure also for a 4-year period?

 

[pteropus]

it's a wonderful policy. extra gold stars for ex-senator Scott Ludlam, who got the ball rolling many years ago.

three cheers for the collaborative efforts of many many australian advocacy groups & individuals, who contacted their local politicians, attended advocacy events, etc.

 

[Andy]

Is this the first political party to make ME/CFS part of its platform?

As far as I know, but I'm not really into politics.

It may be useful to inspire others to do so though

 

[Sunshine3]

Any idea when this money will be released so that research can get going

 

[pteropus]

it's a proposal, not a done deal.

the date for the next federal elections hasn't been announced yet (will be soon) - and it would need support from other parties, in both houses, because Greens are a minority party.

there are other national issues that need to be addressed urgently, and any changeover of government will take time.

 

[Peter T]

Is this the first political party to make ME/CFS part of its platform?

Didn't the Scottish National Party have a conference motion on ME relatively recently? I seem to remember they rejected GET but fudged their response to CBT.

 

[Simone]

Any idea when this money will be released so that research can get going

As @pteropus said, it’s not a done deal. This is a policy platform by one of our minor parties. Its main benefit is political, because it allows advocates to challenges our major parties to match or better it.

 

[BruceInOz]

Any idea when this money will be released so that research can get going

In reality, the probabality that the Greens will actually ever be in a position to implement this is close to zero. They currently have one member out of 150 in the lower house. Their best case scenario is holding the balance of power in a minority government situation that may give them more influence.

But nevertheless, it is wonderful to see a political party put something like this in their reelection platform (next election will be sometime this May).

ETA. Sorry, managed to crosspost with @Simone .

 

[MyalgicE]

Here’s an article on the Greens’ policy announcement and details of their history of supporting people with ME and CFS in Australia:

https://meaustralia.net/2019/03/31/greens-announce-me-and-cfs-policy/

 

[Andy]

Blog on this.

The Senator was kind enough to call me today to discuss the new policy. After years of campaigning with the hashtag #millionsmissing from their normal lives, the Senator explained this policy was an important way to show the patient community that they were no longer invisible. “When the evidence shows that a disease like this is real, it doesn’t mean that people automatically stop experiencing stigma.” He went on to say this policy was designed to show that it was not just his words that the Greens had to offer ME/CFS patients, but the whole Green movement now had a plan for action to help make their lives better.

https://ishoblog.com/2019/04/01/369/

 

[MyalgicE]

Unfortunately some misleading info from Emerge today said Labor matched Liberals’ election commitments.

In fact their letter said they’ll wait for NHMRC advice, following advisory committee report, before deciding.

No election commitment from either Liberals or Labor.

The Budget already allocated $3m for research and $600k for Emerge, so we didn’t expect any further announcement from the Libs but were hoping from one from Labor.

Emerge’s mistake unfortunately takes the pressure off Labor just when it should be on. Mistake.

Here’s Labor’s letter to Emerge.