Our campaign to have CFS research funding applications treated fairly by the Federal Government's main medical research funding body, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), has continued this year (see September 1996 Emerge for details). In October last year, the Society sent letters of complaint to Dr Wooldridge (Minister for Health and Family Services), Mr Kim Beazley (Leader of the Opposition), and Mrs Cheryl Kernot (Leader of the Australian Democrats) concerning the false and misleading information about CFS research funding which was being distributed by the NHMRC and the Commonwealth Department of Health (see December 1996 Emerge for details). A second letter was also sent to Dr Wooldridge requesting a meeting with him to discuss our concerns. This letter was signed by the Presidents of all the State CFS/ME Societies.

In early February this year we received a reply from Senator Meg Lees, Deputy Leader and Health Spokesperson of the Australian Democrats. Senator Lees enclosed copies of correspondence she had sent to Dr Wooldridge and Professor Smallwood (then Chair of the NHMRC) about the lack of funding for CFS research. In mid-March we received a reply from Mr Beazley, who advised us that he had asked the Shadow Minister for Health, Mr Michael Lee, to look into the issues we had raised with him.

On 11th February, Mrs Kathy Sullivan (Liberal Member for Moncrieff in Queensland) directed a Question without Notice about CFS research funding and the NHMRC to Dr Wooldridge in Federal Parliament. Unfortunately, at the time she asked the Question without Notice, Mrs Sullivan did not have access to the documents describing in full our complaints against the NHMRC. In addition, it was obvious from Dr Wooldridge's response in Parliament that he was unfamiliar with important aspects of the material we had sent him. Nonetheless, the fact that he specifically addressed the issue of NHMRC research funding for CFS in Parliament indicates that we are making progress in getting our points across. Following Dr Wooldridge's statement in Parliament, we sent letters to Mr Lee, Senator Lees, Mrs Sullivan and Dr Wooldridge in order to clarify some points and re-emphasise others, so that these politicians would have a very clear understanding of the major issues of concern to us.

The greater the pressure on Dr Wooldridge, the more likely we are to achieve a satisfactory outcome. You can help us to apply this pressure by contacting your Federal Member of Parliament if you have not already done so. The Society can provide you with copies of the relevant documents if you need them.

Many thanks to those people who have already written or spoken to their local Federal Member of Parliament about the discriminatory treatment CFS research funding applications receive at the hands of the NHMRC. One of our members who personally knows the Federal Treasurer, Mr Peter Costello, wrote to him and forwarded relevant documents from our Society. Mr Costello in turn wrote to Dr Wooldridge and sent him the documents. This Society member emphasised the fact that Dr Wooldridge may have misled Parliament with his statement on 10th September 1996 about the level of funding allocated for CFS research in 1996 by the NHMRC.

It is noteworthy that Dr Wooldridge told Parliament on 11th February 1997 that he was "aware that Chronic Fatigue Syndrome has not been specifically funded for research grants under the NHMRC", which is in agreement with the findings made by our Society in our investigation of the NHMRC. Special thanks are also due to Peter Evans, Vice President of the CFS/ME Syndrome Society of Queensland, who has taken up our campaign with vigour and who has sent letters to more than 130 politicians around the country, including Mrs Sullivan.

Reprinted from Emerge, June 1997.