The Australian federal government budget was announced tonight. There were very few surprises and excitements, particularly because many of the most important points have already been reported in a newspaper yesterday. I was however most interested in how medical research funding fared in the budget. 今晚澳洲聯邦政府公布財政預算案，其實箇中重點，昨日已有報紙詳細披露，我最關心的，倒是政府有沒有削減醫學研究開支。 Back in the end of March when the federal government was in the consultation phase for the budget, it was already rumoured that the government planned to cut A$400 million (US$430 million, 300 million euros, HK$3.4 billion) of medical research funding over 3 years. If it were to go ahead, it would be a severe blow since it would represent a nearly 20% decrease of the A$700 million available to medical research every year! 記得三月底政府開始蒐集預算案意見時已傳出政府要填補赤字，並考慮三年內削減醫學研究撥款4億澳元（約4.3億美元、3億歐元、34億港元），若落實的話，相對於每年7億澳元的經費，即是每年的研究經費會勁減差不多兩成！ Even without mentioning the benefit of medical research to the Australian economy and the society’s well-being