Australia’s diabetes community has just given the country a masterclass in transforming passion into policy. After 18 months of lobbying, at grassroots and from the highest echelons of business, it has achieved bipartisan promises for 90 per cent of the funding it was seeking.

At about 11pm on Saturday night, the Coalition began pushing out news that it would provide $273 million to fund medical technology for everyone with type 1 diabetes, regardless of their birthdate or bank balance.