Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Australian Research Council Amendment Bill 2008 currently before the House. This bill provides funding for the Rudd Labor government’s new Future Fellowships scheme—an initiative Labor first announced prior to the last election. This is a scheme that has been widely welcomed and much anticipated by Australia’s research community. I can attest to that anticipation because, as the chair of the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Innovation, I can confirm the comments that were made by the member for Deakin in relation to the evidence that has come before us in the many public hearings that the committee is currently conducting around the country. It is a much anticipated bill, from the research community’s perspective. It is anticipated because the Rudd government’s Future Fellowships scheme begins to tackle one of the key challenges we face in Australia in the area of research, and that is the continuing exodus of some of our best and brightest mid-career researchers. Whilst overseas exposure, international research collaboration and greater integration are all crucial to the continuing development and future of Australian research, we continue to lose many of our best and brightest mid-career researchers to lucrative job opportunities overseas that usually offer more money for research, better research infrastructure and more support.

The allure of overseas positions is further compounded by the lack of distinct career pathways and adequate support for many early- and mid-career researchers in Australia. This is a problem that this government is determined to tackle in a definitive and decisive way. The value of research and the importance of expanding Australia’s research capacity cannot be overstated. Research is associated with innovation, new discoveries, new ideas, technological breakthroughs, critical debate, creativity and dissent, as well as new ways of seeing the world and understanding our place in it. This is true of the research that is undertaken across all disciplines, whether we are talking about traditional sciences, arts, humanities or social sciences. Failing to recognise the critical role research plays in driving progress and carving out new opportunities, and failing to support excellence in Australian research is simply not an option in today’s competitive global environment, where the demand for new and cutting-edge technologies has never been greater and the emergence of global challenges, like climate change, requires us to find new ways of doing things. Innovation is a pathway to progress and to optimising our competitive advantages, and quality research is the foundation on which innovation is built.

If we are to go forward as a nation, confident in our ability not only to meet the challenges that lie ahead but also to take advantage of the opportunities that tomorrow is sure to bring, then boosting our support for Australian research and investing in Australian talent is crucial. That is why this bill and the Rudd government’s Future Fellowships scheme are so important. The Future Fellowships scheme will encourage mid-career researchers to stay in Australia and continue their research at Australian universities. It also provides an incentive for outstanding international mid-career researchers to conduct their research in Australia.

Under the Future Fellowships scheme, the Rudd government will offer up to 1,000 four-year fellowships to some of our best and brightest mid-career researchers over the next five years. Preference will be given to those researchers who can demonstrate a capacity to collaborate across industry and/or research institutions and/or with other disciplines. Each successful applicant will receive up to $140,000 a year over the four-year period of their fellowship, and host organisations will receive up to an additional $50,000 a year to support related infrastructure and equipment for research projects.

The Future Fellowships scheme is due to commence in early 2009 and will cost $844 million over three years. This is an $844 million investment that the Rudd Labor government is making in Australian research which will provide critical support to some of our most promising mid-career researchers, who are often at a pivotal point in their careers and whose most promising work often lies ahead. By encouraging more of our top mid-career researchers to conduct their research in Australia and by attracting top mid-career researchers to Australia from overseas, the Future Fellowships scheme targets a particularly important tier in the research cycle, one that Australia can no longer afford to ignore. The Rudd government’s Future Fellowships scheme is about fostering research excellence in Australia and expanding our research capacity, providing added incentive and offering additional support to Australian researchers at a time when research in Australia has been on the back foot.

The last decade has not been kind to Australian research. In government spending and investment in research we have fallen well behind many of our international competitors. Under the Howard government, Commonwealth spending on research and innovation dropped 22 per cent as a share of GDP and, to our great shame, we became the only OECD country where public funding for tertiary education actually declined. Growth in the number of students commencing research degrees has stalled. For the first time on record, business investment in R&D actually fell between 1996 and 1997 and 1999 and 2000. It should be remembered that business accounts for a large share of spending on research and development in Australia. It is one of the core engine rooms driving innovation in this country, yet between 1995 and 2004 Australia was one of only three OECD countries to reduce its tax benefits for business research and development. Not only did we do so at a time when most other OECD countries were increasing their level of support for business R&D but, of the three countries to reduce R&D tax benefits, Australia made the deepest cuts. This is not a record that those sitting opposite should be proud of and it is certainly not one that the Rudd Labor government intends to repeat. It paints a stark picture of the challenges we now face in trying to turn around the fortunes of Australian research and breathe new life into research and development.

This is not to say that Australian research has somehow dropped off the international radar, however. When it comes to research, Australia is blessed with enormous talent and creative drive. Despite the last decade of neglect, Australian researchers have continued to make significant breakthroughs in a number of areas. For all of us it should be a great source of pride that Australia produces three per cent of the world’s research papers despite accounting for just 0.3 per cent of the world’s population. It is our responsibility to match this commitment, drive and talent on the ground and in universities across the country by providing Australian researchers with the level of support they deserve. That is what the Future Fellowships scheme is designed to do.

More importantly, the scheme is part of a broader program announced by the Rudd Labor government to invest in, and provide greater support for, Australian researchers and research institutions. In April last year, Labor released a 10-point plan to boost Australia’s innovation performance. The plan included a commitment to invest in knowledge creation. The Future Fellowships scheme is part of that commitment. The plan also identified the need to accelerate knowledge transfer, a goal that underpins the Rudd government’s new Enterprise Connect network that links Australian industry and business to new ideas, new research and the latest technologies capable of giving them a competitive advantage over their international counterparts.

The 10-point plan also includes a promise to internationalise Australia’s innovations. Opening up Australian Research Council and CSIRO programs to overseas participants is one such example. It includes a promise to strengthen innovation infrastructure, which is precisely why the Rudd Labor government has announced its $500 million Better Universities Renewal Fund, as well as the $11 billion Education Investment Fund introduced by the Treasurer in the last budget.

Labor also committed to investing in skills and training to combat the chronic skills crisis we have inherited from the previous, Howard government. Halving HECS fees to encourage more students to study maths and science at university, doubling the number of available undergraduate scholarships and investing in trades training centres in secondary schools across Australia are all part of that commitment.

We promised to improve transparency in governance when it came to Australia’s innovation system, a motivation that underpins the Rudd government’s decision to establish industry innovation councils and appoint an ARC advisory board. Focusing incentives for business R&D, developing a set of national innovation priorities and improving government innovation programs were also included under Labor’s 10-point plan, with each of these recently the subject of Dr Terry Cutler’s review of Australia’s national innovation system. The government is due to respond to this review with a policy white paper by year’s end. While there is still a long way to go, the Rudd government has wasted no time in laying the foundations needed to foster research excellence in Australia and to take Australian research in a new and exciting direction.

In addition to future fellowships, the Rudd government recently announced its $239 million Australian Laureate Fellowships scheme, a program that will provide Australian laureate fellows with funding of up to $3 million over a five-year period for research projects that promise to deliver significant national benefits to Australians. Each year, 15 new Australian laureate fellows will be identified for funding over a five-year period. By also funding postdoctoral and postgraduate researchers under this scheme, the Rudd government is helping to build world-class teams that will give rise to the next generation of research leaders.

For a country like Australia, promoting international research collaboration is particularly important. As a net importer of knowledge, promoting the freest possible flow of information and forging stronger links in terms of overseas partnerships and research collaborations has obvious benefits for Australia. That is why the government is opening up Australian postgraduate industry awards currently available under the ARC linkage scheme and allowing them to be awarded to the highest calibre postgraduate students irrespective of nationality. It is also why we are the removing restrictions on the use of ARC funds for travel for international collaborators and making enhanced international collaboration a priority for all ARC fellowship schemes.

Greater collaboration, connectivity and building stronger links are all vital when it comes to expanding our domestic research capabilities and better positioning ourselves to take advantage of the opportunities that exist in today’s increasingly integrated world. Not only does that mean building stronger links between research institutions in Australia and their counterparts overseas; it also means building greater partnerships between industry, the research sector and government within Australia.

Indigenous researchers and Indigenous studies research also stand to benefit from the Rudd government’s raft of new research initiatives. Recently the ARC and the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies concluded an in-principle agreement to enhance funding arrangements for Indigenous researchers and research studies. This includes a commitment to create new Australian research fellowships specifically targeting Indigenous research studies and Indigenous researchers. With a planned start date of 2010, these new fellowships will be available under the ARC Discovery Indigenous Researchers Development scheme and will complement, though be more senior to, Indigenous researcher fellowships.

Earlier this year, the Rudd government announced the establishment of the Excellence in Research for Australia initiative, which is set to begin replacing the Research Quality Framework in 2009.

These are all important initiatives and they all announce the Rudd government’s commitment to fostering research excellence and building a robust national innovation system in Australia. The Future Fellowships scheme is part of that future, so I am happy to recommend this bill to the House.

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