Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The Minister for Education says, ‘Speak for yourself!’ What was also really impressive about the gathering was the concentration of teachers of science—that is, primary school and secondary school teachers—who were properly recognised and rewarded for their achievements. We had a primary school teacher there who was legitimately proud of what he had done with kids a couple of hours north of Perth. He was working with those kids to get their minds fired and inspired with the wonders of science. Similarly, a secondary school teacher also received an award because of the work he has done in a secondary school re-entry facility in Adelaide. He told me that there were four such facilities in Adelaide. For people who have not made it through to year 12 and go off and do a few other things in life and come back, he is instilling a real passion for science in those folk who come back to do their year 12 equivalent.

This was a great gathering and it was a great opportunity last night to see people appropriately recognised for their scientific achievements. The winner of this year’s Prime Minister’s Prize for Science was Dr John O’Sullivan of the CSIRO for his contributions to astronomy and to the invention that made wireless computing a part of our everyday lives. What a great scientific innovation from Australia. This is a great piece of good news for the country. Dr O’Sullivan was not looking for a major breakthrough in information communications technology at the time. In fact, he was looking for something called ‘black holes’. He was out there in astronomy land.

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