Chris Hayes (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to support the Australian Research Council Amendment Bill 2010. This bill will provide additional funding to the Australian Research Council for its continued support of high quality research in this country. We know that such research is vital for our future.

This bill provides funding in the 2009-10 budget initiatives that are specifically in relation to the Super Science Fellowships scheme. The bill also continues funding of the National Information Communication Technology Australia—a company which is almost unique in its field and which has had a very significant impact on advancing the development of quality research to the point of commercialisation, including through spin-off companies. These things are to be encouraged if we are to be part of a new generation of scientific application that is commercialised for the future.

The bill also provides funding for a commitment that arose out of the 2020 Summit for the Research in Bionic Vision Science and Technology Initiative. Further, the bill applies an indexation measure against existing programs under the National Competitive Grants Program. The Australian Research Council is both fundamental and critical to Australian national innovative schemes. The amendments in the bill—which will receive bipartisan support—will boost the council’s ability to implement critical budget initiatives.

I would like to briefly speak about what the bill will provide in terms of the Super Science Fellowships scheme. This new scheme was announced in the 2009 budget as part of the broader Super Science Initiative. The scheme, as I understand it, will offer up to 100 three-yearly early career fellowships, which will be awarded to the most promising young researchers. The fellowships will allow them the opportunity to continue to work in their areas of specialisation and of national significance. I think that is pretty important in terms of our being able to develop technology for the future. I understand that these fellowships will be offered in three targeted areas and where the capacity to build on Australia’s strengths has been identified. The areas are, firstly, space science and astronomy; secondly, marine and climate science; and, thirdly, future industries based on biotechnology and nanotechnology.

What makes this amendment bill so desirable is that it supports and nurtures future generations of potentially exceptional Australians and international researchers. It makes available to them a real opportunity to build their science careers here, in this country. We have only to look at some of the unfortunate patterns of emigration from this country in the past to see that we have tended to lose our better science brains. People moved elsewhere in order to continue their research. One of the things that we are trying to do and that is part of the endeavour of this bill is to recognise and to encourage the development of scientific minds here, in this country.

We know that, if we are going to develop, whether it be advanced manufacturing, whether it be marine and climate science or nanotechnology or the space sciences, if we are going to be involved in those areas, our chances of being involved in the downstream aspects in terms of everything from the development of technology through to actual manufacture come from the application of the original research. I think this is a smart thing for a country to do, to invest in its future by investing in young people to continue their advanced scientific research with a view to being able to develop, and commercialise in due course, those pieces of technology which will be so essential for the future of this country, both economically and in terms of dealing with those matters where those sciences have been specifically targeted.

The bill also provides for research in the bionic science and technology initiative. As I indicated, this was an initiative that arose out of the 2020 response. It is certainly a long-term project and it obviously has been buoyed by Australia’s success in research on the bionic ear. That in turn, apart from having led to very successful development of those technologies associated with the bionic ear, has allowed for many Australian jobs to be generated and a new industry to emerge as a consequence of that. If we are going to be a smarter nation, we must follow up upon these applications and this is the spirit we must apply to research itself.

It is also noteworthy that the bill provides continued funding for National Information and Communication Technology Australia, NICTA. As I said earlier, NICTA is Australia’s information and communication technology centre of excellence and plays an important role in building Australia’s research and skill base. It is certainly a key for our national innovation assets and it plays a very important role. It was established in 2002 and is very much a national organisation with laboratories now in four cities: Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and Brisbane. It employs in excess of 700 people. This is certainly one of our scientific successes. I trust that this continued funding will go a long way to assisting NICTA, which aspires to be one of the top 10 world research centres by the year 2020. We target a lot of things. We target being competitive in the Olympics and a whole series of other things, which is only appropriate for a country which has pride in itself. But if we are serious about our future, we should be assisting NICTA in making that achievement of being in the top 10 of world research centres by 2020. That is a very good ambition for us to have.

Finally, this bill also applies indexation against the existing programs under the National Competitive Grants Program. The Australian Research Council funds research and researchers under the National Competitive Grants Program as part of its commitment to nurturing and creating creative abilities and nurturing the skills of Australia’s most promising researchers.

This amendment is of particular importance considering all universities, including those that operate in my neck of the woods in south-western Sydney, primarily the University of Western Sydney, are eligible to apply for funding under the National Competitive Grants Program. In fact later today, together with other members who represent constituencies in south-western Sydney, I will be meeting with the University of Western Sydney to discuss more specifically some of the aspects of sustaining quality teaching and research conducted at UWS, particularly in areas that we are talking about today such as overcoming social disadvantage. The university’s commitment to the region is beyond question and its ability to be able to research is also very well recognised in our local communities. But having the opportunity to apply and be funded under the National Competitive Grants Program makes all that real and plays a very significant role in delivering the benefits of this research to regions in which I and many others live.

Since the university is coming in to see us a little later on today, I will mention that they have been funded for 70 projects under the program, totalling some $21 million so far. To give you an indication of the sort of research that is being pursued, the title of one project is ‘Bridging the gap on locational disadvantage: impact of community identified interventions on social capital, psychosocial and socio-economic outcomes.’ Another topic that is pretty near to my heart given my long-standing relationship with policing—in a positive way—is ‘Police Leadership in the 21st Century: redesigning roles and practices.’ Another project is called ‘Closing the gap for Aboriginal primary students in low density schools: a qualitative analysis of the impact of culturally inclusive pedagogy.’ As most people know, the area I represent in Werriwa has one of the highest Aboriginal populations in the state, and this is something that UWS, through this funding, is playing a critical role in researching. The final project I will mention is ‘Visual optimisation of patient flow in hospital emergency departments.’ I know my colleague Dr Andrew McDonald, the state member for Macquarie Fields and also a paediatrician at Campbelltown Hospital, has a very keen interest in that particular project. I think he is also an associate professor at UWS—Andrew does get around!

I certainly support this bill. I think it is one which lends significant weight to our commitment to back Australia in the future. The only way to do that is by committing resources to ensure that the level of research necessary to develop all these things we need for the future, all these technologies that we want to part of and someday hope to be economic beneficiaries of, is maintained. This will go a long way to ensuring that that research is conducted here in Australia and, as a consequence, the downstream aspects of development, commercialisation and manufacturing are something that this country can aspire to. I commend this bill to the House.

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