Ian Macfarlane (Groom, Liberal Party, Minister for Industry) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Makin for his question. Can I just say from the outset that, if he does not accept that there needs to be cuts to the budget, then is he continuing the old Labor way of continuing to run deficits? In my time in parliament I have never seen a Labor surplus. The reality is that there are members of this parliament who have never seen a surplus in their life from Labor. That is the reality. If the member for Makin says we shouldn't make cuts in this area he needs to now stand up and say where he will make those cuts. If he doesn't, we just assume that Labor will continue on their way with $123 billion worth of deficits in the forward estimates, with the continuation of the debt blowing out to $667 billion, and with the continuation of the pressure that that creates in terms of our economy. He knows and I know that that position is nowhere near sustainable.

I want to correct the member for Makin in terms of his statement that we have cut the science and research budget. We have not cut the science and research budget. Can I read for him from our budget papers that the appropriation available to the science and research areas, including science agencies such as Geoscience Australia and CSIRO, stands at $5,849 million, and that the increase in the budget—increase in the budget—is in fact $16.8 million. So even at a time where I accept we have to have some austerity measures, even at a time where I accept we have to refocus the programs that the previous government was operating, there is an increase. As I have pointed out numerous occasions during this session, programs were never actually implemented. Some programs never got past the great launch and potentially relaunch and the great talk that went on about programs that never actually delivered a thing.

So, yes, we have cut some of those programs, and yes we have put in place a far more focused system of $484 million for the Entrepreneurs' Infrastructure Program, a program where we take the best of Enterprise Connect and Commercialisation Australia and we put it into the Entrepreneurs' Infrastructure Program. This is a program where we make sure that we are giving business what they need to be competitive, to be innovative, to get into global supply chains, to be involved in the new industries and to give their workers sustainable jobs. On top of that of course we have got the industry skills program which further assists those businesses to ensure that they, the business, and their employees have the skills that they need to make the adjustments in front. That is $1 billion worth of programs for innovation, for skilling, for competitiveness, for getting involved in new products, for collaborating with existing businesses—a set of programs that will ensure businesses the opportunity to be competitive in the long term.

But for the benefit of the member for Makin can I just highlight a few areas where we have actually spent new money in the areas of science and research. There is $65.7 million to operate and maintain the CSIRO's new vessel, RV Investigator. I know those on this side of the chamber will not be surprised to hear this, but only the Labor Party could build a boat and not put any money in there to use it. So the boat was going to sit there at port—like a lot of their programs: set up with great fanfare, moored to the dock and not operate. We have actually put some money in to make sure that that boat gets out to sea and does something.

We put $31.6 million into the operation and maintenance of the OPAL nuclear research facility. It is a great facility. It is making great advances in nuclear medicine, which is something we need to continue to do. We have put $28 million into continued investment in Questacon through science for Australia's future to ensure that Australia's children are as excited as much by science as I am.

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