Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Given that the topic for today's matter of public importance is the Prime Minister's policy failures, one does feel spoiled for choice. There is no doubt that the unfairness and broken promises that have characterised the government's actions in its first year of office played a significant role in the defeat of the Liberal Party in Victoria on Saturday. Voters took the opportunity to take a swing at a Prime Minister who talked up a storm about trust and integrity and keeping your word when he was opposition leader, then forgot about all of those things once he was elected.

But given the time constraints I will confine myself to just three policy failures. First, the proposal to deregulate student fees. I appeal as loudly as I can to the Senate crossbenches not to let the government increase student fees. I find it indecent that my generation, beneficiaries of all the career opportunities that came through Gough Whitlam's abolition of student fees, can pull the rug out from under this generation and deprive them of the same opportunities. Frankly, young people deserve better. A tertiary education is important for young people, as is technical and further education. But it is also important for the nation. We need to educate and train and skill our young people. It is unspeakably short sighted for the government to make tertiary education opportunity a function of parental wealth.

Second, the hostility to public transport. The Prime Minister should accept the verdict of the Victorian people on the weekend and abandon the East West Link tollway. Melbourne's never before seen rate of population growth—200 people per day, 1,500 per week, 75,000 each year—is creating massive traffic congestion. But study after study shows that the better way to deal with traffic congestion is public transport infrastructure, not more freeways. The Prime Minister should not incite the new Labor Premier to break his election commitments. He should not blackmail the Victorian people by threatening them with a loss of billions of dollars in federal funding. He should work with the Victorian Premier to build the Melbourne Metro and underground the level crossings like Glenroy and Coburg in my electorate of Wills, which are a daily source of traffic congestion.

Third, the hostility to science. Under this government scientists working in institutions such as the CSIRO are seeing the results of their work denounced, their livelihoods threatened and their funding withdrawn. This government sees no value in modern instruments such as the Mopra radio telescope, near Coonabarabran, that is being shut down, at the same time as funding cuts have put the world-renowned Parkes radio telescope at risk of being abandoned as hundreds of professional scientists lose their jobs.

Equally damaging to Australia's international reputation, the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope, part of a scientific collaboration of over 20 nations, has no government support beyond the next two years and it appears that the government expects the private sector will somehow provide ongoing funding. Perhaps the government hopes to see this important international telescope renamed 'The Big Mac.'

Just like Galileo was punished for speaking the truth, CSIRO scientists are being punished, with one quarter of the organisation's staff facing dismissal for, evidently, producing documents such as Climate change: science and solutions for Australia, a factual report that directly contradicts the government's endless fraudulent claims on this matter.

Given the Prime Minister's status as an authority figure hostile to science it is not surprising that, according to the Australian Science Teachers Association, enrolments in senior secondary science and maths subjects are continuing to decline. Since taking office this government has done nothing to reverse that trend, even though the Chief Scientist, Professor Chubb, in 2012, warned:

We need a growing pool of science graduates to ensure Australia will be able to continue to compete on the international stage and develop scientific solutions to problems facing our nation …

There is no evidence that the government has given any regard to Professor Chubb's concerns. Michael Faraday, the English scientist, whose early 19th century electrical investigations led to what has been called the second industrial revolution of electricity, steel and chemicals, worked at a time when science was regarded as an excellent hobby for a gentleman but a miserable career choice.

Under this government, science in Australia appears to be returning to the lowly status that it held in England during the early years of Queen Victoria's reign. (Time expired)

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