Karen Andrews (McPherson, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am filled with optimism for the future, particularly in science. There is no way that my enthusiasm is going to be dragged down by negativity from anywhere. We are in the best possible place we can be, in this nation, and we need to get behind and support our fabulous researchers and scientists as they go out there and do world firsts in their research. I am here to tell a very positive story about what this government is doing and what I know it will do in the future to support scientists and researchers.

We have heard the figure of $9.7 billion that this government has invested in science. That is the budget estimate for 2015-16, so it may well be higher than that depending on what happens with the R&D tax incentive and how that plays out. There are a significant number of businesses that have registered and we believe there is a very high take-up of that particular tax incentive, so the figure may well be higher than the $9.7 billion. That compares to $9.5 billion in 2012-13. It takes into account that there was an efficiency dividend of just over two per cent, which was applied to CSIRO.

I will happily talk more about CSIRO, which is a great institution and I certainly support it. It will go from strength to strength. We are delivering record funding for CSIRO. We are providing $3.1 billion over the forward estimates, which is an increase of nearly $50 million to CSIRO over the forward estimates. That is a pretty good outcome. We are also focusing on some really critical areas, things that are so desperately needed if we are to become the productive nation we are destined to be. I have spent quite a bit of time over the last 12 months and well beyond that talking to many of our scientists and researchers about the issues that are important to them.

I will preface what I am about to say by making a couple of comments on innovation. Innovation is front and centre of what this government will be achieving over the coming years. Innovation is something we need to embrace. We need to look at start-ups but we need to be very conscious that there are many businesses out there doing wonderful and exciting things that are clearly innovative. We need to be doing what we can to promote their work and demonstrate that there are many things—processes, procedures, systems and technology—already out there that will help these businesses become innovative.

Recently, I was up in Bundaberg with the member for Hinkler. He put on an absolutely fantastic community science forum. Well done on that. It was very well attended. One of the things we did at that forum was listen to a number of businesses that were doing some wonderful work in the Bundaberg area. One of the standouts for me—and there were quite a few that day—was Sweet Sensations Farm. We heard from the farm manager, Craig Van Rooyen, who has been working closely with Central Queensland University. He is trialling a non-lethal method of pest management in his orchards. He is using drones to scare off the bats, particularly the flying foxes. It is a non-lethal method and uses existing technology. He is adapting that and using it in agriculture. That is very innovative. He is leading in that area of non-lethal pest management. That is just one of the examples we heard about that day. So innovation is something we have to look at in its broadest possible STEM.

There are many things this government is focusing on. I am happy to talk at length about STEM but we understand that our early- and mid-career scientists need our support. We understand the role of basic and fundamental research. We understand that science deserves—and is demanding, rightfully—that there should be a long-term decadal plan. I can assure our science community that we are there supporting you.

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