Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's a pleasure to follow the member for Chifley on this debate on the Australian Research Council Amendment Bill 2021, and I commend him for his contribution to the debate. Whilst the legislation provides indexation of research funding, the reality is that coalition governments—previous coalition governments and in particular this one—have no credibility and no commitment to research and development in this country, as the member for Chifley so eloquently highlighted. Even more shamefully, the Morrison government has a track record of politicising the government's research grants process—first in 2018 when Minister Birmingham blocked 11 research grants, then in 2020 when Minister Tehan interfered, and now, after just two weeks as the acting minister, Minister Robert has vetoed six grants that were about to commence which had been scrutinised and approved by the Australian Research Council, an independent body that approves the grants on the basis of their merits and their suitability.

What makes Minister Roberts's interference even more disgraceful is that he announced his decision on Christmas Eve when he clearly hoped that his actions would go unnoticed and unreported. He was hoping it would be all swept under the carpet and nobody would notice his mean-spirited action. It was an insensitive and callous decision that would undoubtedly have shattered the Christmas of those researchers who lost out from their grants being cut. So much for the minister's Christmas goodwill and Christmas spirit! Furthermore, the minister 's interference was disrespectful to the independent assessing committee and destroyed all public confidence in the grants process. Is it any surprise, then, that the Australian Research Council chief executive, Professor Sue Thomas, announced that she will step down from her role early? I also understand that there has been a petition, with nearly 1,500 signatories, calling on Minister Robert to reinstate the grants.

Even more notable is a letter to the minister and Professor Thomas, signed by over 60 current and past ARC laureate fellows, which is very critical of the minister 's intervention. I will quote, in part, from that letter:

As current and past ARC Laureate Fellows, we are very concerned in the way that applications for 2022 ARC Discovery Projects were managed. Our concerns are threefold.

First, the funding decisions were announced a month later than usual, only a week before funding could commence on January 1st. Most if not all university research offices were by then closed till the new year. It is highly unlikely that any of these grants can indeed commence on January 1st, and staff be hired.

No good reason has been given as to this delayed notification. The retention and recruitment of research staff is greatly harmed by such delays. This late decision is likely to have the greatest impact on early career researchers, especially with regards to diversity and inclusion.

Second, the funding decisions were announced on Christmas Eve, giving an appearance that the date was chosen to avoid close scrutiny. This was a heartless date to give the many unsuccessful applicants news about their applications.

Third, and most critically, six grants—all in the humanities—were subject to rigorous and independent peer review and were recommended for funding but vetoed by the Minister … These projects cover topics like climate activism and China which are vital for the future well being of Australia.

I believe that that letter sums up the situation very well and just highlights, in my view, the improper interference by the minister and the government.

Researchers in Australia continuously face uncertainty and insecurity, living from one grant to another—grants which, in most cases, have to also be subsidised by the universities themselves. These are some of Australia's smartest minds, whose research leads to life-changing industrial and medical science and technology that not only returns over $3 in economic benefits for every dollar invested but ensures that Australia remains internationally competitive and capable of innovation. Indeed, we should be proud of the innovation brought about by scientists and other researchers in this country over the past decades. We have led the way on so many occasions

Sadly, we now have reports that over three-quarters of all young researchers have considered a career change in the past five years. I personally know of researchers who have left Australia to secure work overseas, and they got that work overseas, yet they couldn't get it here in Australia. Right now, they are working in other countries doing the very research that would have benefited us, as opposed to the countries they are working in.

Adding to the insecurity for researchers, Australian investment in research and development is at an all-time low, having fallen from 2.25 per cent of GDP in 2008 to around 1.79 per cent in 2018. The OECD average for research and development investment is 2.38 per cent. We are not only falling behind other countries but also slowly reducing the amount of money that goes into research and development in this country. How can we possibly remain competitive with the rest of the world if we are not prepared to invest in the research that is necessary to drive us forward?

This all comes at a time when universities already struggle to retain academics and researchers because of the loss of income that they faced from the COVID-19 pandemic and the Morrison government's failure to financially support the university sector. Because universities themselves have to put money on the table with respect to many of these research projects, it makes it even more difficult for them when the government cuts its own funding.

In my view this is short-sightedness on the part of this government and, quite frankly, it beggars belief from a government whose ministers I've heard come into this place time and time again and talk about the importance of research in this country, which I agree with. Yet their talk is not matched by the dollars that they put into the sector when the budget comes around each year.

As the member for Chifley quite rightly pointed out, over recent years there have been hundreds of millions of dollars cut from research and development in this country, and when the government tried to put a few dollars back in a year or so ago, it was simply a matter of just trying to pick up some of the cuts that they had already made. Sadly, they didn't continue with topping up the research and investment dollars that they announced a couple of years ago.

The minister's letter of expectation sent in 2021 to the Australian Research Council proposes several changes in respect of governance and the programs themselves. Both the Australian Academy of the Humanities and the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia have raised concerns about those changes. They have written to the government outlining their concerns. Their concerns are legitimate, and I urge the government not to ignore them for they are the organisations that know best where the research dollars should be used.

I will just conclude with an observation—and the member for Chifley quite rightly alluded to this in his remarks and, again, it's part and parcel of the governance and programs that the government is saying it wants to support with research grants—and it is: direct a lot more of the funds into the manufacturing sector. When this government decimated the automotive manufacturing industry sector in this country, it was contributing about the same amount of dollars to this country that this whole package commits to. With the indexation, which is what the legislation is all about, this package commits to around $800 million of research and development funding. That is about the same amount of money that was being poured into this country by the car makers at the time they closed their operations here.

So here we are, on the one hand, talking about the importance of a sector, and the importance of investing in a sector, while, on the other hand, we had the sector already operating here and investing the same amount of dollars that we are proposing through this parliament today and that will be coming out of taxpayer funds. Those investments, albeit they were being made by the car makers, had benefits for the rest of society, and their research and innovation was then transferred and used by other sectors. Today we don't even make cars in this country anymore. That's the kind of loss and foolishness I see from this government and why this government has never truly been committed to research and development. It talks the talk but it doesn't walk the walk.

Having said that, I hope that the government will at least listen to the concerns raised by the sector with respect to these allocations.

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