George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If scientific research is going to inform government decisions, government needs to have confidence in that research. There are more and more people, eminent people, including our former chief scientists, who have raised the alarm on our research and on the need for it to be properly tested. The call from many in the farming communities of Central and North Queensland is coming. I have met with 10 organisations and more than 20 individuals who say we need an office of scientific review. The problem is evident when you look at work of Retraction Watch, a team of science writers who put together a database of compromised research, finding more than 20,000 papers have been retracted. A former Chief Scientist, Alan Finkel, referred to their work in documenting dodgy science in the 2019 speech when he pointed out that the basic structure of peer review is showing signs of strain.

In Australia, 247 research papers, some associated with the most reputable universities, were found to have been compromised. Some senior scientists claim that's just the tip of the iceberg. Professor Peter Read, who was sacked for questioning the quality of peer review, is also calling for an office of scientific review to test, check and replicate science that is relied upon for public policy purposes. As the former chief scientist said in reference to scientific work, the people who pay—the taxpayers and governments—are no longer prepared to take us on trust. We need to check the science that is being relied on for public policy.