Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

If no other senators are seeking the call, I will close the debate and make a few brief comments. I thank Senators Carr and Stephens for their contribution in supporting this reference last year. The debate has been interrupted by the Christmas break. I thank Senators Milne, Siewert and Stott Despoja for their contributions today in support of the reference. All the senators have made different contributions. Each one of them has in fact made the case for this reference, this inquiry into the CSIRO. Collectively the case has been well made and it is worthy of support.

Senator Troeth’s was the only opposing voice to this reference. I want to briefly respond to the reasons Senator Troeth gave on behalf of the government for not allowing this reference or for voting against it. The reference will clearly be blocked without government support, the government having the numbers in the Senate. I will quote from Hansard. Senator Troeth said:

The government, in relation to CSIRO’s performance, as Senator Marshall well knows, has absolutely nothing to hide. The government believes that anything that the opposition would want to know about the achievements and performance of CSIRO can be achieved through the estimates proceedings.

Senator Troeth then went on to talk about what an important institution CSIRO is to Australia. I generally agree with all those following comments that Senator Troeth made. But, clearly, Senator Troeth does not understand the scope of the proposed inquiry that the opposition have put before the Senate. I should go through that, just for the record. I will not go through all the arguments that I made in my previous contribution. I will not delay the Senate in that respect. But, to put it into some perspective, we seek to inquire into the following:

The role and performance of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in the light of current Government policy, and the organisation’s attempts at refocusing its research endeavours, taking into account the following:

(a)

the evolving role of CSIRO as a public research institution, and the ability of CSIRO to initiate and manage change;

(b)

the challenge of commercialisation, enhancement of the CSIRO ‘brand’, and the dilemma of choosing a national or global approach to research development;

(c)

intellectual property concerns, including the rewarding of researchers;

(d)

managing competition in the research sector, including competition between public research bodies, between the CSIRO and the private research sector, and the obligation of CSIRO to cover the research spectrum; and

(e)

management culture within the CSIRO, including its corporate profile, communication performance and community engagement, and its capacity to instil a modern research culture and to recruit and retain research personnel.

Those terms of reference cannot be adequately covered in any meaningful way through the estimates questioning process. We cannot get a proper inquiry and answers to all those questions or do any sort of serious inquiry when we are questioning the hand-picked executives and the minister before an estimates committee. We would not be able to hear from the end users of the CSIRO institution; nor would we hear from the people who participate in the development of those roles. As I have just outlined, the terms of reference go well beyond the scope of anything that we would be able to uncover in estimates.

In conclusion, I say that the case has been well made. I am surprised that the government will not seek to assist the Senate in doing the very job that the Senate should do, and that is to inquire on a regular basis into Australia’s very important scientific institution. My understanding is that there has not been such an inquiry in the past. There should be one. It should be held accountable to the parliament. Simply because the executive arm of the government does not want an inquiry into those matters that I previously raised is no good reason for the government to use its numbers to stop such an inquiry.

The opposition will pursue the issues before us in various forms. Given the contributions of the minor parties today, it is obvious that they hold the issues to be very important and will also pursue them. The issues will not go away. We hope the government has a change of heart. I will continue to negotiate with the deputy chair of the references committee, Senator Troeth, to see if there is some ability in the future to conduct an amended form of inquiry that might meet with the satisfaction of the government. We believe it is necessary and, as I said, it is something we will continue to pursue. I certainly urge the Senate at this late stage to support the reference.

Question put:

That the motion (That the motion () be agreed to.