Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Industry) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I ask the minister, again, if he could answer the question about the closure of these research programs and the government’s policy to force Australian scientists overseas. I further ask: is the minister aware that Pacific Solar sold the rights to its silicon-on-glass technology to a German firm which is now developing and commercialising this technology? Don’t Australians now have to import evacuated tubes for solar hot water from China, even though this technology was first developed at the University of Sydney? Doesn’t the Howard government’s failure to keep these great innovations in renewable energy in Australia show that, after 11 long years, it still has not taken seriously the question of climate change?