Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the senator. Part of the government’s election commitments was to require an additional, one-off further efficiency dividend of two per cent, from all agencies—not just the CSIRO. In going through a series of savings exercises in the budget, we also made decisions to effectively apply these dividends, as I indicated, to a range of agencies. The CSIRO performs a vital function within the Commonwealth. It is our leading scientific agency within the Commonwealth. We have, of course, ensured that the CSIRO’s appropriation has actually increased.

What we see of course is that the balance of the CSIRO’s funding arrangements provides a new opportunity as a result of new budgetary decisions that were also taken in the context of the last budget. For instance, on Labor’s clean-energy election commitment, we have delivered $25 million for CSIRO’s work on clean-coal technologies and CSIRO is likely to have access to additional funding from the Australian Solar Institute.

The opposition may well seek to present these issues in a partisan manner, and they may seek to misrepresent the situation, but the priorities given to the flagships—and of course through the science investment process—has ensured that the impact of the efficiency dividends on the flagship program has actually been minimal. Since the launch of the flagship program in April 2003 nearly 100 patents have been lodged, nearly 400 formal agreements with industry and research partners have been put in place and nearly 350 of those agreements are still running. Research and scientific reports to clients and publications of the flagships— (Time expired)