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

The senator is wrong again on fact—wrong on fact. The $15 million that was given to the bushfire CRC was provided before their application was dealt with by the committee. The CRC committee assesses applications independent of government. The CRC committee assesses them against a range of criteria. If the applications are not good enough in terms of the CRC committee’s assessment, what would you have the government do? The CRC program is intended to provide funding to tackle major challenges for definite periods and with definite outcomes. The advice I have from senior CSIRO staff is that alternative funding models are probably more appropriate to address emerging infectious diseases such as the Hendra virus. It is inappropriate and dead wrong for you to suggest that we should politically intervene in the assessment process. (Time expired)