Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader for Science) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs (Senator Ronaldson) to a question without notice asked by Senator Carr today relating to science policy.

It is appropriate that the Senate get a few facts on the table when it comes to the discussion of science policy, given that this is Science meets Parliament week. I ask a simple question: does the coalition government have a science minister? The answer is that it does not. Does this government actually have a science policy? The answer is that, no, it does not. Have they promised not to cut science in the budget? The answer is that, no, they have not. When Labor was in government, there was, clearly, a very strong emphasis on science and research. There was a science minister and there was a very, very strong science policy. What we have seen is that the government opposite is maintaining its position of running from the enlightenment. It is a government that essentially is working on the assumption that they do not need a champion for science. Senior members of the government are going out of their way to boast about being knuckle draggers, taking credit for any action the government takes against the scientific community.

I remind the Senate of the record of contrast. When Labor was in office, investment in science, research and innovation increased by 35 per cent. That took the figure to an annual total of $8.9 billion. We invested a record of over $3 billion in the CSIRO. For the first time, we took the CSIRO's revenue past $1 billion per annum.

In the 2013-14 portfolio budget statement, the CSIRO was allocated staffing for 5,550 people at the time of the election. In fact, the CSIRO was overstaffed by about 200, on these figures. Now we discover that about 16 per cent of the CSIRO's workforce is under threat because of the government's decision—not management's decision—to freeze recruitment and renewal of staff on temporary contracts. That is why we are seeing media reports of over 1,500 people's jobs under threat. It is no coincidence that the CSIRO's climate adaption and preventative health flagships are the ones being cut in the current restructure that has been announced.

Senator Ronaldson made the claim that the government is a great supporter of science and the science community 'knows it has a friend in us'. I am afraid they do not know that. They do not believe that. They know, in fact, it is the contrary. He goes on to suggest that the government will keep its promises. But what have they promised? What we have seen from this government is a continuing list of policy positions that are actually hostile to science. What we know is that the report of the Commission of Audit—or the commission of cuts, as it has been referred to—has been sitting on the Prime Minister's desk for over a month, and we understand that is precisely where you will see these cuts being argued.

From the behaviour exhibited by this government, we know that we already have cause for very deep concern. We know that $103 million has been ripped from the Australian Research Council, particularly in the abuse of humanities. We know that the Treasurer has described the research grants from this particular area as 'ridiculous research projects'. We have seen threats to the future of industry innovation partnerships, some $500 million in investment. We know there have been cuts from the global centre for excellence in oil and gas technologies research, in Perth, which is a $10 million program. We know there has been the scrapping of the quarterly credits for the R&D tax incentive—a very important measure, if you want to commercialise scientific discovery.

In a recent statement the Prime Minister said:

The difference between us and our ancestors dwelling in caves is that we understand science and do our best to apply the fruits of that understanding to the way we live.

What we have in reality is a government approach to science which essentially takes us back to a caveman approach. We know this is a government that has no science minister, no science policy and no commitment to securing the benefits of science and research to ensure that we are able to sustain the modernisation that this country needs. We know that the Alcohol and Other Drugs Council of Australia— (Time expired)