Jane Hume (Victoria, Liberal Party, Minister for Superannuation, Financial Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Hansard source

The government will be voting no to this motion. The coalition government has invested record amounts of funding in scientific research and development. Our open and transparent approach to scientific advice has helped drive our world-leading response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Just this week, for example, the government provided not only the parliament but the entire nation with the Doherty Institute modelling that underpins our approach to vaccination. The proposal to create a new body would see more taxpayer money spent on more bureaucracy, duplicate existing functions and mechanisms and see no appreciable gain in the effectiveness or the efficacy of scientific advice.