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

My question is to Senator Brandis, the Minister representing the Minister for Education, Science and Training. I refer to the Productivity Commission’s damning report on the Howard government’s science and innovation policies. Is the minister aware that the report vigorously argues:

… the current real level of public appropriation funding for CSIRO should not be reduced.

Can the minister confirm that the real increase in CSIRO’s costs is at four per cent per annum? Does the minister recall the government’s recent announcement that CSIRO would only receive indexation of two per cent, which effectively imposes a two per cent annual cut for the next four years? Will the government now admit it is delivering a real funding cut to CSIRO and then ensure that CSIRO receives adequate funding for its nationally important research programs? Minister, hasn’t Australia been badly let down by more than a decade of the Howard government’s neglect of innovation?

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Minister for the Arts and Sport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ever since I was woken this morning by the dulcet tones of Senator Carr on the radio speaking of the Productivity Commission report, I have been hoping that Senator Carr might choose to ask me a question about the Productivity Commission report today.

Helen Coonan (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And you’re not disappointed!

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Minister for the Arts and Sport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As Senator Coonan says, I have not been disappointed. I have looked at the report, although—I am sure, like Senator Carr—I have not yet read all 851 pages of it.

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

Senator Carr interjecting—

Paul Calvert (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Senator Carr, I have warned you once; I will not warn you again.

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Minister for the Arts and Sport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

But—Mr President, through you—what I can advise Senator Carr is that the Productivity Commission report, commissioned by Mr Pearce, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer, on 10 March last year, finds that the condition of R&D and of government support for R&D in Australia is healthy and increasing. Allow me—Mr President, through you—to direct to Senator Carr’s attention some of the key findings of the report. On page 22 it says:

Gross domestic spending on R&D in 2004-05 for governments, businesses, the higher education sector ... was around $15.8 billion (in current prices) or about 1.76 per cent of GDP ... Real total spending was about 50 per cent more than in 1996-97...

What do we know about 1996-97? That was when the party that Senator Carr represents in the Senate was last in office and last in control of R&D spending in Australia. So the first finding, Senator Carr, which you seem not to have noticed, is that the Productivity Commission report finds a 50 per cent increase in funding over the last 10 years. The author of the report goes on to say:

Australia’s total R&D to GDP ratio has increased at a much faster pace than most other OECD countries in recent years.

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I raise a point of order that goes to the question of relevance. While I am happy that Senator Brandis has spent his day doing something useful in reading the report, question time is actually where the opposition get to ask him questions. He was asked about CSIRO funding and whether or not there had been a real decrease in CSIRO funding. He has not actually attempted to answer the question at all. I draw your attention to the question.

Paul Calvert (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Brandis, you have just under two minutes to complete your answer. I remind you of the question.

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Minister for the Arts and Sport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr President. In the event that Senator Carr’s eagerness to make a cheap political point out of this important issue also diverted his attention from some of the other findings of the report relevant to his question, can I point out to him that at page 45 the author of the report says—

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

Mr President, I raise a point of order. I asked a very specific question about CSIRO’s funding. The minister has ranged widely over the recommendations of the report. He has failed to deal with finding 11.1, which directly relates to CSIRO funding. I would ask him, if he has had a chance to look at the recommendation, to address that particular recommendation.

Paul Calvert (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is 16 seconds since the last point of order was taken. I would remind the minister of the question.

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Minister for the Arts and Sport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr President. With respect to you, Senator Carr, I think I have acquainted myself more with the report in the last few hours than you seem to have done, because if you were better acquainted with the report which is the subject of your question you would not have omitted to notice the finding on page 45:

... Australia’s overall innovation and economic performance has been good compared with many high R&D performing countries.

Had Senator Carr taken the trouble to study the report rather than to rush into the chamber on the back of an incomplete report in this morning’s Canberra Times, he would also have noted the observation on page 347 of the report—and this is directly to the point of Senator Carr’s questions—which warns against cross-sectoral methodological error by picking out one aspect of R&D funding in isolation from other areas of R&D funding.

So the conclusion of the Productivity Commission report is that Australia’s R&D spending is 50 per cent greater than it was at the time your side of politics, Senator Carr, was last in power, has been accelerating at a rapid pace and has reached the OECD average, which is not where it was, Senator Carr, when the Australian Labor Party was last responsible for R&D.

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

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Given that the minister has failed to identify the particular recommendations of the report, seven out of 10 of which are actually highly critical of this government’s response in innovation, I ask him: is it not the case that the Productivity Commission has also rejected the government’s botched management of the Cooperative Research Centres program, which was established under Labor, and has argued that ‘the original objectives of the program should be reinstated’? Minister, I ask you again: isn’t it the case that the government’s approach to innovation is little more than rhetoric and red tape?

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Minister for the Arts and Sport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

With all due respect to Senator Carr, I think one of us is engaging in rhetoric and the other is referring to the report. It is not the case, as Senator Carr asserts, because Senator Carr, I am sorry to say, has not made himself familiar with the report. Might I also, Mr President, remind Senator Carr that one of the findings of the report in relation to the CSIRO is that research funding for the CSIRO has increased in real terms by 11 per cent since the Australian Labor Party was last in power. But that is to be put in the context, as I said before and as the authors of the report are at pains to point out, that one must not make the methodological error of looking at one sector of R&D funding in isolation from the total support for the sector. Senator Carr, it is obvious to me you are not familiar with the report. I doubt you possess a copy, so come and see me after question time and I will make you a gift of my own.