E&OE...........
Thank you very much Mr Chairman. My ministerial colleagues - Richard Alston, Brendan Nelson, Kay Patterson, Peter McGauran - very distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. This is a very important night for science in Australia. We not only announce the winners of some very special awards but it's an opportunity for the Government through its head, the Prime Minister, to say something about the view of the Government and therefore the view of the nation of the role of science in our lives.
I was not trained in a scientific discipline. The best I can claim was to have done chemistry successfully for the leaving certificate at Canterbury Boys High School. I then went into the law and had I suppose what you might loosely call a liberal arts education. My strongest subjects were history and English. I have to say that when I became Prime Minister of all the bodies that I came into contact with none has made a greater influence, or had a greater influence on me than the Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council. It really has, and I don't mind admitting it, opened my eyes to the enduring relevance of science in our community and I want to say tonight what a very high priority this Government places on scientific achievement in Australia by Australians.
As a passionate lover of sport can I say our scientific achievements are as meritorious and are as important to this country and in an enduring sense even more important than our magnificent sporting achievements. And tonight is an opportunity for me to say on behalf of the Government how much we are in debt to the scientists of this country, how proud we should be of their world excellence, how gratified we should be that this country has in fields such as medical science always punched well and truly above her weight.
This audience better than most would know of the great scientists that Australia has contributed to the world. This audience better than most would know the quality and the value of their research, the life saving and prolonging effects of their discoveries, and the relevance in so many different areas of life that scientists have to Australia as a nation.
One of the most important policy statements I've made in the six and a half years of being Prime Minister was the Backing Australia's Ability Program launched at the beginning of last year, put together by the hard work of a number of my colleagues with a great deal of outside advice in which I'm very pleased to say is being implemented very much in line with the schedule laid down at the beginning of last year. And amongst other things on the 29th of July this year Brendan Nelson announced the second tranche of the Federation Fellowships to 11 highly distinguished researchers who are regarded amongst the best in the world in their fields following the first 15 fellowships announced last year. And a total of 125 of these fellowships will be presented over a period of five years. And on the 30th of May this year I announced the successful applicant to establish Australia's $49 million Biotechnology Technology of Excellence, the centre for stem cells and tissue repair in Melbourne. And on the 22nd of May this year the Government announced the successful joint venture consortium to establish Australia's $129 million Information and Communication Technology Centre of Excellence.
Now I don't claim, and very few in this audience would agree with me if I did, that everything the Government has done in the area of science has been perfect or that what we have announced is in any way in a long term sense totally adequate to the scientific needs of this country. But what I hope we have endeavoured to do in cooperation with the scientific community of Australia is to place the role of science at the centre of our existence, to accord it the respect and to accord its practitioners, its researchers, its brilliant men and women the respect that a modern sophisticated nation should give to those people who contribute so much to who we are, to find what we stand for and also making enormous contribution to the quality of the lives that we enjoy.
Tonight it's for me to announce and to say something of the winner of the Prime Minister's Prize for Science. Could I just cheat in advance of what somebody else is going to say and remark how personally delighted I am amongst many other things tonight that we have for the first time some prizes for the teaching of science at schools because the quality of science teachers is enormously important to the inculcation in the young of the value of scientific learning and scientific discipline.
Science has changed the way that all of us live. More importantly it has made it possible for some to live. And tonight's recipient of the Prime Minister's Prize for Science has made a difference to the lives of millions of people, not just here in Australia but around the world. And I'm delighted to announce that the winner is Professor Frank Fenner.
Can I say, in case there's anybody here who doesn't know a little of his remarkable career, let me just touch the highlights. He's the Visiting Fellow at the John Curtin School of Medical Research and a pioneer in the field of virology. He graduated as a doctor in 1938, did a diploma in tropical medicine and served in the Australian Army in World War II for five years including as a malariologist in New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies. In 1946 he worked with the legendary Sir MacFarlane Burnet at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute discovering that mousepox was a good laboratory model for smallpox.
In 1949 he was appointed Foundation Professor of Microbiology in the John Curtin School of Medical Research at the ANU and he was appointed its director in 1967. Between 1951 and 1965 in collaboration with the CSIRO his laboratory work on myxomatosis provided a basis for its effective use for the biological control of rabbits. Famously in the early 1950s when there were concerns between a possible link between myxomatosis and an outbreak of encephalitis, Fenner and MacFarlane Burnet injected each other with the myxoma virus to put public fears to rest. Fenner says that this was - quote - no big deal - unquote - but it was still very reassuring to the public.
Between 1969 and 1980 Fenner's knowledge of pox viruses led to involvement in the campaign to eradicate smallpox. Appointed Chairman of the Global Committee for the Certification of Smallpox Eradication and announced the eradication of the disease to the World Health Assembly in 1980. In 1973 he was the Foundation Director of the Centre for Resources and Environmental Studies at the ANU and he retains as a long term resident of Canberra a strong interest in environmental sustainability.
In 1988 he was awarded the Japan Prize along with D A Henderson and I Arita; in 1995 the Copley medal of the Royal Society. In 2000 he was awarded the Albert Einstein World Award for Science, and in the year 2002 the Clunies Ross Lifetime Contribution National Science and Technology Award.
Can I say ladies and gentlemen that is a truly gold medal performance in every way of an outstanding scientist of the world and one that we very proudly claim as an Australian. I congratulate the Professor. He's been a wonderful contributor. He's brought life and hope to millions and I feel very honoured to have the opportunity tonight to award him his prize and to thank him for his great contribution to humanity.
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