CHECK AGAINST DELITVERY EMBARGOED UNTIL DELIVRY
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER
LAUNCH OF AUSTRALIAN FOUNDATION FOR SCIENCE
CANBERRA 29 AUGUST 1ggo
I want to extend my sincere thanks to you, Professor Craig, and
to the Academy, for the honour you have done me today.
Australia's international image as a modern and sophisticated
society and not just our image, but our caaity to be a
modern and sophisticated society is profoundly influenced by
the standing and achievements of our scientists and our
scientific institutions.
As Australia's national scientific Academy, you play a vital
role in maintaining and enhancing that image and that capacity
by establishing and maintaining standards of scientific
endeavour and achievement, by recognising outstanding
contributions to the advancement of science, and by maintaining
open channels with your peers abroad.
Election to the Academy recognises that an Australian
researcher is of the highest international standard. The fact
that a disproportionately high number of your Fellows have also
been elected to the Royal Society of London and to the US
National Academy of Sciences is a valid measure of the quality
and standing of Australian science.
So to have received this honour from you is something I truly
value. I accept it not as a personal tribute but as a vote of
confidence by the scientific community in the thrust of the
decisions my Government has taken in recent years.
We have endeavoured to promote the emergence in this country of
a culture in which science and technology are vital elements.
While it is heartening to know you appreciate the Government's
role in that endeavour, let me acknowledge that the effort has
truly been a collective one, reliant on the broader scientific
community for its success. To that extent this medal also
belongs to those many people in the scientific community
including many here today who have offered us their advice,
wisdom and support.
Ever since the First Fleet Lieutenant, William Dawes, began
setting up his astronomical observatory at Port Jackson,
Australia has been a fertile and productive soil for basic
scientific inquiry.
From Lt Dawes' telescope through to the giant radioastronomy
dishes that scan the skies from western New South Wales, and in
every other field of research, it has been the public sector at
the forefront of the nation's scientific effort the public
sector, as a proud and committed sponsor of Australian science.
Even so, the increased pressure on Government budgets, the
proliferation of exciting and important fields of research,
and, I believe, an increasing and legitimate demand by society
for the products of relevant research have all meant that
science has had to struggle for fair recognition of its role
and importance.
I don't think I would find any argument about that here!.
So it was all the more significant then, that the recent
election saw for the first time the discussion of science as an
issue in its own right.
You recall I said during the election campaign that Australians
can be content no longer to be the lucky country we need also
to become the clever country.
To that end, we had allocated before the election
$ 1 billion for a package of science and technology measures and
we have moved since the election to implement my election
promise to create a network of Cooperative Research Centres.
It's not my intention to outline these measures in detail
today. Let me remind you instead why we have allocated such
considerable sums of public money to science why, for
instance, we consider it important to keep young Australian
researchers in Australia and give them the support and
recognition their work deserves.
The answer of course is that if we are to maintain our place in
the first rank of the developed nations we must embrace, and
embrace enthusiastically, a culture in which science and
technology play central roles.
We are, after all, in the region of the world which is growing
fastest and which counts among its member countries some of
those at the forefront of scientific effort.
To maintain and improve living standards for all Australians we
must increasingly add value to our natural endowments. We must
develop a wide range of goods and services which will be world
competitive because their competitiveness has been enhanced
through the application of Australian cleverness.
Thirty years ago, C. P. Snow bemoaned the chasm between the ' two
cultures' of liberal and scientific research. Today, the
challenge is more urgent. We need to build a bridge over the
gulf that has kept science and scientists too isolated from the
broader social imperative of creating and enhancing prosperity.
3.
I don't dispute that a clever country is one in which basic
scientific research can take place unfettered by the demands to
make it turn a dollar. But at the same time, a clever country
is one in which the best scientific minds of the country are
alive to the questions posed by that other science the dismal
science, economics: how to lift prosperity, enhance economic
competitiveness, boost productivity.
In a clever country, " Made in Australia" must become synonymous
with high quality content and performance. It must be a symbol
of skill, not just good fortune.
That is ultimately why reforms such as the Prime Minister's
Science Council and the Cooperative Research Centres are
critically important initiatives.
Let me say too how pleased I am with the way in which both
these initiatives are progressing.
The new policy machinery for science and technology has three
elements: the Chief Scientist, Professor Ralph Slatyer; the
Prime Minister's Science Council; and the Coordination
Committee on Science and Technology. Together with ASTEC, they
provide the Government as a whole, and me in particular, with a
breadth and depth of policy advice never previously available
to a Commonwealth Governiemt.
The Science Council has already attracted widespread attention.
It is a high level forum at which science and technology issues
of national importance can be discussed with me and my senior
Ministerial colleagues, in the presence of leading
representatives from the business, research and government
communities. I am pleased to note that you, Professor Craig,
and your predecessor, have participated in each of the meetings
already held and made valuable contributions to them.
This Council has established a forum comparable in
effectiveness to that in other leading countries namely, a
forum that reports directly to the Head of Government. This
arrangement was strongly supported by the Academy for the very
good reason that issues of science and technology now pervade
the Commonwealth bureaucracy. In order to provide an overview
of science and technology, it is essential that the advisory
mechanisms focus on the Head of Government.
This machinery is being strengthened by the progressive
establishment of a network of science advisors, at a very
senior level, in those Departments with major responsibilities
for performing or funding science.
Turning to the Cooperative Research Centres Program, I am
delighted with the enormous support it has received from the
scientific community, from industry groups and from State and
Commonwealth bodies.
The Centres stand for excellence, relevance and cooperation:
excellence of research, and relevance and applicability of
research results, achieved through cooperation betweeen
researchers and research users.
It is a formula for good science a formula, we believe, for
successfully making the clever country a reality.
I am conscious that the establishment of the program has
resulted in people from a wide variety of institutions talking
to one another and establishing cooperative arrangements, to a
degree which has never happened before.
In a very real sense this important process is as important as
the Centres which finally emerge and I hope that, even for
those proposals which may fail to obtain funding, enduring
cooperation arrangements will become established.
I take this opportunity of placing on record again the
critically important role played by Ralph Slatyer in the
preparation and development of this concept.
Professor Craig,
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is deeply appropriate that we should today be marking the
establishment by the Academy of the Australian Foundation for
Science. This is a very welcome initiative.
The Academy already has a strong record of achievement in
raising the quality of scientific education and improving
public awareness of science.
The text books produced by the Academy have served generations
of Australian school children well. The Academy's Science and
Industry Forum has been instrumental in bringing together
leaders of industry, science and government.
This new initiative of yours can build on these activities. It:
can draw research organisations, business and government
together to promote science and in turn show how that science
can be used for the benefit of the nation. I am particularly
pleased to see ANZAAS, Australia's oldest organisation for the
promotion of science, and the Australian Science Teachers'
Association, have both decided to join the Foundation.
I congratulate the Academy on proposing this way to meet the
challenges ahead and congratulate the Fellows on backing it so
strongly with their own resources. I hope the venture gains
similar from support the whole scientific community, industry
and the community generally. We all have much to gain from a
broader acceptance of the value of science and technology to
our society.
In thanking you again for the award you have given me, it is
now my pleasure to launch the Australian Foundation for
Science.