STATEMENT TO THE PARLIAMENT BY THE PRIME MINISTER
ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
8 MAY 1989
As never before, scientific and technological developments
are altering the lives of every person, changing the face of
nations, cultures and the international economy, and even
throwing into question the very environment in which we
live.
Medical discoveries are offering relief for the sick and
injured, helping childless couples to have children, opening
broader horizons for the elderly. Researchers are providing
new drugs and new surgical techniques and are even probing
the nature of life itself.
New manufacturing techniques are revolutionising the way we
work, the way we travel, what we eat, how we live.
Computers store and manipulate information in quantities and
with a speed that would have been inconceivable a few
decades ago.
Rapid communications are delivering instant news throughout
an apparently shrunken world, criss-crossed with optical
fibre networks and surrounded by satellites.
Concepts of warfare today are largely unrecognisable to
those who fought in the Second World War.
Even the most basic cycle of our climate, the purity of the
air we breathe, the very borders between sea and land, seem
affected by technology. Problems such as the Greenhouse
Effect and the depletion of the ozone layer are real issues
today that even in the last decade would have seemed
incredible outside the pages of science fiction.
one possible response to this vast process of change is
despair the feeling that attempting to control the
seemingly remote forces of unleashed innovation is futile.
Honourable members who are in contact with their
constituents will know that many people, especially many
younger Australians, do indeed border on despair when they
contemplate the dangers of nuclear war and the despoliation
of the environment.
A more realistic reAWpe -is-t o attempt to understand the
nature of these cha nges and to harness the best endeavours
of all people to ensure that the forces of science and
technology yield a better future for mankind.
The march of technological change where it seems possible
that it might only lead to a polluted, clamorous, dangerous
and uncertain world must be made to serve our needs and to
create a world in which our children and grandchildren can
live at ease.
Indeed, if Australians of the next century are to inhabit a
prosperous nation and a clean and safe world, we today must
grasp the challenge of gaining control of the processes of
scientific and technological innovation and ensure that we
receive benefit, not disadvantage, from change.
This is a challenge that confronts all Australians.
Australians of course are used to enjoying a quality of life
equal or superior to that anywhere in the world.
But just as we accept that our predecessors had to work hard
to build this society, so we must recognise that retaining
such advantages, so as to pass them on to our children, will
require hard work and constant effort.
Since this Government came to office in 1983, we have been
single minded in our determination to ensure that such an
effort is made.
A crucial foundation for the pursuit of our wider goals is
our adoption of the most wide ranging and comprehensive
program of structural adjustment in Australia's history.
We have taken the decisions tough ones, many of them to
create a more internationally competitive economy and to
remove the impediments which prevent industries and
individuals from making their fullest contribution to
national prosperity.
In this endeavour, science and technology continue to have
an essential role to play.
They can open the way for Australia's manufacturing and
service industries to be more competitive, and for the men
and women who make up the Australian workforce to be more
productive. Our agricultural and mining industries, our medical
researchers, our astronomers, our communications specialists
are already showing the way, not just with new techniques
and new products that can be sold abroad, but with new
knowledge, on which no price tag can be placed.
This Government is determined that Australia will not fall
behind. We are committed to maintaining and enhancing the
proven excellence of our researchers, allowing them to
further the horizons of basic research and to contribute
through their creativity and innovation to Australia's
goals. Mr Acting Speaker,
Since coming to office my Government has pursued a
consistent science and technology strategy.
This strategy recognises that crucial elements of research
must be supported by public funds. It adopts as two
important objectives the pursuit of excellence and the
closer co-operation between researchers and users of that
research. It recognises that science and technology depend
on the creativity of individuals. And finally, it seeks to
integrate science and technology into the broader community.
In pursuit of that strategy, research into science and
technology in Australia is supported by public funds
totalling about $ 1.9 billion annually, through direct
funding, through institutions of higher education and
through tax concessions.
We have introduced new research and development promotion
and incentive schemes, and reorganised our research
organisations. There has been a massive expansion of higher education
places and a dramatically lifted school retention rate.
The best Australian research can now receive increased
support, as researchers must now win a proportion of their
funding by competing with others against a variety of
standards, some involving peer review and others commercial
criteria. Since 1982-83, Government support for research through
grants, higher education and Government agencies has risen
by 12 per cent in real terms. Support for industry research
and development has trebled.
Public funding of research and development in Australia is
at about the middle order of OECD nations. But private
sector support has been near the bottom of the ladder. When
this Government came to office, 80 per cent of the nation's
research activities were publicly funded, with private
industry providing the remaining 20 per cent. By 1986-87,
within a substantial increase in total R and D expenditure,
industry had increased its share in the nation's research
effort to 35 per cent.
This is a welcome trend. But with this Statement today, the
Government is saying that it recognises that more needs to
be done.
More needs to be done both to enhance our efforts in the
quest for knowledge, as well as to ensure that a sufficient
research effort is directed to areas of crucial application
for Australia. Ok6iA--
The details of the Government's initiatives will be
announced directly by the Minister for Science, Customs and
Small Business, Barry Jones.
Let me take this opportunity first to pay tribute to this
Minister's determined and far-sighted advocacy of these
issues. He is a minister who makes an invaluable
contribution to the Government's consideration of science
issues and one in whom the science community can place its
trust and confidence.
The first element of the Government's statement that I wish
to announce today is that I will be appointing Mr Jones as
Minister Assisting the Prime Minister-for Science and
Technology. In this role Mr Jones, who will retain his existing
portfolio duties, will exercise on my behalf the day to day
responsibility for the development and co-ordination of
science policy across the Government.
I also announce the establishment of a new consultative body
which will bring together at the highest level all those who
have a role to play in setting the nation's priorities in
science and technology.
This new body will be known as the Prime Minister's Science
Council. I will chair it and Mr Jones will be its Deputy
Chairman. Its membership will consist of Government
ministers, representatives of the science community and
leaders of Australian industry.
The first meeting of the Council is to be held in October.
At the top of its agenda will be a consideration of the
status of science in Australia covering both the state of
research in Australia and the nature and effectiveness of
linkages between research and industry. The October meeting
will also consider the Greenhouse Effect, to the research on
which the Government has recently provided $ 7.8 million.
I want my Council to bring a new focus and prominence to
discussions on Australia's national priorities in scientific
research and a new capacity to make sure that our aims in
basic and applied science are properly set and implemented.
To assist in this, I am appointing Professor Ralph Slatyer
as Chief Scientist. He will assist me and Mr Jones on
science and technology policy, chair the Science and
Technology Co-ordinating Committee and serve on and be the
Executive officer of my new Council.
Professor Slatyer is a scientist of national and
international distinction, both in research and in the
-development of scier'~ ndd t~ chnology policy. He has served
as Chairman of the World Heritage Committee, President of
the International Scientific Committee on Problems of the
Environment and most recently as chairman of the Australian
Science and Technology Council.
The Australian Science and Technology Council which has been
providing analysis of developments in Australian science and
technology throughout the term of my Government will
continue to provide this valuable service.
Indeed, I expect ASTEC to make a substantial contribution to
the success of the new arrangements I have just announced
and to enjoy an enhanced role as a result of them.
Mr Acting Speaker,
This statement is based on extensive consultation with the
science and technology community, and on detailed reviews
both of specific problems and of the broader needs and
concerns of scientists.
It brings together, as the Government promised it would, all
the strands of the Government's support of science and
technology research throughout a number of portfolios.
This statement does not represent a conclusion to the debate
about science and technology in Australia, nor a reaction to
it. It represents a contribution, and I believe a very
significant one, to a continuing process of policy
development. It provides for the expenditure of an additional $ 390
million over the next five years in order to boost
Australia's science and technology performance. Taken with
the anticipated revenue foregone due to the extension of tax
concessions, this represents a $ 1 billion package of support
for science and technology in Australia.
This statement represents our recognition that the pace of
change in this country cannot be relaxed. We cannot rest on
our laurels. The world will not let us do so.
Mr Acting Speaker,
No Australian wants * to leave it up to the rest of the world
to make the decisions that are so important to shaping our
future.
With this Statement, we are showing our determination that
Australia will be a full participant in the exciting and
vital processes of scientific discovery, innovation and
adaptation.