Subjects: Discovery Centre; role of CSIRO; information technology; government funding.
E&OE..................
Thank you very much Mr Charles Allen. To Mr Chris Anderson the Chief Executive of Cable and Wireless Optus, Mrs Kate Carnell the Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory, Dr Adam the Acting Chief Executive of CSIRO, Mr Jim Peacock and particularly also to the members of the McIntosh family that are here today because the opening of Discovery fulfils one of the many visions and aspirations that Malcolm McIntosh had for this magnificent organisations.
CSIRO is one of those great Australian institutions which one first heard of, if you were of my generation, as a young child and then at various stages through life. CSIRO has made enormous contributions, not only to the science and technological life of Australia, but through it to the economic strengths of the nation and also to the betterment of the human condition and the social conditions in which our community lives.
Around the end of last year when every newspaper and magazine was filled with what you could loosely describe as millennium studies, analysing what the new millennium would bring and what the past millennium had delivered, one of those articles that stayed with me for a long time and I still remember very vividly was in The Economist which analysed the various economic cycles and phases of mankind over the last few hundred years starting with the Industrial Revolution and moving up to the information technology age in which we are now living. And it made the very simple point that each era was shorter than the previous one and we can measure eras now in much shorter periods of time. And of course the constant through all of those periods, starting with the Industrial Revolution and moving through to the developments based on chemicals, in particular after World War II, and the contribution naturally of the motor vehicle and all that surrounded it in the early years of the last century. The thing that was constant in all of those of course was the contribution of science and technology.
I am also like Chris Anderson something of a devotee of the speeches of Dr Alan Greenspan. I've had two meetings with him since being prime minister and at both of those, I've asked him the very simple question which I'm, along with many other people, am desperate to know the answer to and that is why is it that the United States' economy is doing so well. Well Chris has only given you half of his answer. The first part of the answer that he gave me when I first asked him was I don't really know and I always think it is the mark of a highly intelligent man or woman that he or she will admit that there are some questions that you don't know the answer to. But he said, I'll have a go and I think in having a go I have to say that the investment that the investment that the United States has made in technology has been one of the main reasons why there's been so much sustained economic growth in that country.
But today is an opportunity for all of those Australians who value CSIRO and respect the lead that it has given in the national scientific life of Australia, it's an occasion to uplift the morale of those people and to demonstrate in a very practical and I think very customer friendly way what CSIRO does. I was encouraged to hear that you're booked out for almost a year from the schools around Australia that are anxious to participate in the facilities and to carry out their experiments here. And in the short time that I've had the opportunity to enjoy this facility, it really is something that is engaging to people of all ages. When I sort of did the finger touch bit to get, to get a response on gene technology I instantaneously went to the bit that provided the explanation of what it was. Because I always think that one of the greatest challenges of science, it's like the challenges to the law, economics and politics, and that is to make what you do and what you're on about readily understandable and readily explicable to the lay people of the world who mightn't share your scientific understanding of it. And I have to say that the explanation was very succinct and I thought a very good indication of the care that has been taken in putting this wonderful project together and the care that has been taken to ensure that people can relate very directly and very easily to what CSIRO is doing and the contribution and the role of science within our community.
There is a debate going on in the community at the moment about levels of financial commitment to science and technology both from governments and from private industry. And the Government has recently received an analysis of many of those things and the worth of science within our community from the Chief Scientist who's present, I acknowledge here today, Dr Batterham. And I'll be receiving the final report in relation to the Innovation Summit later this year and the Government then, and particularly my colleagues Nick Minchin and David Kemp will be making and putting certain recommendations to us. That is not to say that in the past four and a half years we have been idle in particular areas that are very important to the human condition so far as science and research are concerned. And I am particularly proud of the doubling of the provision for medical research that was announced in the Budget before last coming out of the Wills Report.
I think all of these things are a token of the growing recognition of the importance of science in our community. I've said before to a not dissimilar audience that one of the great experiences that I've had as prime minister and somebody who is very much a layman as far as scientific matters is concerned, is to have chaired the Prime Minister's Science and Engineering and Technology Council. I've found that a particularly stimulating and a great learning experience and something that has certainly communicated to me in a very effective way the extraordinary role and contribution of science and not least of course the role of the CSIRO.
CSIRO has made a truly legendary contribution so far as discovery and achievement and the examples of it are very numerous and indeed too numerous to list on occasions such as this. But they stretch right across the spectrum. They of course are very relevant to medical science and to the relief of disease, the alleviation of suffering, they are very, they go very much to matters relating to the environment, to energy conservation, to every nook and cranny of productive behaviour in the Australian community, the CSIRO has played a role.
Chris Anderson was kind enough to make the observation that the project being launched today, Discovery, is a good live example of mutual obligation or the social coalition at work and it certainly is. And one of the very pleasing aspects of today is in fact for me to record the $3 million that has been contributed by Cable and Wireless Optus, the contribution of $1 million by the Government of the Australian Capital Territory, Nortel Networks has contributed a quarter of a million dollars towards the virtual reality theatre and I'd also like to thank Bayles Myer, the head of arguably the most philanthropic family this country has seen the Myer family, to be congratulated for his personal contribution of $100,000 to the Discovery Centre and the contribution of the Discovery tapestry in the lecture theatre. That tapestry, worth some $50,000 was designed and woven by the Victorian Tapestry Workshop and presented to CSIRO by the Myer family and it does continue a great tradition of philanthropy from that family and their generous work in support of CSIRO. The sponsors of the Discovery Centre are more than financiers, they've provided important moral support and advice and in their ongoing involvement with the centre derive mutual benefits along with CSIRO through for example the development of themes for the centre to take into account the ACT school curriculum, opportunities for Optus staff to learn about the latest technological advancements by visiting the centre and involvement in the Discovery Centre Board of Management from both Cable and Wireless Optus and the ACT Government.
Australia has a very rich tradition and one that demonstrates very clearly that we have always performed above our size and our population when it comes to discovery and when it comes to the development of ideas. Sometimes we've not been as clever at converting those ideas, we've not been as clever in the process of innovation as we have been in the process of discovery and in the process of generation of ideas. And part of the debate that is going on in the community at the present time is to ensure that we get in place both from the government and from business the right responses and the right attitudes that will ensure that not only do we continue to generate the ideas and have the discoveries and the inventions but we also have the capacity commercially and otherwise to convert those to enduring benefit for the Australian people. It is true that maintaining a positive, benign economic climate and environment is important to all of these endeavours, that's the underpinning and then the specialty is delivered by organisations such as CSIRO and the companies that are supporting it.
So I am delighted on behalf of the Government and through that the Australian people to be associated with this project. To again record the great admiration I have for the CSIRO and the work that it's done for the people of Australia over decades, it is one of those really great and enduring Australian institutions, it is a very precious part of our national life and one that needs protection and support.
So I would now like you to find the envelope you've been given and that contains a pair of glasses and we're going to officially open the Discovery Complex by showing you a 3D programme aimed at giving you a sneak preview of the centre and the many exciting areas of discovery.
Thank you.
[ends]