The Coalition has today announced its science policy titled The Coalition’s Plan for Real Action on Innovation, Industry, Science and Research. The policy includes $16.7 million over three years towards science communication. Below Australian experts comment.

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Professor Peter Doherty is Laureate Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Melbourne. Peter was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1996.

“The idea of strengthening the office of Chief Scientist and giving the Chief Scientist greater independence is excellent. However, there are two caveats. Firstly, we have to ensure that the process of appointing top quality scientists to that office continues. Built-in to any such proposal might be the requirement that the Minister responsible for appointing the Chief Scientist is advised by the Presidents of the Science and Technology Academies and FASTS, and that such advice is made public. In addition, given the appalling political performance on the issue of anthropogenic climate change, how do we introduce a requirement that political leaders set their arrogance and profound ignorance aside and take advice from the Chief Scientist.”

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Professor Bob Williamson is Secretary for Science Policy of the Australian Academy of Science

“The Australian Academy of Science is disappointed that neither of the major parties has taken the opportunity to offer a serious commitment to Australian science during this election campaign.  We need to see a large increase in Australian research expenditure to an achievable level of 3% of GDP to match similar countries worldwide, which means better incentives for industry and no cuts of Government funding to the ARC, NHMRC and CSIRO.  The coalition statement, issued today, has some welcome features (in particular the commitment to International Science Linkages, and to increasing public awareness of Australian science), but these are a drop in the bucket when it comes to realising the full potential of Australian research to drive Australian prosperity.

The coalition government under John Howard was generous to Australian medical research.  The current Rudd/Gillard government has increased research expenditure, especially through the Universities, by 34%.  This protects research into our environment, alternative energy, water resources, health care, innovative agriculture and biosecurity.  During this campaign, neither party has offered a vision and funding to inject new ideas, people and vigour into our scientific research centres in Universities, CSIRO and industry.  There is still time to do this, and the Academy, in common with all of those who care about Australia’s future as an advanced economy and society, hopes that we will be presented with science policies and commitments that take us forward rather than, at best, keeping us where we are at present.”

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Dr Gerd Winter is the Editor of Australian R&D Review

“No real surprises in the coalition’s election policies on science and innovation and, as usual, the devil is in the detail of each particular individual policy. One cannot argue with $23 million funding for the International Science Initiative, or $11.4 million in new funding to stem the decline in high-quality research graduates. Positive also is the $16.7 million commitment to the Science Connections Program (SCOPE) to increase broader public awareness of Australian Research, although compared to Labor’s commitment of $21 million for the Inspiring Australia Initiative it represents more of a fig leaf than a strategy to lift the low public enthusiasm for scientific issues. Some will also applaud the rejection of the Government’s R&D Credits, who believe that for all its clear benefits it defines eligible R&D too narrowly. It is also good to see that the coalition plan involves a more independent existence for the Chief Scientist.

The strength of the economy masks Australia’s miserable productivity performance over the past decade. Innovation is a crucial driver of productivity, but it needs a broad and coherent policy strategy to overcome this. The crux of the matter in the coalition’s plan for real action is that it lacks a plan. Australia needs a broad visionary approach rather than patchwork to change its heavy reliance on mining and commodities. Australia’s manufacturing base is in decline, and that is not Labor’s fault, it is a structural malaise, and more importantly, Australia continues to fail to capitalise on its marvelous public research and that is not a matter of transforming public research into little enterprises. It requires a long term strategy to build up and grow a knowledge based industry, which then provides also its researchers with alternatives in their career paths, vital to make the profession attractive to young people.

Both parties lack a clear vision, but Labor has at least the National Broadband Network to show for, which will have significant impact on productivity growth and will provide innovative stimulus across almost all parts of the sector. The second key difference is, of course, that Labor keeps the possibility of an Emissions Trading Scheme or a Carbon Tax open, which will undoubtedly provide a major boost for innovation in the renewable industry sector. And thirdly, for all its weaknesses, Labor’s mining tax, even in its watered down version, will be far more effective in helping the ailing manufacturing and other industries from being steam rolled by the imminent mining boom than a few million spent here and there.”

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Dr Susannah Eliott is CEO of the Australian Science Media and Chair of the Expert Working Group on Science and the Media, an initiative of Inspiring Australia.

“It is pleasing to see science awareness gain a mention in both the Labor and Coalition science polices, though it is unclear exactly what kind of commitment will eventuate given the lack of detail in both policies. The main difference between the Coalition and Labor science awareness policies seems to be in the amount of funds being committed with the Coalition pledging $16.7 million over three years and Labor pledging $21 million over three years, in both cases a welcome though modest increase and largely earmarked for existing programs.”

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The Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies (FASTS) has today released the results of a pre-election survey of the major parties across eight policy areas in science and innovation. A copy of the survey responses is available here.  Below is a comment from FASTS on this survey:

Anna‐Maria Arabia is CEO of the Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies (FASTS)

“FASTS submitted 23 questions to each of the major and minor Parties so that our 60,000 members could weigh-up the prevailing attitudes towards science and innovation before their cast their votes on Saturday. While Federal Labor stated that it had increased investment in science and innovation by 34 per cent since 2007 and had ‘no intention of taking Australia backwards’, the Coalition referred to their record under the Menzies Government to illustrate their commitment to funding research.  And while the Coalition could say they will ‘continue to ensure science and innovation is adequately funded’, they could not ‘commitment to fund a review of Australian science institutions nor substantially increase funding for scientific research’. In terms of research and development The Greens propose to advocate for increased expenditure to at least the OECD average of GDP.

Disappointingly, although 80 per cent of Australians think science education is absolutely essential or very important to the national economy, all Australian political parties failed to recognise its economic importance in their questionnaire responses.

Wiithout science and research the National Broadband Network would be a pipedream, Australians would have poorer health, and the mining industry wouldn’t be booming - all things that impact on the national economy.

“In Australia there is still a tendency to see science and innovation as a cost rather than an investment. We know that investment in scientific research and innovation pays dividends. So much so, the OECD has recognised that innovation is a key to emerging from the downturn. We now need the next PM, Treasurer, Finance and Science Ministers to do the same.

“On the bright side, the major Parties have committed to Powering Ideas: An Innovation Agenda for the 21st Century to guide their policy formulation. Unfortunately not all of the parties provided an answer to each question so there are some issues which our scientists remain in the dark on.”