Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

meritorious, worthy appointment. It should not have been cocooned in a highly political statement where the minister gratuitously attacks the alternative government. At the fourth sentence into the statement, he already makes highly politically charged statements, and then that theme continues right through until the very second-last sentence in his statement. So the minister bookends this important statement with cheap political comments throughout.

The statement tells us that the government is working on many fronts to improve Australia’s innovation capacity but, of course, it does not tell us that ANSTO has been cut by $12 million, that the CSIRO has been cut by $63 million and that the abolition of the Commercial Ready program will strip $1.4 billion worth out of the innovation sector. We are told in this statement that, after neglect et cetera, we urgently need to lift our game. So I ask rhetorically: how did Labor lift its game in this area? Well, it has reduced total outlays on research and development from 2.63 per cent of the budget to 2.56 per cent, the lowest in four years and the second lowest for the decade. He then moves on to tell us that we have to ensure that we get the best returns from our own great innovation assets. One of those assets is the CSIRO, the minister tells us, yet he sees fit to strip $63 million out of the CSIRO, a stripping which as we speak is causing forced redundancies, the closure of centres and the sale of CSIRO assets around the country. But he has the audacity to pretend that the CSIRO, in the face of these massive cuts, is evolving.

You see, Mr Deputy President, when it comes to innovation, science and research the Labor Party are great on spin, but when you analyse the substance it does not match the spin. The minister said before the last election, in relation to innovation, that he would streamline the Commercial Ready program. Did he streamline it! There is now no paperwork whatsoever associated with that scheme, because he abolished it. $1.4 billion was stripped out of the innovation sector of this nation, and yet he has the audacity to say that innovation is at the heart of this new government. He started off his statement by saying, ‘The government is working on many fronts to improve Australia’s innovation capacity’—when he stripped $1.4 billion out of the innovation system. So, as with everything of this minister and this government, do not look at the spin; look at the actual substance. Look at what they have actually done.

In this statement the minister announced the appointment of Dr Megan Clark as the new CEO of CSIRO. I congratulate her on that appointment, look forward to interactions with her at Senate estimates and elsewhere and wish her well in that job. It is regrettable that, with all the politics that the minister plays, he could not even bring himself to say thank you to the outgoing CEO of CSIRO, Dr Geoff Garrett—a man who won a Centenary Medal for his contribution to science. One would have thought that a minister—instead of playing politics with this sort of a statement, instead of trying to bash up the alternative government—would have said: ‘What are the important things to get across here? CSIRO is an important institution in this country. It has been served exceptionally well by Dr Geoff Garrett for about seven years. He is to be thanked for his service to the Australian people. He is to be congratulated for what he has done—might I add in very difficult circumstances.’ But no, there was no word of thanks to Dr Geoff Garrett, only commentary about the appointment of Dr Clark—commentary which, of course, is well deserved, is proper, and I wish her and the CSIRO every success for the future. But the inability to say thank you to Dr Geoff Garrett in that statement is unfortunately a reflection of the way that this particular minister does his business.

Innovation, science and research are vital areas for this nation’s future. They are vital because without them our country will go backwards. We cannot afford to stand still, but this country is now not even standing still; we are going backwards. The figures clearly show that we are lagging in relation to budgetary allocations. ANSTO—the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation—has had $12 million ripped out of it because of this minister’s attitude to anything that has the word ‘nuclear’ in it. A very immature, extreme, left-wing political agenda has driven the cuts to something which is at the forefront of medical technology in this country. It is being cut, and cut heavily. Senator Carr championed the CSIRO to anybody who would listen for the two years before the last election—he was going to revitalise the CSIRO. Of course, according to Labor you revitalise the CSIRO by ripping $63 million out of it and forcing redundancies—a great way to revitalise! Then he says he is going to streamline Commercial Ready. Everybody thought, ‘A great scheme, a fantastic scheme, and something will be done to make it even better.’ Instead, without warning, he callously chopped it.

How does that help Australian innovation? I can tell you it does not. Literally hundreds of people have contacted me indicating that they are now going to take their investments overseas. One of the other things the minister does not understand is that the Commercial Ready program allowed collaboration between inventors, venture capitalists and some of our great institutions. I have heard a whisper that the CSIRO could have easily expected about $10 million to flow to it on an annual basis through the Commercial Ready program, before it was abolished. So no longer do we have this $63 million cut; chances are that over the forward estimates it may become more like a $100 million cut. Yet the minister says: ‘I’m the champion of innovation. I am the one to streamline Commercial Ready. I am the one to revitalise the CSIRO. I am the one to revitalise ANSTO.’ Everything he has done in his portfolio is the exact opposite. To hide that fact, he cannot help but become deliberately political in his ministerial statements. Can I suggest that, rather than attacking us in the future in his ministerial statements, he ought to concentrate on his portfolio and also think about doing the decent thing, like giving a vote of thanks to the outgoing CEO of the CSIRO, Dr Geoff Garrett. He deserved to be treated a lot better. (Time expired)