John Watson (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today in the Mural Hall the Minister for Education, Science and Training, the Hon. Julie Bishop MP, awarded the Australian Research Council’s Federation Fellowships to 25 world-class researchers. The Australian government will fund this program by $41.5 million over five years as part of its commitment to innovation, Backing Australia’s Ability. The research covers such matters as developing new drugs to combat mental illness; explosives detection; understanding Australian climate variability; developing polymers to improve quality of life for people with heart implants, neuromuscular disorders and spinal cord injuries; and identification of success and failure of peace building in the Pacific and Asia. This is not by any means a complete list, but it shows the sorts of research being undertaken in Australia.

The research of the 25 federation fellows consists of 24 per cent in the area of biological sciences and biochemistry and 24 per cent in the division of physics, chemistry and geoscience. The fellowships reflect the Australian government’s commitment to supporting excellence in research, attracting and retaining world-class Australian researchers in key positions and creating new rewards and incentives for the application of their talents in Australia.

I am told that unfortunately only eight per cent of applicants were women, a matter that I believe needs to be addressed. Maybe many professional women at that age are involved in child rearing, as 84 per cent of successful applicants were 40 years or older and many professional women delay having children until their late 30s.

Minister Julie Bishop in her address remarked that all of the fellows since 2003 were role models, as indeed they are. The challenge to me is to ensure that this role model status is conveyed to younger people. Perhaps one approach could be to make it mandatory for the lectures to be presented to undergraduates in the universities of these various fellows. An alternative could be for a booklet to be distributed to secondary school students to quicken their interest in research. This would require funding, perhaps through the Australian Research Council, which provides the federation fellowships, or the Department of Education, Science and Training.

The tax reforms announced this week will provide some encouragement for Australians with high skill levels and high incomes to stay in Australia and encourage others to return. Globalisation is very evident in the program, with much of the support staff for these researchers coming from distinguished universities around the world. Australia appears to be becoming increasingly attractive because of our university skills base. Perhaps cheaper airfares and phone charges are also factors in attracting the best of the world to our highly regarded Australian universities.

As a Tasmanian I welcomed the success of Professor Paul Haddad from the University of Tasmania in his research field of analytical chemistry. His project is: ‘Separation science based on nanoparticle-coated monolithic scaffold stationary phases’. His work will aim to generate new intellectual property with extremely high international commercial potential. I congratulate Professor Haddad and I thank the Senate.