For science, the 2015 federal budget is merely a continuation of 2014. The damage that was done has not been undone.
The same threats and uncertainty continue. Behind all the hollow words of support, there is no substantial recognition of the value of science for the knowledge that it brings, for its role as a driving force of economic growth and innovation, or for the empowerment that it gives to individuals to understand and shape a 21st-century future for themselves.
As Australia’s Chief Scientist, Ian Chubb, has pointed out, almost every OECD country has a plan for the strategic growth of its scientific enterprise and to facilitate its translation into technology, innovation and economic development. Every country, that is, except Australia and Portugal.
Australia, instead, will bank the nation’s long-term prosperity on a boost to small business spending on items under A$20,000 encouraged by some tax breaks.
The wrangles around the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Scheme (NCRIS) – the A$2 billion system of national research facilities – is symptomatic of the gaps in the government’s understanding of science, how it works, and the impact of decisions on it.
Prior to the 2015 budget, it took a concerted public campaign to bring home the level of destruction that the government was about to unleash by apparently regarding NCRIS funding as a tool for brinkmanship.
All very Yes Minister
Following the budget, the price of a mere two-year extension of funding was revealed as aA$300 million cut to university research block grants. This is a version of the Yes Minister comedy in which the hospital is built but no patients admitted. We have saved our research infrastructure by cutting the funds that support its use, in a form of budget cannibalism.
And does the government really think that the highly skilled staff on which NCRIS relies, having been roused by the spectre of a near-death experience, will stick around to see what will happen in two years time? The global mobility of expertise is a hallmark of the 21st-century global economy. Some prompt action will be required following the NCRIS review to avert this new form of brain drain.
The past two budgets seem to be channelling a commonly held but misguided view that basic science research is a luxury that can be cut back in hard times. But what about the translation of science research into innovation and economic growth? For most developed countries this is an imperative. For Australia, with the collapse of its mining income, you would have thought it even more critical.
The government, through its minister for science, claims that the 2015 budget reflects a strategic aim to “create stronger connections between research and industry and maximise Australia’s competitiveness”.
This is an extraordinary statement from a government that has not only slashed funding to the CSIRO over the past two years, but cut its key university-industry program, the Co-operative Research Centre (CRC) program, by A$80 million in 2014 – or around 20% – and then a further A$27 million in 2015.