Dr Joe Baker, President, FASTS
The Stocker Review
FASTS has formally advised the Minister of its broad support of the major recommendations of the Stocker Review and has urged the Government to adopt some of the less contentious aspects immediately. Our support covers:
We would like other measures adopted too, but some of these cost money and Government has shown little enthusiasm for others. For instance, Stocker joins the chorus of criticism levelled at Government by industry and science groups about its lack of vision. FASTS would welcome any steps towards articulating a preferred vision for what Australia will develop to in the 21st century. Then S&T can analyse how to support that vision.
John Stocker’s Review of the way S&T is organised in Australia has been referred to an IDC to be reported by the end of September and Minister McGauran expects to begin discussing implementation with his colleagues from early October.
Stocker picked up a number of FASTS’ issues, such as the lack of vision within Australia for S&T and the need to offer industry greater incentives to undertake R&D. I gave the Review and its 30 recommendations 8 out of 10, given the time-frame and the constraints of its terms of reference.
The Review re-affirmed the CRC Program, at a time when Government seems to be walking away from election commitments to maintain funding.
Stocker recommends a chief science adviser should be appointed in all Portfolios with significant S&T responsibilities, and this seems a sensible coordinating device. Currently only the Department of the Environment has such a position.
Toss Gascoigne and I met with John Stocker on August 19 to discuss the progress of his Review, the Mortimer Report and likely topics for PMSEC in December.
FASTS’ June Board meeting
The Board raised a number of concerns, all in the context of a sharp downward trend in the Government forward budget estimates for S&T (eg, in health research current spending of $174 million is projected to be cut to $131 million in 2000–2001).
Specific Board issues included a DEETYA report indicating a 3.5% decrease in undergraduate science enrolments. This decrease has been compounded because a number of universities lowered their TER entry scores.
Concern was also expressed over the lack of action on school issues, with the suggestion that the emphasis was on testing rather than maintaining standards. And the Board decided that FASTS needed to build better links with industry.
New Vice-President
Dr Geoff Hudson, President of the Australian Geoscience Council, has been elected Vice-President. He takes over from Richard Arculus, whose commitments overseas have made it difficult to contribute the way he would have liked. Geoff’s appointment is until the AGM in November.
Popular science
A recent AGB McNair survey showed that twice as many Australians want to read about science rather than sport or politics, and that science beats crime and unemployment as a popular media topic.
I have written to the editors of Australia’s top media outlets urging them to give greater coverage to science, and have already made an appointment to discuss the matter with one editor. I will also be writing to Presidents of all Member Societies on this, urging them to be proactive.
Meeting with Democrat Senator Stott Despoja
FASTS’ secretary Chris Easton, Toss Gascoigne and I met Senator Natasha Stott Despoja, Democrat spokesperson on S&T matters, and her science adviser Dr Charles Lawson. We had a good discussion on a number of matters: the taxation of post-graduate scholarships, the West Review of Higher Education, women in science, and differential HECS fees.
Mortimer Review
The future of the Cooperative Research Centres is looking less rosy with a 3% efficiency dividend being applied from 1997–98, and a reduction of funding foreshadowed in the Budget’s Forward Estimates.
Now the Mortimer Review report ("Going for Growth") has emerged. The CRC Program, which has been internationally admired as a model for bringing research and industry together, comes in for harsh judgement. Recommendations of an overall budget cut for the program from $146 million (1997–98) to a maximum of $20 million were made.
This Review has been greeted by general applause from the business community, and FASTS joins them in supporting recommendations which set the right climate for growth. Clear systems to encourage a whole-of-Government program to support industrial development and investment are admirable objectives. But his recommendations on basic research and ecologically sustainable development are not backed by argument or analysis to justify the recommendations.
Mortimer sets unjustified target earnings from external sources for researchers like CSIRO (50%), the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) (both 37%), and the universities (50% increase by 2005). The net effect would be to diminish the fundamental and strategic research efforts of our national research institutions, in the quest to lift external earnings. In ten years the intellectual capital of bodies like CSIRO could well be exhausted.
The recommendation to wind up the Rural Industries R&D Corporation (RIRDC) and the Land and Water Corporations (including LWRRDC), and those on the sustainable management of natural resources are similarly flawed.
In the recommendations on R&D, the Review’s thinking leaves no room for direct Government funding for capacity building. There is little long-term vision in such an approach, and FASTS cannot stand by and watch any wholesale dismantling of the public research effort. I have specifically sought involvement of Presidents of Member Societies in preparing a response to the Mortimer Review.
In our formal response to this Report, FASTS is sharply critical of the recommendations relating to public research institutions such as CSIRO, AIMS, ANSTO, the Universities, the CRCs, and to sustainable natural resource management.
I believe that Mortimer’s arguments were not supported by evidence, and that his assessment was shallow and ill-informed. I have since written to David Mortimer, asking him to explain the basis of his reasoning.
The Review is available on the web at
http://www.dist.gov.au/events/Mortimer/index.html
(or through the "Going for Growth" button on the DIST home page) or in hard copy from Government bookshops.
FASTS’ President-elect Peter Cullen and Past President Graham Johnson met David Mortimer in September to discuss FASTS’ converns about his report.
New Affiliate Member
I am delighted to announce that FASTS has a second Affiliate Member, the Scientific Suppliers Association of Australia. The SSAA represents companies supplying research and industry with instruments and materials, and its 100 plus members have a gross turnover approaching $1 billion annually.
State S&T policies
State Governments are becoming more aware of the role S&T can play in wealth creation and solving environmental problems. Victoria has joined WA in announcing an S&T policy, and other states are showing similar interest. The States are showing the Commonwealth Government the way. Despite criticism from industry, business and S&T groups, the Commonwealth has been resistant to the idea of establishing a national vision, and setting out a clear role for S&T in helping realise this vision.
Perhaps the combined weight of advice from the community and commissioned reports from Mortimer, Stocker, and the impending Goldsworthy Review of IT will persuade the Government to act more decisively in this area.
Science Careers Proceedings
The Proceedings of the Forum on Science Careers were launched by Minister McGauran in Canberra and Melbourne on July 22 and July 31 respectively. The Minister addressed groups of young scientists in both centres and welcomed "any suggestions" which might solve the problems young scientists find when they seek careers in research. For those with suggestions on careers, the Minister’s fax number is 02 6273 4150.
PMSEC December 10
The next PMSEC (Prime Minister’s Science and Engineering Council), scheduled for 10 December, has the tentative title of "Science, Engineering and technology for employment". Obviously it will focus on the capacity of S&T to generate jobs.
FASTS’ suggestions have been incorporated into the program for the day, and President Joe Baker has been invited to comment on the main document to be presented to the PM and his colleagues for discussion. The PM has shown a strong commitment to PMSEC. While it provides a valuable occasion for Cabinet Ministers to meet with leading figures from S&T, the reforms suggested in the Stocker Report add value to a day which is important to the science community.
Meeting with former Science Minister
Toss Gascoigne and I met with S&T Minister McGauran in August, to discuss FASTS’ response to the recent Stocker Review and Mortimer Report.
The Minister said that the Mortimer Report will not be considered by Cabinet until mid to late October. He hopes to weave consideration of the Stocker Review in with the Government’s response to Mortimer. The Minister made the point that all the reports and inquiries commissioned by this Government into the CRC Program were an appropriate and normal examination of a program established by the previous administration. He said he was pleased that there was to be a further review of the CRCs (an examination of their commercial aspects). It will be by an inter-departmental committee (IDC) of DIST and the Department of Finance.
The IDC’s terms of reference are the scope for increased commercialisation and self-funding within CRCs. The IDC review will effectively take the CRCs out of the Government’s consideration of the Mortimer Report. Their future would instead be determined early in 1998, in the context of a pre-election Budget. The Minister advised CRCs to go about their business quietly and to stop lobbying, and expressed quiet confidence in their future.
I am not sure that I share Minister McGauran’s optimism. The CRCs are in an interesting position.
If they are supported too stridently by their industry partners, the economic rationalists in Finance and Treasury will say: if industry finds this such a valuable program, then they won’t mind funding it. Government is naturally suspicious of any research organisation expressing confidence in one of its programs. That’s a sign the program is being too generous.
One key message for the CRCs to get across to Government is that the research and commercial linkages would not have happened unless the CRC program had brought the partners together.
The Program has to act as a bridge to link groups which have traditionally found it difficult to get together: industry, universities, and Government R&D agencies. Another very positive aspect is the involvement of community leaders in CRC boards.
It will be an interesting (and uneasy) period for CRC Directors, and one in which they may feel less than relaxed and comfortable. My strong recommendation is that CRCs should aim to place "good news stories" on CRC outcomes with all media outlets in the next three to four months.
New Science Minister
The modification of John Moore's ministerial responsibilities to directly include science, technology and industry offers some interesting possibilities for the science and technology community.
It gives science and technology a direct voice in Cabinet discussions, a position FASTS has long advocated and specifically recommended to Mr Howard in 1996.
Our view is that S&T are pivotal to a number of the biggest portfolios, such as Education, Environment, Primary Industry, and Telecommunications; and that only a strong direct advocate in the Cabinet room will enable Australia to gain full benefit from the work of its scientists and technologists.
The arrangement should also strengthen the connection between science and technology, and industry. This has been the weak link in Australia: we have many clever ideas, but the role of industry in developing them and bringing them to the benefit of the community has been significantly below standards reached by comparable nations.
The downside is that we have lost an enthusiastic and accessible Minister in Peter McGauran, at a crucial time for science and technology and for its interface with industry.
His departure threatened to set back the process of developing new and better policies in science, technology and industry, and consideration of several major reports, including the Mortimer Report, the Stocker Review, and the Goldsworthy Report.
Minister McGauran had also been a strong supporter of the Marine Science and Technology Plan, and it will be important to maintain the momentum of this initiative.
By selecting Minister Moore to fill the gap, the Government has found a neat solution to the changeover problem as well as boosting the presence of science and technology in major Cabinet discussions.
It remains now to be seen how responsive the Minister is to the policies and ideas formulated by grassroots scientists and technologists.
We hope to be able to address him directly on issues of interest to members at the FASTS' Council meeting in November, as well as meeting with him before that date.
Fifty Members
With the Australian Society for Parasitology joining FASTS last month, we celebrate our 50th Member. This is a cause for celebration, but we need to extend our coverage as widely as possible to validate our claim that we represent the working scientists and technologists of Australia. I am writing to a range of Societies and other organisations to invite them to become Members.
Council November 20
Council this year will consider a revised Policy Document, to be released early in the new year, when the Government will be considering its pre-election Budget—an excellent time to remind them of the value of funding S&T institutions.
The current document was launched shortly after the current Government came to power, and many things have changed in that period. It is time to revise our priorities and look at new opportunities and new areas of concern.
Some things have not changed: the need to fund infrastructure in universities, and the impending shortage of qualified teachers of mathematics and science. Other issues have emerged or gained greater emphasis, such as the difficulties young scientists have in establishing a career in research, the very real threats to the CRC program, and the need to work out the next generation of programs to support industrial R&D.
CRC inquiry
DIST has invited FASTS to make a submission to the inquiry being conducted jointly by DIST and the Department of Finance.
The review will make recommendations on ways the CRCs and the CRC Program can be refocussed to become stronger commercial entities, by attracting private sector financing and reducing the call on public sector funding.
Submissions have to be lodged by 31 October, and the review is scheduled to be delivered to Government by 30 December.
This fits the Budget timetable, and it seems that the future of the CRC Program will be dertermined in the Budget to be brought down on May 12 next year. This means that decisions will be made in November–December this year.
Inquiry into Institutes of TAFE
FASTS has been invited to make a submission to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Training on the appropriate roles of institutes of technical and further education; and the extent to which these roles should overlap with universities. Jan Thomas is drafting our submission .
ANZAAS
The news that ANZAAS was moving to close down its operations was extremely disappointing but not altogether unexpected.
Their problems were well documented, but perhaps it is still possible to build a new coalition which involves other groups as well as ANZAAS to carry on their work of promoting science and communication among scientists.
The objectives of FASTS include promoting the public understanding of science, and enhancing and facilitating communication in the scientific community.
I believe that any proposals for a successor to the ANZAAS Congresses can only succeed if they are solidly supported by the broad science community. While FASTS has yet to take a formal position on the matter, we will be part of any such discussions.
Former President of FASTS Graham Johnston, a member of ANZAAS, has set up a web site to promote informed discussion on its future. The site already contains press reports from Robyn Williams, Leigh Dayton and Graeme Leech, plus the ANZAAS accounts, a report of the AGM, and the ANZAAS constitution.
The URL of the site is: http://www.usyd.edu.au/su/pharmacology/anzaas
Additional health research funds
Board Member David Tracey attended a meeting of the Australian Society for Medical Research (a FASTS' Member), at which the ASMR unveiled plans to lobby Government.for increased medical research funds.
The ASMR has employed Protocol Management Group to manage their campaign to increase the health and medical research budget.
This is of course a pre-election Budget, when Governments tend to be most receptive. The FASTS' campaign will be built around the revised policy document, and the "Ten Top Policies" as identified by Council and the Board.
Chemistry conference
I was delighted to see that the RACI will host the 38th Scientific Congress and 41st General Assembly of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) in 2001.
Professor Peter Andrews, Chair of the IUPAC 2001 bid, said that the decision to hold these meetings in Australia demonstrates the tremendous esteem in which Australian chemistry is held internationally, and is a clear signal to Australian governments and Australian industry that we have all of the chemical strengths needed to develop the new high technology export-oriented industries on which our future prosperity will depend.
How FASTS can help
FASTS works constantly with Ministers and the Opposition parties, and the science media. Member Societies might like to make use of this expertise.
Executive Director Toss Gascoigne can help Members make contacts in Canberra, and has worked with Member Societies on media releases, policy launches and correspondence with Ministers.
PO Box 218, Deakin West, ACT 2601
Phone:02 6257 2891, Fax:02 6257 2897
Email: fasts@anu.edu.au
Web address: http://www.usyd.edu.au/su/fasts/
Editors’ note: With the change in Science Minister in late September, and the proposed winding-up of ANZAAS, some of the information in these excerpts may be a bit out of date.