LABOR’S R&D STATEMENT A WELCOME CONTRIBUTION – BUT WHICH PARTY WILL COME UP WITH THE DOLLA
October 29 2002
The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) believes the release of the Labor Party’s policy paper on research and development is a welcome contribution to the debate about improving Australia’s R&D capacity, but the real test is which of Australia’s major political parties will come up with the dollars to fund the necessary improvements in this area.
“Labor’s paper is a recognition of the vital importance of R&D to the Australian economy and society, and contains a number of extremely useful suggestions for improving our R&D capacity,” said Dr Carolyn Allport, NTEU President.
“The release of this paper signals a clear consensus between the major parties about the importance of increasing our R&D capacity. The real test now is which party is prepared to bite the bullet and come out openly in support of increased funding for R&D.”
“In particular, funding needs to be increased for the public universities and research bodies such as the CSRIO which host the majority of Australia’s R&D activity.”
“The proportion of university research funding coming from the Commonwealth has dropped from 66% to 55% over the last decade,” said Dr Allport. “An adequately funded public higher education sector is essential to improving Australia’s research effort.”
“To get the most out of Australia’s research capacity, Commonwealth leadership is required to achieve a better balance between public funding and providing incentives for industry to invest in research. The NTEU supports Labor’s idea of establishing a national research bureau within the Department of Education, Science and Training to harmonise the efforts of publicly funded universities, Commonwealth research agencies and industry.”
Other aspects of the paper supported by the NTEU include:
· The need to improve the salaries of our researchers.
· The long overdue recognition that more importance needs to be attached to the humanities and social sciences in our research priorities.
· The emphasis on broader consultation with all relevant stakeholders in the research process, including the general public.
“While the Government’s recent efforts to development priorities for publicly funded research have involved considerable consultation, this needs to be embedded as a permanent aspect of the policy process and more effort needs to be made to bring along the general public,” said Dr Allport.
For information and comment:
Andrew Nette:
NTEU National Policy and Research Officer: 0438026277