PRIME MINISTER

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PRIME MINISTER’S PRIZES FOR SCIENCE

GREAT HALL, PARLIAMENT HOUSE

WEDNESDAY 12 OCTOBER 2011



It is wonderful to gather with you tonight to acknowledge some great  achievements in science and science teaching.

But while these awards are prestigious, I am prepared to concede that there is  one among us tonight who can claim an even more impressive laurel.

Please join me in welcoming and congratulating Australia’s newest Nobel  laureate, Professor Brian Schmidt.

Brian, you join a select order of Australians - you can count our living Nobel  laureates on the fingers of two hands.

Congratulations to you - and to your colleagues including fellow Aussies Dr  Brian Boyle from CSIRO and Professor Warrick Couch from Swinburne.

An achievement of this kind in a field like astrophysics leaves us genuinely  grasping for superlatives.

I don’t often congratulate a person for “redefining our understanding of the  universe” but that is your achievement.

I know you likened the excitement of winning to your children being born.

It’s a good analogy because new knowledge is like new life:

It changes our world forever.

Congratulations on behalf of the whole country, Brian.

Friends, 2011 is UNESCO’s Year of Chemistry, so it is perhaps appropriate  that our public debate this year has been dominated by a humble molecule  comprising one carbon and two oxygen atoms.

No one can say science doesn’t matter in politics.

Not in 2011.

This year the urgency of embarking on our clean energy future have all  brought science to the centre of national debate.

And bringing science to the centre of national debate has brought scientists to  the centre of national debate, and that is as it should be.

Malcolm Turnbull warned against the “war on science” that has developed in  many quarters.

On this issue I stand with Malcolm and politicians of goodwill from all sides  who know that science should never become mere collateral damage in a  wider political and cultural battle.

So the nation has relied on our scientists to counter the non-science and the  nonsense that has been so widely aired.

Many scientists have done so, and done so bravely.

It is courage which I know warms the heart of my good friend and  predecessor as Member for Lalor, Barry Jones, who honours us with  presence here tonight.

Barry began talking about climate change in 1984, noting that the basic laws  of science which explain global warming had been understood for over a  century.

This was old science and good science.

We have long known that greenhouse gases are central factors in trapping  and retaining heat in the atmosphere, and that as those greenhouse gases  increase so does the rate of global warming.

From that simple truth comes a simple obligation: to act.

We act for the future.

Because it is those who will live in the latter part of this century and beyond  who will increasingly feel the effects of the greenhouse gases we emit now.

People who are only children now, or who are not yet even born.

As Barry Jones points out:

“Posterity, notoriously, has no vote.”

We must act for them.

Listening to the science.

Listening to the economics.

And translating them into an achievable plan of action for a clean energy  future to avoid the dangers Barry spoke about nearly 30 years ago.

That’s the true meaning of today’s vote in the people’s House.

We’re going to turn words into deeds.

Scientific imperatives into Australian law.

In short:

We’re going to get this thing done.

And in getting this done, I believe we’ll also achieve a renewal of our own  capacity to act.

Reminding ourselves that the age of reform is not over, and learning anew  that there’s much we can do together in public life when we combine creativity  with confidence.

When we persist in the rightness of our course.

Creativity, confidence, persistence - these are necessary virtues.

Not just in the endeavour to act on climate change.

But necessary virtues in all our nation’s scientific endeavours.

We do look to science to answer fundamental questions about our universe.

So the Giant Magellan telescope project and our Trans-Tasman bid to host  the square kilometre array are setting the standard for international  collaboration in astronomy.

Yet in doing all that, science is also building a richer, fairer, cleaner, safer  Australia in the here and now.

A richer Australia.

Through the productivity dividend from scientific research such as that we are  seeing from Professor Ian Frazer’s Gardasil and John O’Sullivan’s Wifi which  is predicted to earn upwards of $1 billion for the CSIRO.

A fairer Australia and a fairer world.

Giving us the answers to questions behind problems like sustainable  development and food and water security, matters high on the agenda at  CHOGM in two weeks in Perth, just as they will be at the G20 in Cannes in  November.

A safer Australia.



Through advances as diverse as vaccines to protect us from new risks to  biosecurity and body armour which keeps our young people alive as they fight  terrorism for us.

A cleaner Australia.

On this continent, we are surrounded by perhaps the greatest barometer of  changes to our climate, the ocean.

This is why the Australian Government is investing in a new research vessel  and integrated marine observing system through the Super Science initiative.

To help us better understand our role as custodians of such iconic marine  parks as the Great Barrier Reef and Ningaloo Reef.

Great endeavours - among so many more I could name.

And these great endeavours always and ultimately rest on public support.

Public funding for science is the base of the pyramid, we understand that.

That’s the origin of the 2011 Strategic Roadmap for Australian Research  Infrastructure recently announced by Minister Carr.

The roadmap will further develop Australia’s research capability and improve  innovation and research outcomes over the next five to ten years.

I saw during the week the observation that a roadmap is no good without a  car to drive on it.

Now I suppose I have been making weak puns about Kim Carr and his  passion for autos for most of my adult life so I am not one to complain.

But seriously, I would say this:

We’ve increased funding for science, research and innovation across  government by 43 per cent since 2007.

Over just four budgets, funding has gone up by nearly half or around three  billion dollars extra.

That investment has achieved, among other things:

Ã¢Â’ A massive renewal of scientific research infrastructure through the  Education Investment Fund;

Ã¢Â’ New support for mid career scientists and researchers through the  Future Fellowships program;

Ã¢Â’ And record funding for the CSIRO.



In tough fiscal times, it is an achievement of which the whole scientific  community can be justly proud.

You can be equally proud of our appointment of Professor Ian Chubb as Chief  Scientist, and of Professor Chubb’s plans to advise on the health of Australian  science and science education.

No-one hires Ian Chubb unless you want to get some pretty frank advice, let’s  just put it that way.

He is a voice for science in Government, don’t doubt that.

And Professor Chubb’s advice will be crucial to how we plan to secure a  future supply chain of researchers and scientists.

And this is where our teachers are so critically important.

Government can provide the curriculum and the resources.

But only the commitment of our science teachers can light the lamp of  knowledge in the young.

You find the passion for learning in the child, you draw it out.

That is what the Latin root of the word educate means - to bring forth or draw  out.

From the primary school classroom to the Nobel Prize, that gift of learning  never leaves them.

And it’s time to appreciate that gift anew because in this century of change,  vast parts of the scientific landscape are still uncharted.

Every kind of human endeavour, every branch of human knowledge, will be  required to chart this landscape and to find our path.

Last week many Australians gathered in Parliament House for the Tax Forum  and Future Jobs Forum.

But while they came to talk specifically about tax and jobs, they were  essentially here to talk about the future of our country.

So they spoke about growth in knowledge, about creativity with purpose,  about innovation; about advanced manufacturing and the jobs of the future.

So they spoke about you.

About science and scientists, about teachers and researchers.

Andrew Liveris, the Chairman and CEO of one of the world's largest  manufacturers, Dow Chemical Co, even called on us to “fall in love with  science again”.

Australians like to pretend to be pragmatic and our scientists like to pretend to  be matter of fact.

But I believe our nation has a romantic heart.

We cherish our heroes and never forget our villains.

So of course, we’ll always remember Ned Kelly and honour Betty Cuthbert.

But science also takes its place in our great national romance.

And so we also remember Hargreave and Farrer, Florey and Fenner.

To which we add names like Doherty, Stanley and now Schmidt as well.

They represent and exemplify this great body of men and women, dedicated  to the highest ends in life:

Ã¢Â’ who build a community of reason in which good policy thrives

Ã¢Â’ who live to add to the sum of human knowledge

Ã¢Â’ who prepare the future we will all come to inhabit one day.

In congratulating the recipients and nominees for the 2011 Prime Minister’s  Prizes for Science, I honour each of you here tonight, and your colleagues at  home and abroad.

Never has your work been more important.

Never has your work been more valued.

