In around a fortnight, Treasurer Jim Chalmers will hand down the 2024–25 Budget.
The financial forecasting and proposed expenditures are eagerly awaited by many Australians – including the Australian Academy of Science, which has long been calling for a comprehensive review of the research and development (R&D) system. This is critical to inform a long-term investment roadmap needed to turn around the decline in R&D expenditure in our country.
In our pre-Budget submission in January, we outlined the pressures our country faces, including from: increasingly extreme weather events; an urgent need to decarbonise; a workforce with inadequate skills for a digital world; threats to national security, global food security and water supply; and how the solution to each of these is underpinned by science.
This month, we reiterated that call in response to the Prime Minister’s announcement of the intention to legislate a Future Made in Australia Act – noting there is a fundamental link between science and economic development.
A future ‘made in Australia’ cannot be realised with a science system that is not fit for purpose, which relies on decades-old settings, and where we still have not identified our capability gaps – let alone planned to address them to meet our national ambitions.
In mid-April, the announcement of a global coral bleaching event by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – coming amidst widespread bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef – was a stark reminder that scientific evidence must inform our decisions, and the need for bold, collective action.
The Academy has also provided a statement to the Senate Environment and Communications References Committee inquiry into Australia’s extinction crisis, where we advised that the situation facing Australia’s threatened species is dire, and there is a clear need for legislative reform to avoid entrenching the failures of the current, broken framework.
This month also held positive news – with the Australian researchers who are addressing these challenges being recognised by the Academy’s honorific awards. Enjoy learning about their work improving monitoring efforts for the Great Barrier Reef, establishing global community-based treatment programs for tropical skin infections, creating nanoparticles that respond in precise ways to light and heat, and much more.
And locally, it was lovely to see such interest in the history of Canberra’s heritage-listed Shine Dome. The Academy’s tours at the end of the month – involving Fellows and Secretariat staff sharing fascinating secrets from the construction of the unique building to the present day – were completely sold out.
Enjoy this April edition of the Academy newsletter.
Professor Chennupati Jagadish AC PresAA FREng FTSE
© 2024 Australian Academy of Science
