It is bad
enough that the Liberal Government does not have a Science Minister and has
treated the research of climate scientists with disdain and contempt,
apparently preferring the climate science of a nineteenth century poet. But
funding cuts for the CSIRO would be immensely damaging for Australia’s future.
We need a focus on innovation and applied science that the CSIRO is world
renowned for. It is one of Australia’s genuine competitive advantages, and it
needs to be protected and encouraged, not reduced and diminished.
And it is about
time we stopped cutting funding for Government agencies through the use of the
euphemism of “efficiency dividends”, when agencies are already required to
become more efficient each year in order to meet the needs of a population
which is now growing by 1.8%, and grew by over 400,000 people last year. Any
agency which services a population growing at such a rate, with a budget which
is only increased by the CPI to take inflation into account, is by definition
becoming more efficient and should not be penalised with additional cuts.
The Prime
Minister says the government should be judged by its performance in the area of
science, rather than whether it has a Science Minister. Its treatment of the
CSIRO Budget will indeed enable its performance to be judged.
This Medieval distrust and condemnation of scientific thinking is about allowing and supporting "business as usual" model. It can't continue with scientific approval or endorsement. Mouths and evidence contrary must be shut down. Climate change evidence, and the toxic impacts of population growth, can't be allowed to stifle GDP growth, and industries such as mining, logging, housing growth, and resource commodities. The only way is to remove their funding, and grapple blindly with the "challenges" ahead - in ignorance. Australia is entering the dark ages of being gagged, and blindfolded. Nothing is more important in these times as trade, economic growth, and GDP - at all costs!
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