CHIEF SCIENTIST NOT HAPPY WITH LABOR’S INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE CUTS
19-October-2011
Science Minister Kim Carr has suffered another humiliation this morning – with his own Chief Scientist indicating his displeasure with the Government’s abolition of Australia’s main international science program.
At a Senate Estimates hearing this morning, Chief Scientist Professor Ian Chubb said he was “building up to it” when asked if he intended to express his concern directly to Mr Carr about the axing of the International Science Linkages Program.
Extraordinarily, Mr Carr intervened in the questioning to protest that he had not terminated the nine-year-long, $94 million program – even though he decided to end the program’s funding in June this year. Under further questioning, Mr Carr was also forced to admit that no replacement program had been introduced.
The cessation of the program has already attracted criticism from across the Australian science community, including from the Australian Academy of Science (AAS).
AAS Secretary for Science Policy, Professor Bob Williamson, said in May this year that “the scientific links that we make with colleagues in other countries are the glue that maintains Australia's connections and prestige in the rest of the world … without a linkage program … our scientists will not be as respected, will not be able to collaborate and will not win a place at research forums internationally.''