Politics,Climate Change and Sundry issues

Politics,Climate Change and Sundry issues
for website listing my blogs : http://winstonclosepolitics.com

Thursday 5 March 2015

Uncertainty over research funding is corrosive, Mr Pyne. Australia needs scientists | Catriona Jackson

Uncertainty over research funding is corrosive, Mr Pyne. Australia needs scientists | Catriona Jackson



Uncertainty over research funding is corrosive, Mr Pyne. Australia needs scientists







By linking higher education reforms to research funding, Christopher
Pyne risks the closure of some of Australia’s most successful research
centres












christopher pyne



‘Last May, the education minister, Christopher Pyne, again found a
last-minute sum – $150m to fund the facilities for 2015-16. The problem
is that the $150m has not flowed.’ Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAPIMAGE



Driving down a brand new highway in Sicily in my teens, I almost went
over the edge when the road simply stopped; no explanation, no
alternative route.



The road was one of many that had been abruptly terminated when the
cash ran out. There were hopes that funding might flow again, but it
hadn’t happened, so the road remained half-built.



Coming from Australia, I found this hard to understand but comforted myself it could never happen at home.


But it may be about to.


Back in 2004, the Howard government launched the national
collaborative research infrastructure strategy (NCRIS). Announcing it,
the then education minister Julie Bishop said it was “essential to build
our national capacity to generate knowledge and use it to advance our
economic, social and environmental objectives”.



She was right. Over almost a decade since, the now 27 flourishing national research facilities have done just that.


They are used by the nation’s top researchers, from all sectors, to
tackle big challenges and and to address the issues that will determine
how successful we are in the 21st century.



These facilities – supercomputers, fabrications facilities,
ocean-monitoring programs – are the basic tools of modern science. They
hold the key to the progress of a modern nation. Without them, we have
no hope of competing with the rest of the world.



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A
tiny snapshot of recent results from NCRIS programs includes a
nano-patch to deliver vaccines without the need for refrigeration,
making an obvious life-saving difference for remote Australians and the
health of our region; use of marine models and data to search for
Malaysian Airlines flight MH370; and the weather-prediction technology
that picked up the recent Northern Territory and Queensland cyclones.



I could go on, but while the NCRIS facilities may not be household
names, everyone seems to agree they are a good thing: building
capability, providing unique and cutting-edge services to industry,
helping to improve lives, making money and creating jobs.



So why worry?


While the facilities have bedded down and flourished, government
funding for operating them has been a little lumpy, the initial
seven-year commitment followed by less predictable terms and amounts.



But, until now, the funding has always come in the end.


Last May, the education minister, Christopher Pyne,
again found a last-minute sum – $150m to fund the facilities for
2015-16 – while initiating a review to identify long-term funding
options. Scientists were pleased with the move and have been supportive
of the review. The final report, which includes a decent set of
recommendations, will be submitted to the government in the next few
months.



The problem is that the $150m has not flowed, nor has a date been set
when it will. In fact, Pyne has indicated it may not be forthcoming
unless his package of university deregulation reforms are passed. Anyone
who has kept half an eye on politics in recent months knows that that
package may not pass at all and is unlikely to pass quickly.



This is a serious problem: the current NCRIS operations money runs
out on 30 June, less than four months away. Without certainty of
funding, staff are already looking for employment elsewhere, crisis
meetings are being held, and some facilities are measuring their
existence in terms of weeks, not months or years.



Research facilities such as these cannot be shut down quickly, a
phased shut down has to be planned for and implemented before the
funding runs out. Some will be expensive, if not impossible, to reopen.



If the government does not move very quickly to release the funds,
there is the very real possibility that a good number of the 27
facilities will close.



It is hard to believe that the government could allow a highly
successful, 11-year, multi-billion dollar capital investment to fall
over for want of an operating budget.



At a showcase for all 27 NCRIS facilities late last year in the Great
Hall at Parliament House, parliamentary secretary Scott Ryan spoke on
behalf of Pyne. He said:



There is no question about the impact NCRIS has in Australia and
internationally. This is well recognised by universities, research
facilities, state governments and industry, with NCRIS projects
leveraging a total of $1bn from across these groups.



The government will safeguard the future of Australia’s world-class
research and research infrastructure, and help prepare Australia and the
world for the challenges before us. I ask you to continue to work with
us in this endeavour.




Scientists want nothing more than to get on with the job of tackling
challenges and grasping opportunities – but they are facing a dead end.
Uncertainty over funding is corrosive, but things are much more serious
that that. If the government does not guarantee the $150m will flow, and
soon, Australia’s research effort will run off the road.



Monday 2 March 2015

Malcolm Turnbull: Rain man

Malcolm Turnbull: Rain man



7 0







Leader of the Liberal Party wets and heir apparent to the
prime ministership, Malcolm Bligh Turnbull is popular amongst
progressives, however Sydney bureau chief Ross Jones thinks he's a drip.




Malcolm Turnbull is a rolled-gold dickhead.



Bright when he was young. Like his opponent, a Rhodes Scholar. Rich,
successful, pumped. Mr Internet. One half of Australia’s pre-eminent power couple.




But a dickhead.



Rough assessment?



Despite the apparently glorious overarching narrative that is Malcolm’s life, even including his 1999 republic disappointment/failure, two events afford even the most casual observer a glimpse directly through the emperor’s clothes — Raingate and Utegate.



A leader does not make decisions like these.



In the week before the 2007 Ruddslide election, reported the ABC's Matt Hoy, when the Libs knew they were gone big time:



'… Mr Turnbull found the time to announce that the Government,
already in caretaker mode, would bankroll to the tune of $10 million the
investigation of an untried Russian technology that aims to trigger
rainfall from the atmosphere, even when there are no clouds.'





Malcolm had another agenda of course.



Requests for interviews with Mr Turnbull, the head of the Australian
Rain Corporation, the head of the centre contracted to test the device
were declined.




So, $10m as caretaker environnment minister on untested hocus pocus. It seems the bucks were destined for associates.





Matt Hoy again:



Emanating from affluent suburbs like Vaucluse, Rose Bay and
Watson's Bay, Malcolm Turnbull's fundraising group the Wentworth Forum,
includes a long list of generous donors including Frank Lowy, Ros
Packer, John Simons, and Matt Handbury, chairman and part-owner of the
so-called Australian Rain Corporation, beneficiary of the Minister's
funding....




Mr Handbury is the wealthy nephew of Rupert Murdoch and chairman
and proprietor of Murdoch Books, which is the headquarters for
Australian Rain Corporation.




The 7.30 Report put to Malcolm Turnbull the following questions:
has Matt Handbury's contribution to your fundraising Wentworth Forum
helped in securing funding for the Australian Rain Corporation?




"There is absolutely no connection," he said "That is an outrageous suggestion".



Secondly, why couldn't the Matt Handbury Swiss consortium pay for its own research?



Response: "The company is contributing funding to the research and trial."



Our final question to the Minister was why should this not be
seen as securing funding for one of your electorate supporters ahead of
an election the Government is tipped to lose?




Mr Turnbull did not directly answer this question ...




Then there was Utegate and Godwin Grech





Poor Godwin. Ended up in care. We can only conclude Malcolm is a poor judge of scam artists.



Make no mistake, Turnbull is as cunning as a shithouse rat. But
he, too, has many barnacles. The Libs would be mad to anoint him.




Here’s hoping.



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Liberal backbencher reveals Abbott government’s $19bn budget gap

Liberal backbencher reveals Abbott government’s $19bn budget gap

Liberal backbencher reveals Abbott government’s $19bn budget gap






Some of the measures in a list of savings worth $19bn over the next
four years are yet to be put to a Senate vote almost a year after the
government’s first budget












Tony Abbott



Tony Abbott during question time in the house of representatives on
Monday. The prime minister has been buoyed by the Coalition’s
improvement in the opinion polls. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP


Savings worth almost $19bn over the next four years – and $112bn over
the next 10 years – have been announced but not legislated by the
Abbott government, parliamentary budget office figures reveal.



The updated budget costings were requested by Queensland Liberal
backbencher Andrew Laming from the independent parliamentary budget
office (PBO) and sent to all MPs and senators.



Some of the measures in the list of savings have been blocked in the
Senate by Labor, the Greens and crossbench senators but others are yet
to be put to a Senate vote, almost a year after the government’s first
budget was brought down.



Laming, who backed last month’s leadership spill motion, said he had
requested the updated costings because he was looking for a summarised
costing of the savings measures not yet passed, and was told the PBO’s
estimates were not up-to-date.



“I asked if they could update them,” he said. “It was an innocent
request. I knew the intergenerational report was coming and it was
useful information. I don’t see why this kind of information should be
confidential if it is available for the debate.”



Labor claimed it was the kind of detailed information an MP would request to assist in planning for an alternative budget.


“Malcolm Turnbull’s supporters have requested this information to
help pull together an alternative budget in case they can knock Tony Abbott off before May,” a Labor spokesman claimed.



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Tony
Abbott was buoyed on Monday by the Coalition’s improvement in the
opinion polls, and remarks for the cameras at the start of a cabinet
meeting where the government’s recent difficulties were high on the
agenda emphasised to ministers that voters did not want to hear about
the party’s internal divisions.



“Every day we are focused on doing the right thing by the people of
Australia and that’s what they expect. They don’t want people in
Canberra worried about themselves – they want people in Canberra worried
about them,” he said.



Putting a positive slant on the long-term figures to be released in
the intergenerational report on Thursday, Abbott said over the weekend
that it would show Australia faced a “big challenge” but also that a
“substantial start” had been made by the Coalition’s first budget.



He said the document would include a comparison of what the budget
would have looked like under the former Labor government’s policies and
how it stands under the current government’s policies – something
previous intergenerational reports have not done.



“The intergenerational report will show where we would have been
under the policies of the former government, where this government is
attempting to go and how far we have already gone,” the prime minister
said on Sunday.



“What the intergenerational report will show is that, yes, we have a
big budgetary challenge – a very big budgetary challenge – but a very
substantial start has been made ... I guess the challenge for all of us
in these times is to show our typical Australian optimism and, yes, we
can look at it and say the glass is half empty, I would always prefer to
look at it and say the glass is half full because I am really pleased
with the very strong start that this government has made to sorting out
the budgetary mess that we were left by our predecessors,” he said.



Among the measures on the list are the government’s higher education
reform package, which the Senate opposes and has set up a committee to
go “back to the drawing board’ to look for alternatives to deregulation
and changes to Medicare that the government has been progressively
abandoning. Cabinet was on Monday night considering a plan to abandon
the proposed $5 cut to the Medicare rebate as well as the
already-abandoned cut to the rebate for short consultations.



Also on the list are plans to freeze eligibility thresholds or rates
of most government payments and the plan for a less generous indexation
rate for the pension and carers payment.



THE INSANITY OF A DATA RETENTION WHICH BREACHES HUMAN RIGHTS.
Cartoon by DAVID POPE.