Scientific dissent should flourish as the Labor Government promises a new deal and an end to intimidation of researchers, according to Innovation Minister Kim Carr.
Senator Carr told the National Press Club yesterday that the Howard government's "cultural wars" had extended to science and research, noting that the fact that current Opposition Leader, Brendan Nelson, "chose to intervene on 10 separate occasions at the [Australian Research Council] on block grants without reason ... suggested that there was a level of intimidation against our researchers".
"There were situations in the CSIRO and a number of other leading research agencies where scientists were totally corrected and felt intimidated," Senator Carr said.
His proposed charters and funding compacts would make for a more open environment. "You can't do that when people are hiding their views," he said, acknowledging that this would be "uncomfortable from time to time" for him as minister.
"That's life ..." he said.
"After a decade of intimidating political correctness, many scientists have lost the will to speak out. It's essential that they find it again."
Pledging that the Government relished debate and welcomed the contest of ideas, he said, "Creativity and dissent are critical to the innovation process."
Senator Carr revealed that Ziggy Switkowski had offered his resignation as chief of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation upon the change of government.
Senator Carr, who clashed strongly with Dr Switkowski last year over nuclear-power generation, said the resignation offer had been appropriate but that Dr Switkowski enjoyed his full confidence.
"They're not employed to agree with me personally on every issue," he said. "They're employed to do a job for the statutory authority and work within the law. And I've got no reason to believe that Ziggy has done anything contrary to that."
Senator Carr pointed to the reorganisation of his attendant bureaucracy now the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research as evidence of change.
"The first thing you should notice here is that innovation comes first it's the portfolio's unifying idea, the air that we breath," he said.
He sought to personalise science, telling the many scientists in Canberra for the Science meets Parliament program that they had "a duty to serve the community that sustains them".
"You can do that by making people richer, or healthier, or smarter, or safer," he said.
"You can do it by finding ways to save our fragile planet.
"And you can do it by filling people's lives with beauty, hope and wonder."
He borrowed the most used phrase of his leader as he sought to explain the benefits of the "very special international project" that is the Square-Kilometre Array, a $2billion venture, the development of which is being backed by a consortium of 46 institutions in 19 countries.
"Why should working families care about a big telescope in the Western Australian desert?" Senator Carr asked, answering that it would lead to high-skill, high-wage jobs for half a century.
"And then there's the James Cook effect the collateral benefit no-one was looking for, the unexpected opportunities blue-sky research like the SKA can create."
Shadow minister Eric Abetz quoted former Science Minister Bronwyn Bishop in branding Senator Carr "a very naughty boy" for trying to take credit for the SKA when the Government was yet to furnish any funds for it while the Howard administration had put up more than $100million.
"As Science and Research Minister, Senator Carr should know that attempting to take credit for someone else's work plagiarism is a most serious offence," he said.
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