STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator PAYMAN (Western Australia—Australia's Voice Whip) (13:52): Charles Darwin once wrote: It is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science. By extension, it is often those who understand the least who rush to arrogate credit for the work of scientists while simultaneously restricting their ability to do that work.

Just a few weeks ago, after Australian scientist Richard Robson won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the Minister for Science proudly declared: This is the sort of research that advances the Albanese government's Future Made in Australia agenda. And yet, barely a week later, we learned that the government plans to cut funding to the Australian Synchrotron in Melbourne and the Lucas Heights Reactor in Sydney.

This government is eager to insert itself into any news story about Australian scientific success but doesn't want to do any of the work required to get there. The instruments of these facilities play a huge role in local and international scientific discoveries. The Sydney Morning Herald reported: … they've been used to design lightweight fire-fighting suits, tackle antibiotic resistance and explore new ways to treat inoperable brain cancer … At a time when American scientists are fleeing Trump's America, we should be opening our doors to recruitment, funding innovation and backing our brightest minds.

Instead, we're looking at job cuts, stalled research and a slow suffocation of our scientific potential. For 50 years, CSIRO funding as a share of GDP has steadily declined, indicating that successive governments have failed to capitalise on Australia's ability to innovate. While the minister's statement celebrating the Nobel Prize ran to just over 300 words, all SMH could get on the record from the minister was that he was 'aware of the cuts'.