FASTS Releases Its Submission Regarding the Federal Budget 2006/07. (December 21, 2005)

    The Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies (FASTS) today released its submission to the Federal Treasurer with regard to the 2006/07 federal budget.

The executive summary states:

Science, engineering and technology (SET) are fundamental to Australia’s future economic, environmental and social development.
 

The nation’s SET base is a significant driver of productivity growth and the evidence linking investment in science and high public and private economic, social and environmental returns on investment is well established.
 

Australia has a high quality science base and are global leaders in a wide range of biomedical, climate change, mining, agricultural, ICT, astronomical, materials, environmental sciences and many other areas of fundamental science.
 

However, there are key challenges that must be addressed if Australia is to fully leverage its capabilities; including

• more sophisticated approaches to supporting the multiple pathways to adoption of knowledge including commercial use;

• developing more effective modes of knowledge transfer between universities and industry and the community, including rapid migration of PhD graduates into industry;

• developing the capacity for high level strategic analysis of the directions of Australian science;

• forging stronger linkages between science, business and venture capital;

• addressing science skills shortages in specific areas (eg statistics) and

• strengthening the quality of science teaching.

FASTS point out that the proposals in their submission are not intended to be a comprehensive policy agenda but rather, offer some suggestions to build on the Government’s existing policy frameworks as articulated, primarily, in Backing Australia’s Ability and Backing Australia’s Future.

They make the initial observation that although "the Australian economy has been characterized by a long period of sustained GDP growth FASTS are concerned that even though this growth has occurred during a period when our terms of trade have been highly favourable we have had persistent deficits in our balance of trade. This was $1.33b seasonally adjusted in October 2005 and 2.5% of GDP."

And the Federation concludes that "If, as expected, commodity prices come under pressure in the next few years, then the necessity to better leverage our SET base will become a greater imperative."

To download the full 10 page submission click here.