News & Views item - October 2011

 

 

 Senator Carr Praises Science -- Parkes Observatory to Have Budget Cut of 40%. (October 15, 2011)

As a fine example of the old proverb fine words butter no parsnips* compare the address of the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr at the awarding of the Prime Minister's Prizes for Science on October 12 with the article by Rosslyn Beebe in the October 14 issue of The Canberra Times.

 

Senator Kim Carr, Federal Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research Ms Rosslyn Beeby, Science and Environment Reporter The Canberra Times

In June this year I stood before the international science community to reaffirm Australia's commitment to host the Square Kilometre Array – a telescope ten thousand times more powerful than any in existence today.
 

I made this pledge on our nation’s behalf.

 We offer you the chance to excel in science.

We can be an epicentre of new knowledge in the twenty-first century.

We will not compromise our commitment to discovery.

We will not apologise for our ambitions for progress.

I am proud to reaffirm that pledge tonight, in the presence of Australia’s newest Nobel laureate.

Professor Brian Schmidt is a classic example of that commitment to the rigorous methods of science.

To hold true to your observations, when every orthodoxy tells you the numbers can't be right.

To repeat the experiments, and double-check the calculations, day on day and year on year.

To collaborate and compete with the best in the world.

To make and justify your claims in the halls of peer review.

To strive to know the world, that we might remake it for the better.

These are heavy expectations to set for yourself – or to ask of others.

But they are not simply the standards we apply to Nobel prize winners.

They are the hallmark of every man and woman who signs up to the quest for knowledge.

Astronomers and engineers. Chemists and historians. Research leaders and lab assistants.

It is researchers of every age, of every discipline, working with government and industry to build a better world.

I have called this our compact with the research community.

We will back you with the best kit the country can afford. We ask, in return, for the wherewithal to help our people. To cure the sick. To build better factories. To save the planet.

No matter your quest, and no matter your skills, you are united by the same basic principles. Excellence. Integrity. Transparency. Results that stand the test of global scrutiny.

These commitments matter, as we have understood since the earliest days of the Enlightenment.

They mark the divide between fact and opinion, evidence and assertion, science and humbug.

That does not mean we look to science for absolute truth.

Doubt and uncertainty are part of knowledge, not separate from it.

The greater your expertise, the more qualified your scrutiny, the more chinks and inconsistencies you see.

Science does not dismiss those gaps – it probes them relentlessly.

But it does not hand out prizes for people who think they can fly.

It does not demand that we delay action until all doubt can be absolutely erased.

It asks only that we act in full knowledge of the best available evidence.

All progress comes with risks and benefits, and our choices have not always proven wise.

But few Australians would trade the opportunities they enjoy today for the conditions their parents took as given.

The microchips. The modern communications. The cancer cures. The chance to see the world, and change it for the better.

These were once the dreams of the wealthy. They are now the expectations of working people.

We are the custodians of that legacy – and we must have the courage to believe we too are capable of great things.

It seems there are many who lack that courage today.

We are living in an age where it seems increasingly fashionable to question not merely the evidence, but the very legitimacy of science itself.

Some would have us retreat to the caves of mediocrity, convinced we can be no better.

Others would choose the absolute conviction of radio shock jocks to the qualified doubts of scientists.

It is easy to trade on fear.

It is hard to invest in hope.

But that is the choice we must persuade our people to make, if we would be a nation fit for the twenty-first century.

I trust that this ceremony, and the phenomenal people it honours, will renew our commitment to that task.

We can be the place where the world excels – and Australians can be the people who feel the benefits.

              The Dish seeing stars over budget cuts

One of Australia's best-loved science icons - the Dish radio telescope at the Parkes Observatory - will have its budget slashed by 40 per cent to meet a $15 million shortfall in CSIRO's astronomy budget.

The cut, which will see at least 13 skilled jobs lost at other facilities, comes less than a week after Australian astronomy gained global headlines, with Canberra astrophysicist Professor Brian Schmidt awarded a Nobel Prize for his research.

The Dish was used to broadcast more than two hours of live, televised footage of the Apollo moon landing to the world in 1969, after NASA officials decided the Parkes Observatory had the best quality images of the historic event.

The news of budget cuts, job losses and eventual winding down of operations at Parkes has shocked staff, coming just days after CSIRO chief executive Megan Clark and CSIRO astronomy chief Phil Diamond visited the observatory as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations.

The cuts will also affect the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder telescope project, with 10 skilled engineering jobs to be lost at CSIRO's Australia Telescope National Facility at Marsfield in Sydney. The project is part of a joint bid by Australia and New Zealand to host the world's largest and most sensitive radio telescope, the $2.5 billion Square Kilometre Array, in the West Australian desert. The CSIRO Pathfinder will be a key contributor to the international effort to design and develop the array. South Africa is also in the running to host the SKA, with a decision on the location to be announced early next year.

A spokeswoman for Federal science minister Kim Carr said the potential job losses at CSIRO would not affect Australia's bid to host the international radio telescope.

''We do not comment on the internal operations of CSIRO,'' she said.

''However, the jobs in question are related to the finalisation of the construction of the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder project. This is a normal part of any construction project. It is not correct to state that this will impact on Australia's bid to host the SKA, as all of the infrastructure being planned in support of the SKA is still being delivered.''

Dr Diamond confirmed staff were told of cost savings and job cuts via a video ''state of the nation address'' outlining future directions for CSIRO astronomy and space science. The cuts reflected a 10 per cent blow-out in costs related to building the Pathfinder project in Western Australia.

Dr Diamond said there would be no job cuts at Parkes, but operations would be wound back, with the eventual aim of remote operation of the telescope. The operation of the Mopra telescope, near Coonabarabran, would also ''be outsourced'', most likely to a university, he said.

CSIRO Staff Association president Michael Borgas said there was ''quite a bit of anger at Parkes'', after staff were told the cuts were chiefly due to high labour costs in WA linked to the mining boom.

''We are not seeing real growth funding for CSIRO. What we are seeing is innovation and creative ideas constantly stifled by penny-pinching, and the shifting of any risk down on to staff, with inevitable job cuts.''

 

 

 

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*According to the OED: the first written reference,1639: “Faire words butter noe parsnips”.