Nature Reports on "Australian Science Minister Demoted". (December 20, 2011)

Cheryl Jones reporting in  Nature notes that "Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard took Australian science leaders by surprise last week when she demoted her Science Minister, Kim Carr, to a non-cabinet position".

Whether or not the demotion is a political manoeuvre  by the prime minister to attempt to stabilise her position within the Labor Party, its effect on governmental support for research in the sciences and humanities remains a moot question.

Overall Senator Carr received public praise for his tenure as Minister for the science and research portfolios. Michael Gallagher, executive director of the Group of Eight told Nature: "We were very lucky to have had Kim Carr as the minister in research and science," and emphasised the senator's understanding of the nuances of innovation in Australia with its relatively small economy. Mr Gallagher went on to say: "He understood a few things that most ministers and most bureaucrats don't get. The first is that there's no direct, immediate, linear relationship between research output and commercial innovation and employment. Losing Kim Carr means we're going to have to re-educate whoever is going to be around to get them to understand that the innovation system is more subtle, more indirect, more long-term and more haphazard than many assume."

And in representing Universities Australia, the vice-chancellor of the University of Melbourne, Glyn Davis opined that Senator Carr would  "easily rate as one of the best ministers ever to lead the research portfolio".

Nevertheless, it remains to be seen what effect Kim Carr's drive to enforce his version of a retrospective research assessment exercise will have on future research by university staff.