News & Views item - January 2007

 

 

Labor's Shadow Minister for Science, Senator Kim Carr, Makes a Statement but Doesn't Tip His Hand. (January 4, 2007)

The Labor opposition's Shadow Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr, yesterday issued a lengthy statement "Science failure undermines industry" in which he berates the Coalition government of John Howard for "failing to keep pace with our OECD competitors in the training of maths, science and   engineering qualified people."

 

And he pointed to the fact that the number of Australian Year 12 students enrolled in science according to the last available figures was 106,922 in 2005, compared   to 146,602 in the year 2000, and that "in the past decade, mathematical science departments at our Group of Eight universities have lost a third of their permanent staff, according to our leading mathematicians."

 

He then quoted extensively from National Strategic Review of Mathematical Science Research in Australia, in itself a matter of interest because as yet no member of any other federal political party has publicly cited the review.

 

The Shadow Science Minister went on to say, "Australia's science failure undermines our capacity to train skilled workers, weakens our apprenticeship programs, and our professional and para-professional training programs.  It also undermines our national research and development capacity and weakens our  international competitiveness... [In addition a]ccording to the Australian Government's Review of Teaching, Australia now has the oldest  teaching workforce it has had in 40 years.  Increasing numbers of  teachers are approaching retirement age, and they are not being   replaced in sufficient numbers by suitably qualified people."

 

Senator Carr concluded, "We now have the ludicrous situation where a science graduate working in a school classroom is paid the same rate as other teachers, yet faces a much higher HECS debt as a direct result of the Howard Government's decisions."

 

Now it just remains for the Senator and his colleagues to enunciate just what they are gonna do about the problems should they become elected later this year, and how they will set the priorities for dealing with the hand they will wind up being dealt.

 

Click here for Senator Carr's media release.