Julie Bishop, After Three Months of Inaction, Fobs Off Mathematicians' Plea Onto Assistant. (March 28, 2007)

     In a remarkable display of arrogance, even for her, the federal Minister for Education, Science and Training, Julie Bishop, continues to dismiss the pleas of Australia's academic mathematicians  and statisticians to consider the evidence that teaching and research in these disciplines is in crisis at tertiary institutions.

 "We had hoped there might be some response [to the national review reporting a decimation of maths departments and warning of a "collapse in research capability"] from the Government in time for the May budget but we haven't had any official response," Hyam Rubinstein, the University of Melbourne mathematician who chaired the review's working party, told The Australian's Bernard Lane.

Jan Thomas, another member of the working party, and Executive Officer of the Australian Mathematical Science Institute, met yesterday with Ms Bishop's science adviser, Jade Sharples, worried that the minister's budget plans would focus chiefly on schools.

Ms Thomas summed up her message, "If we don't fix the problems in the universities, we don't have the teachers, and that affects every parent in the country."

Clearly Ms Julie wasn't impressed; she told The Australian the maths review, carried out under the auspices of the Australian Academy of Science, was "being considered in the budget context". She said the Government already had programs to promote maths and science in schools, and as for universities, they should "implement long-term work-force management strategies to ensure they are able to cope with the anticipated level of retirements due to the ageing of the population."

While Ms Bishop takes refuge in berating the universities for financial mismanagement, Ms Thomas says simply about $25 million is needed to kick-start a recovery in maths and statistics: $20-odd million for university departments and about $3 million to expand programs run by the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute.

Is it going to be provided?

Certainly not while Prime Minister John Howard is calling the shots.

Fact is Jan Thomas was fobbed off to talk to the messenger's messenger.