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News & Views item -
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The following text is the summary assessment by Peter Pockley, senior correspondent for Australasian Science of the 2007/08 Federal Government's "major support for Science and Innovation through the budget and other appropriations".
Table 1 [of the 7 page document] gives the game away.
Over all portfolios, there is an increase of $171.9 million in 2007-08 over the "estimated actual" for 2006-07; i.e. 2.7%, almost exactly the rate of inflation.
As for "boosts", the % Total Australian Government Expenditure is 2.83% for 2007-08, a small DECREASE on 2006-07 of 2.89% and 2005-06 of 2.84%.
In other words, the increase for CSIRO ($54.4 million in this table) has been at expense of reductions elsewhere.
Mystifyingly, given the hype about increased funding for medical research, NHMRC and Other Health expenditure drops from $911.7 million in 2006-07 to $550.7 million in 2007-08.