He warned his listeners: "The next budget will be tough because the Howard Government lost sight of the importance of fiscal discipline. As we saw at the last election, it was prepared to spend recklessly. Notwithstanding the fiscal discipline we are imposing on ourselves, we are committed to implementing all our election promises," and then explained that, "By lifting the creative spirit of our people, we will deliver great ideas and innovative solutions for industry, society and the environment."

How was that to be accomplished?

He then recited the generalisations saying that his department will concentrate on:

• capacity – the level of resources and critical mass, both in business and in universities and research agencies, to build the new culture essential to Australia’s global future; plus the policy capacity of government.

• concentration – research centres, where researchers work together; and one-stop centres for business to gain access to new ideas, and services to bring them to reality.

• connection and connectedness – collaborative links between industry and research institutions, that will bridge the innovation gap, and bring together the agents in the innovation process. This will include “hubs and spokes” linkages within the university and broader research sector.

• creativity – forging an environment that’s optimal in terms of the synergies essential for innovation outcomes of the highest impact and quality.

But he sought to allay fears expressed in some academic quarters saying: "...I [do not] advocate that university researchers ought to forget about basic research – and concentrate exclusively on a narrow definition of commercial work."

Then similarly to Brendan Nelson's announcement following the 2001 general election, Senator Carr will institute a series of reviews, "Because the Rudd Labor Government is committed to evidence-based policy, we will begin with a substantive review of the policy settings."

However, it must be remembered that the Coalition had been in power for six years before John Howard had told his lieutenant to go forth an conquer.

There is to be a "review of the national innovation system [which] will identify regulatory barriers to innovation; assess the complex array of current programs against agreed priorities; find ways to simplify the system and reduce duplication; and identify gaps and weaknesses.

• It will identify a set of principles to underpin the role of the public sector in innovation.

• It will look at strategic linkages between research and the commercialisation of research and the extent of university-business partnerships.

• It will identify areas in which innovation drivers and processes have not been studied in depth until recently - particularly the services sector.

• Through the review, this Government will develop national innovation priorities to complement the national research priorities. These two sets of priorities will provide the framework for our national innovation system – one which will ensure that the objectives of research programs and other innovation initiatives are complementary.

There follows a restatement of the the policy outlines Labor promised prior to the election with regard to support for additional training places, post graduate awards and so forth.

However, Senator Carr did not lift the cone of silence as regards revitalising the university sector, or what changes were envisioned for the role of CSIRO.

In speaking with The Australian's Brendan O'Keefe today he said that it was too early to provide details of what changes might be made to the R&D concessions, but added, "Our overwhelming objective is aimed at rebuilding the national innovation system... The prime function of the new program is aimed at achieving cultural change, of improving the relationship and understanding between the public and private sectors. It would be wrong to see the program as discrete and isolated."

Mr O'Keefe was none the wiser with regard to the Research Quality Framework -- it would be scraped, some sort of metric based system would replace it, there would be appropriate individuals consultation.

"We will use the next year as period to bridge-build consensus around metrics in the humanities and performing arts," Senator Carr said, and continued, "I have called for a brief from the department. We are not going to act precipitously ... readers should be under no misapprehension that we will implement policy in full. We want to replace the RQF with a rigorous, obviously transparent arrangement that is internationally recognised to be of the highest quality."

The Higher Education Endowment Fund would be retained, but the Senator would not elaborate except to say that he and Julia Gillard were "talking about the way in which the allocation mechanism should work".

As for the Australian Research Council, which Dr Nelson and then Ms Bishop had placed increasingly under ministerial pressure, there would soon be an announcement on "preserving the independence of the ARC," and he added, "We will [also] restore public benefit as a fundamental objective of the [Cooperative Research Centres (CRCs)]."

All things considered, as the time for bringing down the budget approaches, it should become apparent just what sort of a commitment Kevin Rudd's government will make toward undoing the damage 11.5 years of John Howard's rule had wrought to the fabric of Australia's higher education and research sectors.