The Commission for the Future or the National Innovation Council or Just Talkin' the Talk. (September 4, 2013)

Just to recapitulate: "Toward the end of 1984 the Hawke Government, Barry Jones as Science Minister, set up The Commission for the Future with much fanfare.. [and] Michael Quinn Patton  of  the Minnesota Extension Service-St. Paul wrote in 1987:  The Commission for the Future represented a visible, nationwide commitment to become futures-oriented. The commission planned its strategies for a year before becoming fully operational in early 1986. 

Five major participatory, public education strategies are being used: conferences, seminars and workshops, public communication through print and electronic media, a clearinghouse on futures issues, and a community-based science and technology network. The goal of the Commission for the Future is "to foster the development of a productive, innovative culture in Australia, and to encourage all Australians to become involved in shaping their future."

John Ross in the September 4, 2013 Australian reports: "The Labor policy reiterates its commitment to implement key findings of Professor Chubb's [Australia's Chief Scientist's] report on a new science strategy, including a National Innovation Council to guide long-term investment."

Meanwhile University of NSW deputy vice-chancellor Les Field told John Ross that support for facilities such as the Australian Synchrotron, telescopes and Antarctic research ships, had "simply fallen off the radar"... This has been a crisis, averted by band-aid solutions for years," he said. Labor's promise to get chief scientist Ian Chubb to review the issue had "put it back on the radar but they haven't said what, if anything, they'll do about it".

So a generation has passed and where do we stand relative to our cohort?

And now we have almost come to the end of having to endure five weeks of an election campaign which to paraphrase a reviewer of Angela's Ashes of many years ago: "I'm not sure which is worse having had to endure the campaigns of the Coalition and Labor or having a root canal job."