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Increase Australian Scientific Research Funding |
7 Signatures |
Published by Gilbert on Feb 17, 2008
Category: Science & Technology
Region: Australia
Target: Government
Description/History:
In 2006, the then incumbent government cut CSIRO's already strained funding, causing jobs to be lost and research and development to slow. The CSIRO has been noted for such achievements as AAS (atomic absorption spectroscopy), gene splicing technology and the polymer banknote.
Although such achievements may be significant, Australia is behind the rest of the developed world in some areas. For example, Australia successfully built and opened their first synchrotron very recently. Prior to the construction of this facility, Australian scientists were required to travel all the way to America to run experiments that necessitated the use of a synchrotron. Other countries have had similar facilities since the 1950s.
Another example, Australia generates over 75% of its electricity from coal, and is the largest greenhouse gas emitter per capita in the world. Approximately 200 million tonnes of Carbon Dioxide are produced by Australia each year through electricity generation. We have only one nuclear power plant, which is used for research, yet have 30% of the worlds nuclear fuel reserves. Renewable sources of energy only contribute 7% of the electricity to the grid.
The European Union are targeting to invest 3% of their GDP (which totals US$15 trillion), some US$450 billion into scientific research and development per year by 2010.
Australia invests AU$900 million per year into CSIRO, just 0.1% of our US$750 billion GDP. The fact is that people do not mind paying taxes, just that they would prefer it be spent on something useful. The 30 billion dollar tax cuts dished out by the Government could rather have been put into scientific R&D, $5 billion dollars per year for six years. That would have been a start.
Not only does CSIRO struggle with their low funding, they also have to defend against high cost lawsuits brought upon them by such companies as Microsoft, Dell, and Apple because they do not want to pay out royalties for the use of wireless network technologies in their products, a patent for which was filed by CSIRO in 1996. A legal case such as this would have costs running into $100 million, which ultimately reduces CSIRO's funding by over 10%.
Furthermore, if one were to look up countries who have space agencies, they would find that Australia has not achieved human spaceflight, nor do they have space launch capabilities. Australia are not even listed as a satellite operator.
Australia is falling behind, and desperately needs to catch up.
Although such achievements may be significant, Australia is behind the rest of the developed world in some areas. For example, Australia successfully built and opened their first synchrotron very recently. Prior to the construction of this facility, Australian scientists were required to travel all the way to America to run experiments that necessitated the use of a synchrotron. Other countries have had similar facilities since the 1950s.
Another example, Australia generates over 75% of its electricity from coal, and is the largest greenhouse gas emitter per capita in the world. Approximately 200 million tonnes of Carbon Dioxide are produced by Australia each year through electricity generation. We have only one nuclear power plant, which is used for research, yet have 30% of the worlds nuclear fuel reserves. Renewable sources of energy only contribute 7% of the electricity to the grid.
The European Union are targeting to invest 3% of their GDP (which totals US$15 trillion), some US$450 billion into scientific research and development per year by 2010.
Australia invests AU$900 million per year into CSIRO, just 0.1% of our US$750 billion GDP. The fact is that people do not mind paying taxes, just that they would prefer it be spent on something useful. The 30 billion dollar tax cuts dished out by the Government could rather have been put into scientific R&D, $5 billion dollars per year for six years. That would have been a start.
Not only does CSIRO struggle with their low funding, they also have to defend against high cost lawsuits brought upon them by such companies as Microsoft, Dell, and Apple because they do not want to pay out royalties for the use of wireless network technologies in their products, a patent for which was filed by CSIRO in 1996. A legal case such as this would have costs running into $100 million, which ultimately reduces CSIRO's funding by over 10%.
Furthermore, if one were to look up countries who have space agencies, they would find that Australia has not achieved human spaceflight, nor do they have space launch capabilities. Australia are not even listed as a satellite operator.
Australia is falling behind, and desperately needs to catch up.
Petition:
We, the undersigned, call on the Australian Government to increase funding for the CSIRO and other research institutes (e.g. WEHI, Monash University) so that Australia may contribute more to society and lead the way in the field of scientific and technological advancements.
Our target is to have the Government put aside 3% of our GDP (the same target that the EU has proposed for themselves), a sum of AU$24.8 billion per year, towards scientific and technological research and development by the year 2010.
Our target is to have the Government put aside 3% of our GDP (the same target that the EU has proposed for themselves), a sum of AU$24.8 billion per year, towards scientific and technological research and development by the year 2010.
The Increase Australian Scientific Research Funding petition to Government was written by Gilbert and is hosted free of charge at GoPetition.
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