SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY TAKEN OUT OF THE CABINET

The Turnbull Government has today removed science and industry from the Cabinet. 

This is only the second time since 1931 we have a Commonwealth Government that doesn’t have a Minister for Science and on both occasions the position has been cut by a Liberal Government.

Malcolm Turnbull talked about the ‘Ideas Boom’ but these actions will lead to an ideas bust.  

The Turnbull Government has shown itself to be completely incapable of improving Australia’s innovative capacity.

 

And taking science and industry out of the Cabinet will continue the state of policy paralysis.

 

Business and industry are still waiting for the Government to respond to:

The FFF (Finkel, Fraser, Ferris) Review into the R&D Tax incentive;

The release of the 2030 Strategic Plan for the Australian Innovation, Science and Research System;  and

The announcement on NISA 2, which was flagged by then Minister Sinodinos nine months ago in the March Estimates.

Now that the Turnbull Government has a Minster for Jobs and Innovation, maybe they will get down to devising a real plan for real jobs for real Australian workers.

To devise a plan the Liberals must reverse actions such as the economic vandalism that drove car manufacturing and its advanced manufacturing jobs offshore.  

Also, stripping science from the Ministry sees little hope for reversing the damage done by the $3 billion in cuts that the Abbott-Turnbull regimes have inflicted on Australia’s science, research and innovation community.