THE ABC has not explained why it failed to mention the Coalition’s plan to invest $20 billion in medical research in a prime-time television program that aired repeated criticisms of government funding cuts.
But Nobel laureate Peter Doherty, the most outspoken panellist on Monday’s Q&A, has acknowledged the omission was an “oversight”.
Funding was a recurring theme for the panel, which also featured fellow Nobel winner Brian Schmidt, Boyer lecturer Suzanne Cory, young science entrepreneur Marita Cheng and chief scientist Ian Chubb.
The program attacked science funding cuts in this year’s federal budget, including $75 million from the Australian Research Council and cuts to CSIRO and the Co-operative Research Centres program.
Professor Cory said the Coalition was “fiscally irresponsible” not to invest more in research, while Professor Doherty said Australia was the only advanced country to actively reduce science funding. His exhortation to “change the government” triggered a round of applause from the audience.
The one-hour program contained no mention of the $20bn Medical Research Future Fund also proposed in the budget. Q&A did not respond to repeated calls to explain the omission.
“I’m quite happy if we can change the thinking in this government rather than change the government, because I don’t know if any of us want to rush back to Labor at the moment.
“They were pretty chaotic and they need to sort themselves out a bit.”
