At an awards ceremony for the nation’s leading scientists, Malcolm Turnbull has promised to build an Australia that “invests in science and puts it right at the centre of our national agenda”.
The prime minister said he wanted to build an ecosystem in schools and universities that cherishes science – and provoked a standing ovation. It was a far warmer response from the assembled scientists than the “desultory applause” that Tony Abbott complained of receiving at the same event last year.
Turnbull handed out two $250,000 prizes at the prime minister’s prizes for science in Canberra on Wednesday night, including the first award for innovation in the history of the event.
Graham Farquhar, an Australian National University academic, won the prime minister’s prize for science for work that has changed our understanding of photosynthesis – the biological process that maintains life on Earth. He has also shed light on why evaporation rates and wind speeds around the world are slowing.
Graeme Jameson, of the University of Newcastle, took out the prize for innovation for creating a technology that produces trillions of bubbles that retrieve small coal particles. It is worth $26bn to the resources industry.
“We have to be, and we will be, a country that invests in science and puts it right at the centre of our national agenda,” Turnbull told the scientists at the parliament house awards dinner.
“We play a critical role in getting the basic settings rights, we play a very important part but we can’t simply flick a switch to create an innovation nation. We have to fund targeted programs with a clear policy rationale.
“It’s a great honour for me, not just to be prime minister, but to be your prime minister, to be the prime minister that says that science is right at the centre and the heart of our national agenda. Not just that, it’s at the heart and very centre of our future.”
He said Australia must become a “more scientifically literate community” if it is to deal with changes in economies and technology around the world that is happening at a pace “unprecedented in human history”.
Farquhar said he raised a “plea for the depoliticalisation” of climate science with Turnbull and got a positive response.
“He was quick to take my meaning and agree,” he told Guardian Australia. “I’m a bit allergic to statements like ‘I believe in climate science’ or ‘I don’t believe in climate science.’ Those are scientifically weird statements to make. You have to respect the scientific method.
“I was encouraged by what [Turnbull said]. I have never seen a standing ovation like that. The interaction raised expectations that there will be some investment in science.”
Farquhar said he is concerned at the dumbing down of the teaching of mathematics in Australia and said more work needed to be done to convey the euphoria of scientific discovery to young people.
Turnbull promised to implement the science, technology, engineering and mathematics blueprint created by Ian Chubb, Australia’s chief scientist. The plan, aimed at boosting research and links with bodies overseas, would remedy a situation where Australia is the only leading economy without a science or technology strategy.
The Coalition has endured a patchy relationship with scientists since it came to power in 2013; it decided to cut the CSIRO’s budget by $111m over four years and removed a further $75m from the Australian Research Council, which funds much basic science.
Complaints over a lack of a dedicated minister for science were dismissed by Ian Macfarlane, the previous industry minister, as coming from “precious petals” in the scientific community. And the government’s commitment to climate science has been questioned after Abbott tried, and failed, to investigate the Bureau of Meteorology’s data gathering.
Other prizes given out at Wednesday’s ceremony included the $50,000 Malcolm MacIntosh prize for physical scientist of the year, which went to Cyrille Boyer, who uses light and chlorophyll to create new polymers.
The $50,000 Frank Fenner prize for life scientist of the year was won by Dr Jane Elith, for her work in creating distribution models for species, showing the spread of species such as the cane toad.
Sydney teacher Ken Silburn won the $50,000 prime minister’s prize for excellence in science teaching in secondary schools while Rebecca Johnson won the $50,000 award for science teaching in primary schools for her work at a state school in Logan, south of Brisbane.
