Financial Review Debate — Ministry of Research, Science and Technology

It is a great pleasure to speak on the 2009/10 financial review relating to science and innovation, because even this afternoon we had the Minister of Science and Innovation announcing that since 2008, under this excellent National Government, there has been an extra 13 percent increase in investment in science and innovation.

💬 Hon John Carter: How much?

Thirteen percent since 2008. That is pretty good. It is particularly relevant because in the preceding 10 years under the dismal Labour regime there was pretty well static investment.

💬 Hon John Carter: None.

No, there was some, but it was static.

It is important to go through the history a little bit. In 2002 the Knowledge Wave Trust identified a missing billion dollars of investment in this area—if we were to benchmark with our international partners in both private and public sector science and innovation spending—but nothing happened. In 2005, however, the then Labour Prime Minister, Helen Clark, said that investment in science and innovation was critical to the New Zealand economy, but she did nothing—nothing apart from spending lots of money on bureaucracy and heaps of money on non-productive health services. She absolutely mucked up the New Zealand economy, and certainly as a percentage of GDP, if anything, it went from static to going down.

💬 Hon Annette King: What about the Fast Forward Fund?

Well, I will go to that. It was not until the dying days of the Labour Government that Helen Clark put in the fiscally irresponsible tax credit. It was not until the dying days of the Labour Government that she put in that fiscally irresponsible tax credit that basically had every accountant up and down the land licking their lips. That is what the Labour Government did. That is how badly designed the tax credit was.

Thank goodness Prime Minister John Key came to office in 2008, said that science and innovation would be central to his Government, and started doing things. He appointed the Chief Science Adviser, who has been incredibly useful. He launched the very prestigious Prime Minister’s Science Prizes, which have been very, very important in raising the media attention on, and knowledge about, science in society. There was also the establishment and growth of the Primary Growth Partnership, which was far, far better designed than the Fast Forward Fund. It has been extremely successful and, as was pointed out the other day, already an investment of $227 million by the Government will be matched by the private sector, making a total of $475 million invested in our vital primary industries in science. There has been the initiation of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases, which has been one of the vital things for New Zealand to lead on and has been extremely well received by the international community.

The good news goes on and on. The Government has been determined to ensure that we have a lean, efficient science system with low compliance costs. The Foundation for Research, Science and Technology and the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology have been merged. The Crown research institutes have been reviewed, and they are very, very happy with the way things are going. I think it is important to point out that only last week at the Speaker’s Science Forum, Sir Paul Callaghan made a plea to parliamentarians that science funding should be medium to long term and that there should be a degree of collaboration in the approach, because it is very important that science policy is not used as a political tool.

Report noted.

Ministry of Transport

Report noted.

Ministry of Social Development