Bills Digest No. 159 2003-04
Australian Institute of
Marine Science Amendment Bill 2004
WARNING:
This Digest was prepared for debate. It reflects the legislation as
introduced and does not canvass subsequent amendments. This Digest
does not have any official legal status. Other sources should be
consulted to determine the subsequent official status of the
Bill.
CONTENTS
Passage History
Purpose
Background
Main Provisions
Endnotes
Contact Officer & Copyright Details
Passage History
Australian Institute of Marine
Science Amendment Bill 2004
Date
Introduced: 3 June
2004
House: House of Representatives
Portfolio: Education, Science and
Training
Commencement:
Royal
Assent
The purpose of this Bill is to add a member nominated by James
Cook University (JCU) to the Australian Institute of Marine Science
(AIMS) Council and to change the name for the head of AIMS from
Director to Chief Executive Officer .
Background
The proposed extra AIMS Council member is an expression of
Government policy encouraging increased collaboration between
Commonwealth science agencies and universities. While there are
already many examples of collaboration at the research level,
policies are being designed to encourage even more synergy, in
management as well as at laboratory level. In the case of AIMS, the
Bill applies the principle of collaboration at the highest level in
an important research agency. Especially before the advent of
Cooperative Research Centres, there was insufficient Australian
collaboration between research agencies and university researchers,
for example, in contrast to the collaboration between Germany s
Fraunhofer Institutes and German universities.
Coincidentally, AIMS and JCU have recently negotiated a separate
cooperative agreement, an initiative known as the AIMS@JCU Joint
Venture. Representation of JCU on AIMS Council will help to
facilitate the Joint Venture, although the two moves are not
formally linked.
The second measure in the Bill brings AIMS into line with the
common usage designation Chief Executive Officer as used, for
example, in CSIRO, the Australian Research Council and the National
Health and Medical Research Council. This will assist in developing
professional relationships between AIMS and other
bodies.(1)
New paragraph 12(1)(a) (inserted by
Item 1 of Schedule 1) provides
that the AIMS Council shall include a member nominated by James
Cook University.
New subsection 16(2) (inserted by Item
5 of Schedule 1) provides that the member
nominated by James Cook University will cease to be a member if his
or her nomination is withdrawn.
Item 17 amends section 21 so
as to provide that there shall be a Chief Executive of the
Institute (rather than a Director).
Item 19 amends section 23 so
as to provide that the affairs of AIMS shall be managed by the
Chief Executive (rather than the Director).
- The Hon Peter McGauran, Minister for Science Second Reading
Speech Australian Institute of Marine Science Amendment Bill 2004 ,
House of Representatives, Debates, 3 June 2004 p.
29630.
Rod Panter and Jennifer Nicholson
17 June 2004
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ISSN 1328-8091
© Commonwealth of Australia 2004
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Published by the Parliamentary Library, 2004.
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