From:	gerhard@dove.net.au
Sent:	Monday, 30 October 2000 6:37 PM
To:	Senate EWRSBE Legislation Committee
Subject:	Australian Research Council Bill 2000
The Secretary ,
Senate EWRSBE Legislation Committee
S 1.61 Parliament House,
Canberra 2600
<eet.sen@aph.gov.au> 

30th October 2000

Australian Research Council Bill 2000.

Dear Secretary,

Our Federal Government's policy of subjecting public institutions of
teaching and research like universities and CSIRO seems misconceived.
These institutions have to produce work of high quality while they are
subjected to  profit oriented competition for funds to underwrite their
existence.  This is misconceived.  To obligate these research centres to
perform the Research and Development functions (R&D) for the corporate
sector, amounts to subsidised services to the latter.  It also neglects the
need for such institutions to provide the independent research into
externalities from commercial processes that has to be done in the broader
interests of the nation.  

To the extent that corporations do not now have to do their own R&D and
product development and get the use of publicly owned laboratories and
staff at prices that only count the running cost of producing the research,
leaves the fixed costs of research facilities to the public.  Also left out
of the cost accounts is the fact that research done for commercial
interests displaces the availability of these facilities to do fundamental
research.  Thus, the maintaining and broadening of the national knowledge
base that used to be the duty of these public facilities, is replaced by
providing subsidised research services for commercial interests.  

It has to be recognised that there are two basic categories of R&D that
have to be performed by any advanced nation like Australia.  The first is
the development of technological product that properly used to be the
province of commercial interests.  These bodies are interested in their own
commercial viability and success.  They make the profit, so they should do
their own innovation and development.  Outsourcing can only impair the
quality of the research, since no external researcher can be fully
conversant with the whole of the commercial implications.  

The other kind of development is the fundamental research that used to be
the province of publicly funded bodies. The possibility to make financial
profits directly as a result of that research is limited, if not
nonexistent.  It is in the nature of understanding of the ways of nature
and how earth reacts to the economic exploitation of resources and impacts
of industrial processes, that this fundamental research often turns out to
be a direct impediment to commercial exploitation.  One cannot expect that
the corporate sector would pay for such knowledge which rather benefits the
nation diffusely than produces concentrated profits.  

It is important, however, that both are done.  Fundamental and
environmental research is as important as commercial process and product
development.  The former, being in the interest of the nation, must be in
the hands of the public sector.  There is therefore a direct need for
public funding of that research sector.  If there is not, then the
knowledge base of the nation withers.  There must also be no impediment to
the nature of such research.  Since it will have to focus on the
externalities of commercial processes, so that they can be recognised and
appropriate measures taken to internalise them, it is imperative that such
publicly funded research exists. 

Commercial development has to be seen for what it is.  It is the taking of
mineral and fuel resources from the earth, the conversion of these
resources into commercial product and the making of profits out of that
process.  This is then followed by the elimination and jettisoning of the
dross from production and finally of the unserviceable scrapped product.
It is therefore proper that commercial production produces enough profit to
pay for all of its own activities.  If it cannot cover these costs, then
commercial activity loses its reason for existence and should be
discouraged.  

The aspects of generating employment are given prominent emphasis in the
form of "job creation" by commercial interests.  However, if these
interests are not held responsible for funding their own externalities, the
jobs they create often cost the nation more than the direct subsidisation
of people's existence from the public purse.  Thus recent British research
into the consequences of respiratory complaints like asthma in the
population, from blowing off particulate matter with particle sizes between
10 and 1 microns from high temperature incinerators and chemical fumes like
dioxins from using residues as industrial fuels, shows that these external
costs are born by the people, while they are indeed an externality of
commercial processes.   If these are the consequences of the jobs thus
generated, then costs like asthma remediation should be borne by the
commercial sector.  Only publicly funded facilities can make that
connection.  The case of asbestos litigation should be a suitable reminder.  

Research into these factors cannot be done by profit oriented institutions
that have to generate the funds for their own existence out of the
corporate sector.  It is proper that governments facilitate such research
out of the "duty of care for their people".  Governments should emphasise
such endeavours, to underpin the high quality of their administration.  

I apologise for not addressing the specific proposals of the Inquiry, but
hope that the principles outlined above show the need for the existence of
research facilities at universities and CSIRO that are properly funded from
the public purse.  This need arises from both, the nature of the research
and the benefits for the nation as a whole, that is produced by such
institutions.  They cannot be made dependent on funding by commercial
interests.  Commercial R&D is the proper province of the commercial
interests that reap the profits.  It should not be done by public research
establishments.  Such subsidy of profits is inappropriate.  

Yours faithfully,  

Gerhard Weissmann, 
Chartered Engineer, B Tech, M Env Studies, MIEE.  
23 Ada Street,  Adelaide 5000, Tel/Fax 08 8223 5209,
email: <gerhard@dove.net.au>