3rd Dec 2020, 12:17 PM – Senate Motions - Scientific Research - Reflect

The majority voted in favour of a motion introduced by Queensland Senator Gerard Rennick (Liberal), which means it passed. Motions like these don't make any legal changes by themselves, but are politically influential because they represent the will of the Senate.

Motion text

That the Senate—

(a) recognises that:

(i) there are many approaches to epistemology, including rationalism, empiricism and scepticism,

(ii) data backed up by robust quality assurance is the recorded evidence that scientific theory often relies on,

(iii) all hypotheses and theories should be tested against observations that are measured and recorded consistently and accurately,

(iv) data that does not demonstrate cause and effect is open to scrutiny, and

(v) as attributed to the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics winner, Richard Feynman, 'I would rather have questions that can't be answered than answers that can't be questioned'; and

(b) calls on the Senate to reflect on these principles when reviewing scientific research and considering policy.