Kay Patterson voted very strongly against maintaining or increasing CSIRO funding

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) in December 2007, the Prime Minister, Mr Rudd, said that the government believe that ‘climate change represents one of the greatest moral, economic and environmental challenges of our age’,

(ii) on 6 February 2008, the Minister for Finance and Deregulation, Mr Tanner, announced funding cuts to climate-related programs, including $3 million from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation’s Research Vessel Southern Surveyor, $6 million from the Biodiversity Hotspots program and $42 million from the Renewable Remote Power Generation program, and

(iii) in 2007, the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology in Sydney calculated that perverse subsidies supporting fossil fuel industries amounted to between $6.4billion and $7.2billion in the 2005-06 financial year; and

(b) calls on the Government to phase out perverse subsidies to the fossil fuel industry and to reverse its decision to cut funding to research into climate change science and renewable energy programs.

That the Senate—

(a) notes:

(i) the announcement by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) that it will redirect its energy research work away from renewable energy towards ‘cleaning up’ coal, a priority of the Australian Government,

(ii) a breakthrough in solar energy technology, developed by the CSIRO and a private company, with a turbine that has the potential to replace coal-fired power stations in 20 years, and

(iii) that the CSIRO has had to look offshore for investment funding to advance its work on the solar turbine technology; and

(b) calls on the Australian Government to re-prioritise its policy and funding objectives to provide more support for renewable energy so that Australian breakthrough research is not forced offshore for further development and commercialisation.