The Barnett government has been criticised by one of its own advisers for failing to show commitment to the fields of science, technology and innovation.
The Barnett government has been criticised by one of its own advisers for failing to show commitment to the fields of science, technology and innovation.
The criticism was led by Charles Morgan, who has resigned as chairman of the Technology and Industry Advisory Council, just three-and-a-half months after being appointed.
Mr Morgan is a company director and investor who has backed numerous oil and gas and technology ventures over the past two decades, and has personally invested in medical research in WA.
He told WA Business News he was very sad to have resigned the post and was worried about the future of science and innovation, which is in the hands of John Day, the third minister in the past year.
Mr Morgan said he had just one meeting with Mr Day over the past three months, and therein lay part of the problem. “There was nothing, there was just a vacuum,” he said.
Mr Morgan said he was concerned about a lack of money in the state budget for science and innovation, but was also concerned about a lack of support for the new operating model he wanted for TIAC.
“I wanted it to be involved, to be much more proactive. That was the whole point about the mix of business and science people,” he said. “But the over-arching thing is that, at times of prosperity, the government should have a plan to get a lasting benefit.”
Mr Morgan’s resignation comes after an extended period of reviews and restructuring in the science and innovation sector, extending right back to the Labor government.
Successive ministers grappled with the existence of two bodies, TIAC and the Science & Innovation Council, which had been providing policy advice for more than a decade.
The Barnett government commissioned the Canberra-based Centre for International Economics to conduct a review, and the result of that was the halting of TIAC and plans for a new, combined advisory body.
Mr Morgan was brought into the fold in December 2009, as chair of an interim advisory board. The interim board produced a report, titled From Strength to Strength, which spelt out an innovation plan for WA, starting with a strategic vision for the year 2020.
That work came to fruition in December 2010, when the serving minister, Bill Marmion, established a new TIAC. Mr Marmion displayed enthusiasm for the sector, personally interviewing all of the TIAC members, which include business executive John Poynton, senior Chevron executive Colin Becket, WA’s chief scientist, Lyn Beazley, and Nobel Laureate Barry Marshall.
One week later, Mr Marmion was shifted sideways in a ministerial reshuffle that handed responsibility for science and innovation to planning minister John Day.
This week, Mr Day’s office issued a statement, which Mr Morgan criticised as being misleading. The statement said TIAC “has only recently been established”, and that From Strength to Strength was published on their website within the past month.
Mr Morgan said the report was completed a year ago and had been with the minister. “He received that document the day after he became minister. He had it in front of him in our meeting two months ago,” he said.
The minister said investment in the areas of science and innovation would be addressed through the budgetary process. “Once we have got this year’s budget delivered and out of the way, then I think we will be in a strong position to work out an agreed strategy,” he said.
Opposition spokesperson Kate Doust said Mr Morgan’s resignation reinforced Labor’s concern that science and innovation was being neglected.
“This is yet another example of a resources-focused government that chooses to remain blind to the importance of exciting new industries and research opportunities in our state,” she said.
