The 2018-2019 budget includes $2.4 billion for a"science and technology growth plan",$1.9 billion over 12 years for"critical research infrastructure",$300 million on space industry and spatial imagery capabilities,plus $140 million for the next generation of Australia’s super computers,"the spokesman said.
The government’s largest R&D investment is via a tax incentive program,which is 32 per cent of the total $10.3 billion R&D budget this year.
A senior economist,who asked not to be named,said Australia has"a more ideological approach"to science than anywhere else in the world and continuing to waste money on R&D tax concessions is a poor way to fund research.
"The mindset here is[R&D] tax breaks first to the three big sectors – finance,mining and technology – but even the OECD says you should only make those[tax breaks] available to SMEs[smaller businesses] as larger businesses can manipulate their tax activity,"he said."High-performing countries like Israel create an innovation authority and allocate funds for them to do a task,a local example of this is the clean energy finance corporation."
Professor Beth Webster,director of the Centre for Transformative Innovation at Swinburne University,said political interference needs to be cut out of research funding by creating durable research organisations.
"We need to have a more stable platform for these things,rather than just having it highly political and depending on the minister for their ongoing funding,"she said.
"[Politicians] want to put their mark on things rather than be a custodian of a good[R&D] program."
Shadow Minister for Innovation,Industry,Science and Research Senator Kim Carr said the new figures show the effect of"savage cuts to the CSIRO,universities and other agencies since 2013".
"Labor will cooperate with business,industry,universities and research institutes to boost Australia’s investment in research and development,from 1.8 per cent today to 3 per cent of GDP by 2030,"Mr Carr said.
Across all OECD countries,spending on R&D grew by 1.2 per cent in 2016. Businesses paid for about 69 per cent of total R&D in the OECD in 2016. Government R&D plateaued and higher education funding for R&D surged by 3.4 per cent in real terms.
Across the OECD,government budget allocations for R&D increased by 2.5 per cent in 2016,not including the cost of tax incentives for business R&D as these are considered foregone tax revenues rather than expenditure.