A new Commonwealth Science Council led by Mr Abbott and including the education, industry and health ministers, the Chief Scientist, five business leaders and five eminent scientists will replace the Prime Minister's science council. Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane and Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Tuesday. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen And in further changes that form the basis of a $400 million industry policy announced by the government, Australian regulators will accept international standards for some product approvals to reduce red tape. That money comes in addition to a $200 million commitment to boost vocational training and apprenticeships announced last month. The Prime Minister said he was keen to explore a trial of an industry-linked Pathways in Technology Early College High School, or P-TECH type-school, like the one he visited in New York earlier this year. That pilot program will receive $500,000 of seed funding, part of an overall $12 million spend that includes $7.4 million for maths resources in schools and $3.5 million to provide greater exposure to computer coding at school.

"There's plenty of room for specialisation, and in New South Wales, for instance, we've got high schools that specialise in languages, we've got high schools that specialise in sport, in the performing arts, in all sorts of things," he said. In June, Mr Abbott visited New York's Pathways in Technology Early College High School. Credit:Andrew Meares "There's no reason why somewhere in our country, we couldn't have a number of schools which specialise in science, technology, engineering and maths in conjunction with particular businesses." The five industry centres will focus on food and agribusiness; mining, equipment and technology services; oil, gas and energy resources; medical technology and pharmaceuticals; and advanced manufacturing sectors, and would "play to our strengths", Mr Abbott said, though the location of the centres has not been finalised. "There's something like $10 billion worth of research which government funds every year. And we are determined to try to ensure that we get more commercial bang for our research dollar," he said.

The changes to the controversial 457 visa program will lower skill level and English language requirements to help business bring in skills but labour marketing testing will remain in place. But unions predicted the change would lead to foreign workers being exploited. Mr Abbott said employee share scheme tax breaks changes put in place by Labor in 2009 had "virtually stopped employee share ownership schemes dead in this country" and would be reversed. Business Council of Australia president Catherine Livingstone praised the plan for drawing together new and existing plans to boost competitiveness and diversify the economy. "With Australia's international competitiveness declining across almost all indicators, the government's agenda recognises that reform is an increasingly urgent task.," she said.

Australian Academy of Science spokesman Les Field said that "anything which gets science closer with industry has got to be a big plus". But opposition leader Bill Shorten questioned the prime minister pretending to be a "friend of science" after making what he said amounted to $9 billion in cuts to higher education, science, research and industry programs. And he accused the government of making a series of reannouncements, including of Labor's industry hubs and changes to the $200 million vocational training program. Mr Shorten welcomed the changes to employee share scheme rules, pointing out he had called for changes in March. Loading

And Greens deputy leader Adam Bandt said the industry policy had picked some winners, left science under-funded while ignoring other sectors. Follow us on Twitter