Fact check: Science, research and innovation spending cut to 'historic low'

Updated

Greens deputy leader Adam Bandt says the Federal Government has cut spending on science, research and innovation to an "historic low".

"Abbott Government spending on science, research and innovation this year is now only 0.56 per cent of GDP, an equal record low since Treasury started publishing data in the late 1970s," Mr Bandt said in a media release on September 29.

"Over the last few decades science and research have become increasingly important to our society and economy, but we're set to spend less this year than we did in 1979," he said.

"We're trailing behind countries like Germany, the UK and US and we're outspent by key trading partners like Korea and Japan."

ABC Fact Check investigates.

The claim: Adam Bandt says the Federal Government has cut spending on science, research and innovation to an "historic low".

Adam Bandt says the Federal Government has cut spending on science, research and innovation to an "historic low". The verdict: The Parliamentary Library estimates that research and development spending will be 0.56 per cent of GDP in 2014-15. This is the equal lowest since records began in 1978-79.

Research and development spending as a percentage of GDP

Before issuing his statement Mr Bandt commissioned a report from the Parliamentary Library, which provides research services to parliamentarians.

The library based its analysis on annual tables for federal government spending on science, research and innovation first published in April 1980.

The then department of science and the environment said the "Science Statement 1979-80" was a "post-budget analysis" that had been prepared because there was not "a single budgetary channel for funds in support of research and development".

"It is hoped that this first attempt to bring together a consolidated statement of Commonwealth Government funding of R&D will be of value to Parliament, to policy developers and to the interested community generally," it said.

The library sourced spending figures from these tables for each year since 1978-79. It sourced gross domestic product (GDP) figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

As the 2014-15 year is not over, the library used a nominal GDP growth figure from the 2014-15 budget to produce a GDP value for this year.



The latest science, research and innovation table released on August 29, 2014 shows the Government expects to spend $9.192 billion on research and development in 2014-15.

The Parliamentary Library's report, sent to Mr Bandt on September 17, says this is 0.56 per cent of the projected GDP for 2014-15.

It is the same ratio as recorded in 1988-89 and 1989-90 and is lower than the 0.58 per cent recorded when records started in 1978-79.

The highest recorded was 0.74 per cent in 1993-94.

How Australia compares internationally

In his media release, Mr Bandt also said: "We're trailing behind countries like Germany, the UK and US and we're outspent by key trading partners like Korea and Japan."

His office told Fact Check he based this on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's research and development statistics.

Comparable figures for all the countries mentioned by Mr Bandt are only available until 2011. They show Australia's "Government budget appropriations or outlays for RD" at 0.478 per cent of GDP for that year. This was below the UK at 0.586, Japan at 0.774, Germany at 0.91, the US at 0.929, and Korea at 1.056.

Later OECD figures are available for some countries. The most recent are for 2013, which show Australia ranked 18th out of 20 countries.

Australia's spending at 0.441 per cent of GDP in 2013 was ahead of only Greece at 0.391 and the Slovak Republic at 0.369. That year Japan's ratio was 0.754 per cent, the US 0.795, and Germany 0.917. No figures are available for the UK or Korea.

What the Government says

When he released the Government's 2014-15 Science, Research and Innovation budget tables, Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane said that "operating within a difficult fiscal environment, the government committed substantial new funding in support of science, research and innovation".

He highlighted the proposed new Medical Research Future Fund, mentioned by Treasurer Joe Hockey in this year's May budget speech, support for dementia research, investment in a new CSIRO research vessel and continued R&D tax incentives for industry and small business.

The estimated spending of $9.192 billion for 2014-15 is $386 million lower than the $9.578 billion spent in 2013-14.

The verdict

The Parliamentary Library estimates that research and development spending will be 0.56 per cent of GDP in 2014-15.

This is an equal low to spending in 1988-89 and 1989-90 and lower than the 0.58 per cent recorded when records began in 1978-79.

Mr Bandt's claim checks out.

Sources

Topics: academic-research, medical-research, government-and-politics, federal-government, political-parties, greens, australia

First posted