The period of instability in the science portfolio began when former prime minister Tony Abbott appointed his first ministry, following his September 2013 election landslide.

There was no minister for science, and it stayed that way for the first 16 months of the Abbott government.

During this time, Abbott and his former treasurer Joe Hockey released a budget which slashed $3 billion from innovation, science and research. This resulted in $111 million in cuts to Australia's peak scientific research body, the CSIRO, over four years.

And this wasn't the only time Australia went without a minister for science under the Coalition government.

From December 2017 to August 2018 in the Turnbull government, the science portfolio was relegated to the outer ministry, after Sinodinos took a leave of absence for cancer treatment. Seselja acted as the assistant minister for science, reporting to jobs and innovation minister Michaelia Cash, who sat in cabinet.

Here's the full list of ministers and assistant ministers for science over the past five years:

Ian Macfarlane (minister for industry and science), December 2014 to September 2015

Christopher Pyne (minister for industry, innovation and science), September 2015 to July 2016

Greg Hunt (minister for industry, innovation and science), July 2016 to January 2017



Arthur Sinodinos (minister for industry, innovation and science), January 2017 to December 2017



Zed Seselja (assistant minister for science, jobs and innovation), December 2017 to August 2018



Karen Andrews (minister for industry, science and technology), August 2018 to present



After the latest leadership spill and subsequent ministerial reshuffle by prime minister Scott Morrison, which saw Andrews appointed science minister in August, Labor senator Kim Carr (who has held the science shadow portfolio since 2013) said the industry was fed up.

Carr said the science portfolio has become a victim of the Liberal's "chaos and division" resulting in a "revolving door of ministers".



"Karen Andrews' appointment today will provide little confidence to industry or the scientists and researchers who support industry," Carr said in a statement.

Speaking to BuzzFeed News, Carr said the Coalition's gutting of the science budget represents its lack of interest in, and hostility towards, a changing world.

"That's the truth of the matter," he said. "There is no real interest in science and innovation because it's too closely associated with Labor and modernity and the last thing this mob wants to talk about is modernity."

Carr said Seselja "wouldn't know science if he tripped over it" and noted that there were "some really serious doubts if he even knew what evolution was".

Seselja is a conservative Liberal and vocal opponent of a carbon price, and voted against setting national targets for emissions reductions. A big fan of coal, the ACT senator once said that shutting down the coal industry will "send us back to the caves".



Carr says that the Liberal's tendency to ignore science has had vast consequences for the research industry.

"The reality is that funding on research and development is falling and the national effort on research and development is falling quite dramatically."

The current science minister vehemently denies Carr's claims.

Andrews told BuzzFeed News she has a long-held passion for science and industry, acting as co-chair for the Parliamentary Friends of Science since its launch in 2012.

"I am proud to have this portfolio and to inherit the outstanding work of my predecessors, including our $2.4 billion investment in Australia’s research, science and technology capabilities in the 2018-19 Budget."



Andrews also asserted that the Coalition has a successful track-record in this portfolio and that Labor had "six science Ministers between 2011 and 2013".

BuzzFeed News counted five during the Rudd/Gillard/Rudd governments — Carr (2007 to 2011), Chris Evans (2011 to 2013), Chris Bowen (2013), Craig Emerson (2013) and Carr again (2013).



The lack of long-term climate strategy is the most frustrating issue for scientist Dr Christian Downie.

"If you're consistently changing ministers and chopping and changing them mid-stream ... without that stability there's not the time for a minister to get across that brief and to do the long-term thinking that's needed on such an issue."



Downie, an Australian Research Council Fellow and author of The Politics of Climate Change Negotiations, told BuzzFeed News that Australia needs long-term climate strategies and a minister who sticks around long enough to implement them.



"Now we're going to roll around to the next UN climate negotiations in Poland at the end of the year without a national strategy to address arguably the most pressing issue that we as a country – and as a globe – face."

Emeritus professor Warren Yates, a solar energy researcher from the University of Technology Sydney, told BuzzFeed News that the fast rotation of ministers and lack of long-term planning for science in Australia is a "scandal".

"You need stable, sensible science policy and governments need to take account of what scientists are telling them, they need more evidence-based policy," he said. "To reject science at this stage in human history is madness — it's unconscionable."

Carr believes that science has a role to play not only in research and development but also in addressing wider systemic issues. He thinks politicians need to rebuild the sector and restore confidence in the legitimacy of the scientific process.

"We can solve major problems, there are solutions in terms of the resources crisis, there are solutions in medical terms, there are solutions in terms of equality, there are solutions to racial violence," he said. "It's not just a matter of finding a cure for cancer that only wealthy people get, it's about building a different type of society."

Greens MP Adam Bandt told BuzzFeed News it's obvious that science isn't a priority for the Liberal and National parties.



"Science needs long-term support so that researchers can get on with their work without being subjected to political short-termism, but instead they've had massive ministerial churn and, at times, no minister at all," he said.

Bandt notes that this isn't just about quantity, it's a question of quality as well, with two of the six ministers not believing in climate change.

"Not only have several of these science ministers actively sought to undermine action on climate change, but one of them, Ian Macfarlane, is now head of the coal-hugging Queensland Minerals Council."

Critics of the Abbott government's lack of a science minister were labelled "precious petals" by Macfarlane, who pushed for the abolition of the Climate Change Authority during his time in Cabinet.

