If I had to name one of the big political heroes of Prime Minister Tony Abbott, the first to come to mind would be Sir Robert Menzies.

It’s hard to think of any one politician who had more of an impact on the Liberal Party tradition. But just as influential was Menzies’ impact on science and research in Australia.

Under his leadership, war and depression gave way to a new kind of scientific optimism. He led a massive expansion of Australia’s scientific research capacity, was involved in the creation of the Australian Academy of Science, and funded the building of important infrastructure such as the giant radio telescope at Parkes and the phytotron in Canberra. He also oversaw a tenfold increase in the budget of the newly formed CSIRO in just 15 years.

In 1958, Menzies predicted: ''If there’s one thing that shines out in the history of this century it is the enormous capacity of science to expand its boundaries. By the end of this century ... the boundaries of knowledge will have been pushed back to places as yet unseen and unimagined.''

Menzies was right. Advances in science and technology over the past 50 years or so have totally transformed the economic and cultural life of Australia. Unfortunately, such capacity for long-term vision is increasingly rare in Australian politics. As we head into this next federal budget, most in the scientific community fear the worst, with reports and rumours of massive cuts to the CSIRO and other research agencies.