Study commissioned by the chief scientist, Ian Chubb, also found that advanced physical sciences and maths employ 760,000 people

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Science and mathematics directly contributes $145bn a year to the Australian economy, a report to be released on Wednesday shows.

The study, commissioned by Australia’s chief scientist, Ian Chubb, and carried out by the Centre of International Economics, found that advanced physical sciences and mathematics employ 760,000 workers, or about 7% of the total workforce.

Discoveries and innovations in the fields of physics, chemistry, earth sciences and mathematics have directly contributed $145bn to the economy. That figure rises to just under $300bn if flow-on impacts are considered, the report said.

“For the first time we now have the numbers on the table showing the importance of these sciences to the Australian economy,” Chubb said.

“It is too easy to take the benefits of science and innovation for granted, and this report shows that the knowledge from these disciplines supports and enhances economic activity which benefits all Australians.”

The report did not take into account the impact of biology or life sciences, which will be examined in future studies.

The report breaks down the value of science and maths by industry. Resource management, mining and general insurance industries are the big winners of discoveries and innovations in the science and mathematics fields.

“The results reported here almost certainly understate the true impact of the advanced physical and mathematical (APM) sciences,” the study said.

“The APM sciences are very important (if not critical) to key parts of Australia’s trade-exposed industries: agriculture, mining and manufacturing,” the report said.

“Useful knowledge from the APM sciences allows those industries to use our natural resources and our capital to respond to growth in global demand, and to create exports that foreigners want to buy. It also provides the technology that supports competitiveness in those industries.”

The report stressed the importance of having Australian-born or -based scientists conducting their own research.

The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, speaking at the gala dinner of the annual Science Meets Parliament event on Tuesday night, said Australia was the only OECD country not to have a national strategy on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem).

“This must change. Australia must act now to develop a national Stem strategy,” he said.

“We must redefine the way we look at the role of science, innovation and evidence in our community. Science cannot be shunted away in one department or viewed as a boutique industry for a niche market.

“Science needs a minister and a government that understands it as the engine of productivity and jobs growth across all existing and future industries,” Shorten said.

The Coalition government has been criticised for not having a minister responsible for science in its original cabinet. The industry minister, Ian Macfarlane, now has control of the portfolio.

He also spoke at the gala dinner, highlighting the need for greater collaboration between scientists and business.

“We [Australia] come last – 33rd out of 33 – in an OECD survey on the rate of collaboration between business and research organisations. Last in the OECD in working together,” he said on Tuesday night.

“Our research institutions and the business sector must collaborate. We must translate our ideas and research into real goods and services, technologies and life improvements.”

He flagged a review of commonwealth-funded programs to meet the federal government’s funding priorities and achieve more tangible outcomes.

“It also includes reviews of the R&D tax incentive, and the cooperative research centres program to ensure they are operating as effectively as they should be to deliver outcomes to the benefit of the Australian economy,” Macfarlane said.

“The government’s $188.5m industry growth centres initiative will foster better use of research by industry, and deliver increased commercial returns from the investment in research in the identified sectors.”

The commonwealth science council, which reports directly to the prime minister, Tony Abbott, is yet to outline its funding priorities, or respond to the recommendations of a Stem report delivered by Chubb in September.