Senator Kim Carr

Today the Minister for Industry, Science and Technology, Karen Andrews MP, finally announced “changes” that would allow Australian complementary medicine manufacturers to continue to use the Australian Made logo.
 
The announcement comes as the Morrison Government is about to cross the threshold from unofficial nightwatchman government to official caretaker government.

This Budget offers nothing for the industries and jobs of Australia’s future.
 
Budget figures show that the Government's own targets for business expenditure on research and development has fallen by $5.3 billion in the past three financial years.

A Shorten Labor Government will make Australia a world leader in tackling plastic use and boosting recycling – investing $290 million to cut waste and handing on a cleaner Australia for the next generation.
 
Labor will protect our vulnerable wildlife and reduce the amount of waste generated by putting in place a national ban on plastic products like microbeads and single-use plastic bags.
 

This afternoon the Government-dominated Senate Economics Legislation Committee took the highly unusual step of making a unanimous recommendation to the Senate that it defer the consideration of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Making Sure Multinationals Pay Their Fair Share of Tax in Australia and Other Measures) Bill 2018 pending further refinement.
 
The committee said that on the weight of evidence presented to it, the committee considers that the bill should not proceed until there is further consideration of the R&D tax incentive measures.

Bernard (Barney) Cornelius Cooney, 11 July 1934 - 9 February 2019

Senator for Victoria 1985-2002

Barney Cooney will be remembered as a great defender of the union movement and advocate of workers’ rights; as a great champion of the role of the Senate and its committee system; and as a prominent member of the generation of Labor politicians who cast off the legacy of the 1950s Split and prepared the way for the party’s return to power in the state and nationally.

Industry Minister Karen Andrews MP must act decisively on building fire safety at tomorrow’s meeting of building industry ministers (the Building Ministers’ Forum) in Hobart.

People have a right to be safe in their homes and workplaces, and Australians rightly expect our buildings to be safe and structurally sound.

Labor welcomes the announcement today that Professor Tanya Munro will be Australia’s next Chief Defence Scientist, the first woman appointed to that role. 

Professor Munro is a highly distinguished physicist, is currently the Deputy Vice Chancellor Research and Innovation at the University of South Australia and is an ARC Georgina Sweet Laureate Fellow.   

A Shorten Labor Government will boost local jobs by ensuring more government contracts and major projects are delivered by local businesses, bringing significant economic benefit to communities in Queensland and around Australia.
 
Under a Labor Government’s Local Projects, Local Jobs plan, more government investment will be spent on local businesses and local jobs – not multinationals that don’t care about locals and don’t pay tax in Australia.

Outstanding Australian research is at serious risk thanks to the Liberals’ $328 million of cuts, revealed today in their mid-year economic update.

Australian researchers have produced some incredible inventions such as the cochlear ear implant, WiFi, and a vaccine for cervical cancer.  

The Liberal government is out of touch with modern Australia — and nothing shows it more than the government's relentless war on science.

The Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government has slashed funding for research in universities and public agencies such as CSIRO, shedding more than 1300 science jobs since 2013.