Senator Kim Carr

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.  

Jobs, livelihoods and Australia’s innovation system are being placed at risk by Education Minister, Dan Tehan’s refusal to approve $300 million in grants from the Australian Research Council (ARC).
 
The Minister seems more than capable of holding a crisis meeting with the Prime Minister to discuss the Liberals’ Victorian wipe out, but is incapable of following the advice of the ARC and approving these grants.    

Today’s announcement by the Government to slash university research funding to lift the cap on regional university places is reckless and short sighted.
 
Scott Morrison’s latest act of vandalism will further damage Australia’s world class university research.

Minister for Education, Dan Tehan MP’s announcement of a “National Interest Test for” Australian research grants is just an attempt to spin his government’s way out of trouble on its arbitrary decision-making regarding the awarding of research grants.
 
A national interest test already exists.
 

Last night Senate Estimates exposed that former Education Minister, Simon Birmingham, secretly vetoed 11 humanities research projects in an attempt to pander to extreme right wing elements of the Liberal-National Coalition. 
 
These projects, which had been independently approved by Australian Research Council, were rejected without explanation. 

Today marks 12 months since the Liberal Government allowed Australia’s last vehicle production plant to close.
 
In its last year before the Liberals took power, the Australian car industry spent almost $700 million per year on research and development and generated exports worth $3.7 billion.