No guarantee science won’t be touched in May budget, says Prime Minister

CAPA Vice President (Equity) Vino Rajandran today met with Prime Minister Tony Abbott to discuss science and research.

Vino met with the Prime Minister as part of a delegation of just eight scientists from the Science Meets Parliament conference, which was hosted by Science and Technology Australia in Canberra this week.

“We discussed briefly our fields of research, and I introduced myself as the Vice President of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations and touched upon the importance of postgraduate representation,” Vino said.

Concern

Vino noted with concern the Prime Minister’s comments around funding for science in the May budget.

“The Prime Minister told us that there was no guarantee science won’t be touched in the May budget, so that is a possibility for scientists and researchers to be wary of,” Vino said.

Vino also met with Minister for the Environment Greg Hunt.

“I discussed with Minister Hunt the need for stronger efforts in research funding and training, noting the struggles that many research students face,” Vino said.

CAPA President Meghan Hopper, who also attended the Science Meets Parliament conference, said the meetings were a rare opportunity for a student representative to state their case to senior leaders of the Government.

“The Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations is eager to lobby at all levels of the political spectrum, and we believe that Vino is the first national student representative to have been afforded an opportunity to meet with this Prime Minister,” Meghan said.

“We hope that these meetings will be the start of a productive discussion with members of the new Government around research funding and the importance of postgraduate representation,” she said.

CAPA is the peak body representing the interests of Australia’s 320,000+ postgraduate students. CAPA’s constituency is made up of over thirty postgraduate associations across the nation including GUPSA.

More information:
Meghan Hopper
CAPA President
president@capa.edu.au
Ph. 0409 694 937