This is a vital and timely national initiative, with immense opportunity to improve Australians’ lives. 
 
We have long believed that ambitious and strategic genomics projects succeed best when there is cooperation across Australia, and throughout the medical research and healthcare sectors.
 
Already, Australian clinicians and researchers are working closely together in this space through the Sydney Genomics Collaborative and other state-based alliances, the Australian Genomic Cancer Medicine Program and the Australian Genomics Health Alliance. There are a number of truly exciting national programs that are making real the promise of personalised medicine through genomics.
 
Some things are best handled at scale. This new initiative gives us all the opportunity to contribute to something great, and take a truly strategic approach to the development of genomic medicine.

It is very exciting to see Government recognising the extraordinary potential of genomics as a scientific and medical tool to improve the health and medical care of Australians.
 
From my perspective, it is particularly pleasing to see the announcement of ‘Mackenzie’s Mission’, a new $20 million trial in pre-conception screening for rare and debilitating genetic birth disorders. This program is a logical extension of the multi-award-winning NSW Community Genetics program, which I developed and operated for the Sydney Jewish community for some 25 years, and which has resulted in no new cases of the fatal Tay-Sachs disease in the Jewish community for the past two decades.
 
Newer genomic approaches, that sequence the whole genome at once, are capable of screening for more genetic birth disorders than any other currently available medical test. It is my hope that this uniquely powerful technique will be considered for a program such as Mackenzie’s Mission, so that it can achieve the best possible outcome for the community, now and in the future.

The R&D tax incentive is one of the best mechanisms that the government has deployed to support pre-revenue technology companies. In my case, it has been invaluable in supporting our efforts to establish a commercial entity in a deep-technology field based on my team’s work at the University of Sydney.

This tax incentive has permitted heavy leveraging of the venture-capital funding we raised to establish Q-CTRL, Australia's first venture-capital-backed quantum technology company. Quantum technology is likely to be as transformational as harnessing electricity, and nearly all of the support we expect from this scheme will be invested directly in hiring new research staff to help us build a new quantum industry in Australia. 

I hope that the suggested enhancement of compliance and oversight of the scheme is both successful in stamping out abuse, and also applied in a streamlined and targeted way. The system is already challenging for many start-ups due to the substantial delay between initial expenditure and reimbursement, and we need to ensure that enhanced oversight doesn't translate into extended delays for organisations like mine that are working to build the quantum future.

While funding for rail projects is welcome, it doesn’t go nearly far enough to meet the challenges facing Australia, especially the cities where most Australians live. Roads represent about 84 per cent of the transport project funding, far more should be going to rail where we are playing catch up for an advanced economy.
 
A funding program for comprehensive, integrated transport planning is needed more than support for project-based business cases for politically-driven road projects.
 
"The ‘up to $5 billion’ for airport rail for Victoria comes with strings attached that may re-ignite the political differences that have stalled this link for several decades.

The 2018 Budget offers a mixed message in regards to higher education and young people.

On the one hand, it is pleasing that the government has endorsed the findings of the Independent Review into Regional, Rural and Remote Education, with significant additional degree places, and support for regional and remote young people.

On the other, this budget makes it harder for young people who graduate their degrees by significantly lowering the HELP repayment rate to 1 per cent at $45,000 per annum.

Paired with a lack of clear policy supporting young people’s transition to the digital economy, this budget risks leaving even more young people behind.

The Space Industry Association of Australia welcomes the Commonwealth Government’s long term commitment to the space sector as announced in the 2018 Budget -see http://www.minister.industry.gov.au/ministers/cash/media-releases/budget-2018-new-opportunities-and-jobs-australian-industry
 
The benefits of a National Space Agency and an investment in a Space Based Augmentation System (as set out in two SIAA White Papers – see http://www.spaceindustry.com.au/publications.php ) have been the subject of detailed research and lobbying by the SIAA and other key players in the Australian space sector over the last 18 months.
 
Our advocacy for the establishment of a national space agency and a program of investment in space infrastructure, such as the SBAS system, and has been recognised and we now know that these programs will be funded.
 
We were pleased to be involved in the Expert Reference Group on Australia’s Space Industry Capability chaired by Dr Megan Clark. We look forward to the release of that report and the Commonwealth Government’s response.
 
It is vitally important that the recommendations of the Expert Reference Group be accepted and implemented. This will ensure that the new Agency has the necessary support from both government and industry to achieve the long term goals of industry engagement and economic development by promoting collaboration and investment nationally and internationally.

Despite repeated advice – and repeated commitments in principle – the Government is still not developing a preventative health focus for our health system.

It’s true there are a few modest measures tonight – including additional vaccinations funded, very welcome measures to promote mental wellbeing, and the Good Sports Program to reduce alcohol consumption in sporting contexts.

But Australia’s people will continue to experience avoidable chronic disease in the years ahead. People who should be destined to live healthy lives will not because of the preventable diseases they will suffer. While we need to look after the aged populations and those requiring medical treatment, we need to focus even more heavily on the younger generation we are failing,

The inevitable cost to budgets far into the future will be greater than the investments that might have been funded.

What is also noticeable is that there are no preventive measures in this budget which impact negatively on industry.

Just last week we saw Australia’s first ever dedicated conference of preventative health professionals, with 300 expert Australians gathering in Sydney to debate the way forward to a more preventive approach to health and wellbeing.
 
Yet tonight, preventive health has again been relegated to a low priority.”
 
Future Health Ministers and Treasurers will rue the mistakes of this generation, including tonight’s budget, in failing to invest in preventive health.

The 2018 Budget indicates the Government has listened to the need to restore support for major science agencies and invest in research infrastructure to position Australia as a leader in global science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) research and innovation.

The new commitment to $1.9 billion in research infrastructure ($1 billion over forward estimates) following the National Research Infrastructure Roadmap is very welcome, and major commitments medical research, the Great Barrier Reef, technology infrastructure and space science further strengthen the positive investment for the future of Australia’s STEM sector. The Government has also committed to refocusing the R&D Tax Incentive in line with recommendations made in the recent review.

A return to keeping pace with CPI is very welcome for the Australian Research Council and other research agencies like the CSIRO. We’re also pleased to see a boost for measures to engage and inspire all Australians with STEM, as well as specific measures to support greater participation by girls and women in STEM.

However we note the future STEM workforce still requires attention – STEM graduate rates are threatened by continued capping of commonwealth support for undergraduate places at Australian Universities. Australia will need many more people equipped with STEM skills in our workforce to compete internationally. This short-term saving will be a loss for future generations.

This is a good budget for science. It reflects the long-term and strategic approach that is needed for Australia to benefit from science and innovation at a global scale."

Australia’s national supercomputers give scientists across government, industry and universities the processing power for the complex scientific computations needed in an advance society including accurate weather forecasts, drug development, and large-scale astronomy.

We have a long way to go as a nation, particularly on big issues like STEM education and training at school and university and climate change. But we are moving forward together and the Government has made a clear commitment in this Budget to working collaboratively with the science sector to maximise the benefits for all Australians.

This is a great Budget for medical research, with around $2 billion now committed through the Medical Research Future Fund for new medical research projects. This is exactly where the Australian medical research sector should be heading.

Budgets enable the future. To have a future-proof progressive, technologically sophisticated society, Australia needs a workforce that is educated and trained to think logically, analytically and quantitatively. A society with only a handful of mathematically trained workers cannot be expected to support the extraordinarily important developments expected in modern life such as precision medicine.  Australia is that society: only 0.4% of entering university students study Mathematical sciences, in comparison to the OECD average of 2.5%. To barely reach that average, we would need to multiply the current cohort of senior high school students who are mathematically prepared for University by a factor of 6. The budget contains no action or stimulus to help meet this challenge.

Funding is necessary to: place a mathematics specialist, to mentor teachers in mathematical skills, in every school or every regional group of schools; provide tax incentives for teachers to pursue professional development and further training in mathematics; create stimuli, e.g., merit salary, preferred placement or advanced recognition of years served, for graduates trained in the mathematical sciences to enter and remain in the teaching profession; implement a program to program to encourage and increase pipeline flow in mathematics from school to university and from undergraduate study to graduate study and from PhD to postdoctoral work or industry; and create a program to attract more students training in and going onto careers in the mathematical sciences by establishing a vertically integrated research-led education program across undergraduate, postgraduate and postdoctoral boundaries.

Initiatives recommended in the Decadal Plan for Mathematical Sciences: a vision for 2025 need an agile, pro-active budget focused on developing a future workforce. This budget does not appear to be one of them.

Government just announced $24.5 billion investment toward infrastructure projects mainly contributing to building road and rail infrastructure in different states across Australia. This new budget allocation is a part of multi stage and rather long-term plan for investing $75 billion by the federal government in modernising nation’s transport infrastructure. This new investment will create significant job opportunities for various professions from lawyers to civil engineers, from mechanical to geotechnical engineers, accountants, as well as finance and IT experts. This budget allocation to build major infrastructure in our country can stimulate economic growth handsomely and contribute toward reducing the unemployment rate.

 
Currently Sydney holds a population of 5.6 million, which is a tremendous increase from 4.0 million in 2011. According to the reported published by Australian Bureau of statistics in 2017, this population is projected to increase to a maximum of 11.0 million in 2061. A similar trend could be applicable to other major metropolitans in Australia. This rapid growth in population indisputably needs a significant increase in investment in constructing new infrastructures, such as roads and railway lines.
 
Thus, considering this major government investments on transport infrastructure, and emphasising that we need to get better at planning and building the infrastructure, there is a golden opportunity as well as an essential need to reduce the future maintenance cost of infrastructure such as roads, railways, dams and bridges which would be potentially suffering from different problems such as excessive or differential settlement. In Australia, the maintenance cost of transport infrastructure has been increasing; for example, over the past 5 years, the expenditure for local road maintenance has increased by $97 million, an annual average growth rate of 1.69%. On the other hand disruption to infrastructure systems and their services can cause tremendous challenges for society, such as a significant reduction in the freight capacity of roads and railway lines and delayed commuter access to ports, airports, industrial areas, and business precincts. Therefore, Australian industries together with research organisations such as higher education sector should focus their research and development efforts on developing efficient construction technologies to reduce future maintenance cost of transport infrastructure, so the return on investment on the upcoming projects could enhance. 
 
Federal government should try to link the national innovation and science agenda with these new infrastructure investments to ensure the smart ideas and new technologies will be proposed and used to reduce the construction and maintenance cost of transport infrastructure to ensure projects are viable. Universities should work hand in hand and more closely with both federal and state governments as well as private sector to ensure skilled work force required to deliver the planned infrastructure can be trained here in Australia rather than relying on overseas experts and workers.   
 
One of the key funded infrastructure projects in NSW is Coffs Harbour bypass, which received $971 million funding from the Federal government. This is a 14 kilometre bypass of Coffs Harbour extending from Englands Road in the south to the Pacific Highway at Sapphire in the north. This is the next big project after the Woolgoolga to Ballina upgrade (W2B). Coffs Harbour bypass is also the last bottle neck (after the on-going W2B project) in NSW to be removed on the Pacific Highway from Sydney to Brisbane. This bypass will result in safer roads while removing 12 traffic lights leading to more efficient transport system with greatly improved local traffic conditions.

The Budget 2018 presentation by the Treasurer implied, but went silent on several items related to education.

1.    An increase in the child care means-tested subsidy was included in the budget and already planned. No mention was made of the crucial role of high quality early childhood education to allow carers to participate in the economy, while having confidence their children are prepared with the fundamental skills and dispositions to be successful in the innovation age.  There is a larger investment needed there. Each child deserves the highest quality early childhood experience from the learning sciences, not from babysitting.
2.    The government reiterated its commitment to the new Gonski report recommendations to provide teachers the tools needed to “lift student performance.”  No mention of the costs of the new Gonski report’s called for assessment schemes was included. While last week’s report is spot on about current schools’ obsolescence, it contradicts itself on the assembly line assessments that have already failed in New Zealand. That’s a huge cost not discussed, a major reworking of NAPLAN. And, while the need- based funding was mentioned, what wasn’t discussed is that the amounts included are actually significantly less than the first Gonski report recommended. This is actually a cut disguised as an increase.
3.    No mention of the vital role of providing access to higher education, including TAFE and Universities. Recent years’ cuts have put at risk Australia’s future, which is developing the minds and research outputs to innovate our future rather than dig our future out of the ground.

Just like a deposit on a home, this extra $393 million for major national collaborative research facilities is an instalment on owning our own research future as a country..

Investing in these facilities is like laying the rail and road networks of the 19th and 20th centuries – it's productive infrastructure to deliver tomorrow's discoveries, industries, start-ups and jobs."

The good news on research infrastructure is tempered by the ongoing university funding freeze, which will cut $2.1 billion from universities over the next few years.

The Great Barrier Reef is under threat from multiple local stressors including, declining water quality, coastal zone development, and periodic invasions by the crown of thorn starfish. Compounding these local threats are a host of climate change related global problems, including bleaching and acidification and extreme weather events, viz. marine heat waves and cyclones. 

 
These threats to the GBR have been the subject of several major government studies in the last 20 years, incl. Industry Commission Report (2003) and Reef 2050 Long-Term Sustainability Plan (2017). The latter report stated: The main source of the primary pollutants (nutrients, fine sediments and pesticides) from Great Barrier Reef catchments is diffuse source pollution from agriculture. These pollutants pose a risk to Great Barrier Reef coastal and marine ecosystems. Progress towards the water quality targets has been slow and the present trajectory suggests these targets will not be met. 
 
Queensland has the largest area of agricultural land of any Australian state and the highest proportion of land area in Australia dedicated to agriculture. Agricultural industries contribute more than $10 billion to the state economy each year. Researchers have recognised for over 25 years that poor water quality due to land use change and farming in the coastal hinterland is fundamentally incompatible with a healthy coral reef ecosystem. The language in recent reports mentions maintaining and improving the reef’s resilience, even though the general concept of ecosystem resilience is difficult to define and even more difficult to measure. The proposed budget allocation of $500 million, while certainly welcome, is a very small step in confronting a classic “wicked problem”, which is by definition extremely difficult or impossible to solve.