Australia’s dumbing down: The view from outside

It is interesting, every now and then, to take a look at Australia from the outside, in. Or is it just depressing?

This week, a leading article on the homepage of global business news service, Bloomberg, had this to say:

The article reads:

The country that brought you refrigerators, black-box flight recorders, bionic ears and Wi-Fi will cut its research budget by 7 per cent over the next 12 months, and another 10 per cent in the following three years. At the same time it’s offering tax cuts and write-offs in its budget this month for small firms to buy equipment like espresso machines and lawnmowers as the centerpiece of a plan to build a “stronger and more prosperous Australia.”

It goes on to quote our Chief Scientist, Ian Chubb, as saying that every OECD nation has a plan to grow its scientific enterprise and aid its translation into technology, innovation and development … except Australia, which the article points out now ranks in the bottom seven countries based on government spending on research and development as a proportion of gross domestic product.

Anyway, it’s worth reading the whole article here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-25/australia-dumbs-down-as-government-bets-on-baristas-over-brains

We’d love to hear what you think…