On 17 November 2025, Prof Tony Haymet delivered a speech at the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia's Gala Dinner.
Tom, thank you for those insightful remarks.
Thank you, Kate, it’s great to be here.
Let me acknowledge that wonderful, welcome to Country from Aunty Rhonda. Thank you for welcoming us here this evening.
I acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands on which we gather, the Gadigal people of the Eora nation.
I pay my respects to them, and to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the audience.
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I’m going to do my best to respond to the two great questions from Tom. You are a hard act to follow, Tom! But it’s great to be able to acknowledge you, because you’ve done yet another wonderful job for Australia.
Tom chaired the committee for the first Prime Minister’s Prize for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Knowledge Systems. As Chair of the Prime Minister’s prizes for Science, I did the rest of the prizes, but Tom had by far the toughest job.
You can imagine the challenges with the first such prize. It should have been awarded every year for the past 20 years. There are all kinds of worthy winners.
Then there is the whole idea of giving prizes. We in western science like to give Nobel prizes to individuals – one, two or three people. Contrast that with a lot of Indigenous communities in
Australia that believe the community owns the knowledge. So it’s a very tough job and thank heavens Tom had to do it and not me!
As part of my role, I focus on Australia’s National Science and Research Priorities. There is a beautiful petal diagram of those five priorities and sitting right in the centre of that petal is the elevation of Indigenous Knowledge Systems.
It’s there for a reason. It’s the only one of the five science priorities that has been brought up by all the ministers of science that I’ve had in the last nine months. That’s two. Both wonderful human beings I must say, as are their shadows. We talk about all kinds of issues in Australia but, on every single occasion, Indigenous Knowledge Systems have been brough up by the minister.
Some of you will know that I was lucky enough to go with the Science Minister, Tim Ayres, to Budj Bim in south-western Victoria to see the ancient aquaculture facilities. I encourage you to go if you ever have a chance to.
As I said, I do want to acknowledge the enormous workload that Tom undertook in sorting through the applications for that prize. And Tom, we are going to do it all again next year!
I want to pay homage to your Academy too. You've improved policies that address complex challenges in wide-ranging areas including:
• human rights and reconciliation
• cultural safety and inclusion
• embedding Indigenous knowledge in education
• and empowering Indigenous leadership and policy co-design.
At a time when misinformation is spreading, you’ve provided evidence-based advice that influences academia, government, public opinion, and then some.
Your work helps drive transformative change in areas such as:
• healthcare equity and aged care
• mental health and trauma
• learning and teaching - in schools and universities
• and enhancing research ethics and data sovereignty.
As Chief Scientist, I’m also on the National Data Advisory Council. We just had the wonderful Chief Data Commissioner step down after her three-year appointment and we are looking forward to the next appointment.
I think they’ve done remarkable work in lots of areas but most probably in Indigenous data.
Of all the things that Professor Tom mentioned, the one that really struck me is the fact that this Authority has set up data storage on Country, which was important when consultations were done in Indigenous communities.
I know there is one in Geraldton. So instead of storing Indigenous data —archives, health data, economic data, any kind of data — on some billionaire’s file server in California, it is stored right here in Australia by Australian-owned companies.
I welcome the growing awareness of those issues – regarding Indigenous data – in the community, in government and in science. And growing awareness about the need to embed Indigenous governance, ethics, and knowledge systems into the core of data and research practice.
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Tom, you embody the Academy’s mission to extend knowledge for the benefit of society.
Your work – and the work of many Academy fellows – provides evidence-based guidance and analysis that can improve health, education and socio-economic outcomes for First Nations peoples.
It can deliver benefits that last for generations.
In fact, as we navigate an era of rapid technological change, social sciences are more vital than ever – shaping policy, guiding ethical innovation, and advancing social equity.
With a deeper understanding of human behaviour – and collaboration across disciplines and sectors – we can foster discovery and shape more inclusive and resilient communities.
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One example of where we must do more together is in the areas of misinformation and disinformation.
The National Science and Technology Council that I convene, and that our colleague Professor Reuben Bolt sits on, has commissioned landmark reports on misinformation – reports your Academy helped to prepare.
Those reports are going to be important. There is a lot of information in there about why we are so susceptible to misinformation and who are the people in our communities who are most susceptible.
Dare I say we have all been worried about kids and misinformation, but this report presents the data that it is people my age and older that are more susceptible to going down rabbit holes. So, thank you for keeping me on the straight and narrow path!
Tom, it’s great to be able to acknowledge your contribution to this academy.
Thank you for having me and I hope you have a great evening.