Professor Tony Haymet spoke at the Science Meets Parliament 2026 dinner on 25 March.

Good evening!

It is a pleasure to be with you at this pivotal occasion in the Australian scientific calendar.

Thank you, Uncle Warren, for welcoming us. I pay my respects to the traditional custodians of the Canberra area: the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples.

I’m also pleased to acknowledge the Science Minister, Senator Tim Ayres, the shadow minister Aaron Violi, and all parliamentarians with us.  

I had the privilege of speaking here last year in my first address as Chief Scientist. So, it’s wonderful to return and reconnect with many familiar faces – and meet new ones.

Thank you to Science and Technology Australia for your advocacy for Australian science which is so vital to our national future and economic prosperity.

I want to take a moment to look ahead and to explain why I’m filled with excitement, because Australia is in a time of breathtaking scientific research and innovation.

From better pharmaceuticals to improved crops and vaccines – from quantum computing to the transition to a low carbon economy – it’s a time when science is fuelling innovation at all levels, and across many disciplines.

A time of digital breakthroughs when the social sciences and humanities collaborate closely with scientific and engineering disciplines, and increasingly interweaved with Indigenous knowledge systems. By doing so, we ensure innovation is shaped by human, social and cultural factors.

We also see that, in the work of the National Science and Technology Council, that great advances in scientific understanding are being made. This council serves as a peak advisory body to government. It’s not an operational committee; it’s thinking about fairly scholarly topics – commissioning reports with our colleagues in the five learned academies. 

And if you look at our reports that are coming out in the next few weeks, you’ll see great influence from the Academy of the Social Sciences and the Academy of the Humanities. Recent work, that will be coming out soon, is on misinformation and disinformation, and also a report on the return on investment of increased investment in supercomputing.

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I do want to take a moment to count our blessings. We’ve heard a lot today about problems in the science and innovation system in Australia. And that’s true; we have our fair share of problems. But as I travel to like-minded countries, and talk to my fellow chief scientists, I find that we have a science and research system that is the envy of many other nations.

Yes, there are significant challenges – as highlighted in the Ambitious Australia report. 

One of our highest priorities must be to continue investing in our inventors and innovators – because they are so often the wellspring of discovery and transformation.

From Gardasil to Cochlear – from polymer banknotes to Google Maps technology – Australia has numerous examples of individuals and small teams generating big discoveries. They were individual creative thinkers doing what our society pays them to do – create new knowledge.

And who can forget our Chemistry Nobel Prize winner, Professor Richard Robson, and his metal organic frameworks!

These are ideas that spring from the minds of creative Australians and we must, at all costs, preserve that creativity. 

What we don’t seem to do as well is the next step. And that’s to scan around Australia’s great ideas and figure out ways to scale them up and turn them into little companies, and medium-sized companies, and big companies.

But let’s not forget that there are plenty of countries in our region that are jealous of the number of ideas that Australian inventors are coming up with. 

We need to get better at identifying intellectual property that could make major contributions to Australia. Many already do this well: some big universities, PFRAs, defence and national intelligence agencies – they all scan our new patents and new inventions and going to conferences and listening to clever Australians to find out what they’re doing.

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Speaking of discoveries, yesterday marked the birthday of the French physicist who discovered the photovoltaic effect.

Edmond Becquerel was just 19! And his work was pure, fundamental science.

Fast forward to the 20th century, and we see another small team around Prof Martin Green – at UNSW in Sydney – whose photovoltaic research helped create the high-efficiency solar panels used around the world today. Another Australian invention that we wish, of course, had been developed more in Australia – but let’s not forget it was invented here.

These stories matter. Because if we want to support the economy – now and in the future – we must continue to back two kinds of science at once.

This includes research that we know is applicable to industry, defence, and to national priorities – plus, the kind of blue-sky research, that I’ve cited numerous examples of, that doesn’t have an obvious or immediate pay-off but brings tremendous return to Australia.  

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Supporting individuals and small research teams – with an eye on both the now and the next – is how Australia has prospered. And it's how we will continue to do so.

When we invest in science, we are doing more than funding research.

We are strengthening our economy and our capacity to respond to challenges – from the energy transition to water security to better use of critical minerals. And beyond.

In closing, I want to thank Science and Technology Australia for creating forums like this – where science and policy come together in service of our national future.

Thank you.