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Report Of The Knowledge Nation Taskforce
Chifley Research Centre, Canberra
Not to choose is to choose – TALLEYRAND
Published by the Chifley Research Centre – July 2001© Chifley Research Centre 2001
This report was funded by the Chifley Research Centre. The Chifley Research Centre is supported by the Commonwealth Government through a grant in aid administered by the Department of Finance and Administration.
Contents:
- Key Characteristics Of A Knowledge Nation
- The Knowledge Nation Taskforce
- Membership Of The Knowledge Nation Taskforce
- Summary Of Recommendations
- Introduction By The Taskforce Chair
- The Case For Change
- Australia – An Under-Performing Knowledge Nation
- What Is To Be Done? – Action Agenda
- Abbreviations
- List Of Submissions
- Glossary
Characteristics of a Knowledge Nation
1. A government that creates and promotes effective linkages between research organisations – such as CSIRO, the universities, Cooperative Research Centres and Federal and State Government agencies – to ensure an adequate national database, and an inventory of skills, resources and the environment (cadastre)(1). The purpose is to enable effective coordination of national and regional efforts to tackle major problems that threaten the nation’s viability, especially in regional and remote areas. Examples of such problems include desertification, soil salinity and acidification, pollution of rivers, and erosion.
2. A government that works imaginatively and creatively as a catalyst, encourager, information provider, infrastructure supplier, major customer, and example of world’s best practice.
3. A national strategy of ensuring investment in those key areas where it can establish a leading global position.
4. A twenty-first century education system that:
- provides all of its citizens with the opportunity to improve their skills and gain secure and well-paid jobs through properly funded lifelong learning and vocational education programs, including programs at the industry and enterprise level;
- makes every school – State and non government – a centre of excellence and provides all children with a quality education;
- has universities that attract the world’s leading researchers and teachers; and
- encourages fundamental research and the study of the humanities as well as applied knowledge.
5. An economic system based increasingly on innovation and the creation and commercialisation of ideas, and that reverses the serious imbalance in trade in high value added goods and services. This means:
- stronger manufacturing, extraction and service industries transformed by the application of new technologies and the re-skilling of their workforce;
- the development of industries in emerging fields such as biotechnology, nanotechnology, information and communications technology, and environmental management; and
- taking advantage of rapidly expanding export opportunities in service industries, particularly in education, health and environmental management.
6. Leading-edge telecommunications, transport and research infrastructure in our cities and regions and regional development as a core economic and social objective.
7. Policies that regard saving the environment as an opportunity, and promote sustainability. The application of knowledge to simultaneously promote energy efficiency and higher living standards and create more jobs.
8. A transformed national culture that emphasises knowledge, excellence and innovation and aims for this to be reflected in its international reputation. Like Ireland, Finland and Israel, our international ‘image’ must be transformed by creating an inventory of internationally recognised goods and services.
9. The use of knowledge resources to promote the public good, encourage access and equity, provide resources for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and overcome social, class, regional, ethnic and gender barriers.
10. The creation of a more challenging and creative environment to help reverse the ‘brain drain’ and assist us in importing the skills we need.
11. The strengthening of great national institutions such as the ABC, CSIRO, galleries, museums, libraries, the Australia Council, the Australian Heritage Commission, Telstra, Australia Post and the Bureau of Meteorology.
(1) Cadastre. We have adopted this unfamiliar term as a convenient way of describing a comprehensive National Inventory or Knowledge Bank. The Cadastre would provide a picture of Australia’s physical and human resources, both nationally and regionally. It would provide detailed access, for example, to material on the state of the environment, including details of water quality and availability, the extent and location of desertification, salinity and acidification of soils, health services, regional variations in life expectancy, research capacity, the availability and nature of employment, education levels and availability. The Cadastre would link the research bases of the Commonwealth and State, including the Census and the National Land and Water Resources Audit. Having the Cadastre would identify and quantify national problems and suggest priorities for overcoming them.
