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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-10-31 Daily Xml
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SCIENCE CENTRE

The Hon. R.B. SUCH (Fisher) (11:36): I move:

That this house urges the state government to support the establishment and operation of an 'investigator' style science centre in the city.

Members would be aware that I have been campaigning for a long time to get a social/political/economic/history museum somewhere in the CBD, and the City of Adelaide is keen to have a museum, which certainly highlights what has happened in the city. This is really going beyond that. I think this means a separate facility, and a possible site for something like this is the old RAH site. That is one possible location.

We used to have an investigator-type science centre—the Adelaide Investigator Science and Technology Centre—and it existed for 15 years, but closed on 14 December 2006. I believe it is time that the government and other appropriate organisations move to create an investigator science centre. I do acknowledge that within the centre of Adelaide we have the Royal Institution of Australia, which has a science focus and is in the old stock exchange building, but it is not quite what one would normally expect in an investigator science centre—not that what they do is inappropriate, but I am envisaging something that goes beyond that, welcome as that is.

Underlying the desire for this type of centre—hands-on investigation, science and technology—is what I see as a concerning development in our society, which has lost its focus on science to a large degree, that is, there is almost an anti-science approach out there by a significant number of people. I think that is unfortunate because when we talk about science there is well-established procedures usually characterised as the 'scientific method' for investigating things. But as a society we seem to have lost focus on science and its sister, mathematics, and I think it is time that that focus was reinstated.

The previous centre was at Wayville and opened in 1991 then moved to Regency Park in 2003. It provided interactive activities which are necessary to get young people (in particular) excited about science and what you can do and what can be done through some of the approaches to science—some of the new technologies and so on.

As a state, our future lies in exercising the space between our ears. We are not likely to be able to compete in the low-cost labour area as we are up against countries that pay their workers little. But we can create, we can survive and thrive if we focus on being innovative and creative.

I will not go through the list, but South Australia has pioneered a lot of medical and other discoveries. Think of some of the people who have come out of our universities or have been associated with them: the Braggs and people like that. There was the invention of the photocopier by the defence research people who were based at Woodville at that time. I think one of them was Ken Metcalfe—I could be corrected—and with his partner, they invented the photocopier and it then went on to become a product used around the world and is still used around the world. The idea of photocopying by using xerography is something that came out of South Australia, and there have been a lot of other innovations—technical ones of varying kinds.

One of the great advocates for a science centre is Dr Rob Morrison and he wrote to me indicating his support and suggested that the old Royal Adelaide Hospital site be looked at. In his letter addressed to me he states:

You may not know that, when the Investigator Science and Technology centre closed, claiming insufficient government funding to allow it to survive, three of us were concerned that SA would become the only state with no hands-on provision for young students. We bought the Investigator's assets and formed SciWorld, of which I am chair.

Then he suggested I look at www.sciworld.org.au to see what they do, and he indicates that they have gone mobile in taking interactive science to regions, remote areas and Indigenous communities, which is a great thing.

He points out that SciWorld received no funding for six years but was recently given some useful help from minister Kenyon and the Premier and he said they had won an Inspiring Australia grant, but goes on to say, 'But we still lack any centre in Adelaide, and something within the RAH site would help enormously.'

Dr Rob Morrison has been very active in promoting science and scientific activities for a long time in South Australia. He is not just someone like myself—I am not a scientist. But if you talk to researchers and academics of various scientific disciplines, they all lament the fact that science seems to have been downgraded and downplayed in our state. I do not think it is good enough for us not to have a facility which stimulates young people and encourages their inquiring minds.

New South Wales has the Powerhouse Museum. It has traditional exhibits and it has some characteristics of science centres. In Victoria they have what is called Scienceworks. Western Australia has the Scitech Discovery Centre, and it has proved to be one of the most successful science centres in Australia.

In some of the regional centres, Wollongong has the Science Centre and Planetarium, the Queensland Museum has the Sciencentre, and Bendigo in Victoria and Devonport in Tasmania also have centres. There are quite a few jurisdictions around Australia that have created interactive facilities, and I do not believe that it is acceptable that here in South Australia we are dragging the chain in that regard.

I was in Newcastle recently looking at the liquor licensing laws, and they have a museum which includes the Supernova Science Centre. It is the centrepiece of their regional museum. In Tasmania—I mentioned one of their regional centres—they have a Musbus, which is a travelling museum and hands-on science program. So even little old Tasmania can do something a bit more than what we have been doing.

As I say, I am not taking away from the Royal Institution Australia (RiAus) facility here, or what they are trying to do. What we have in the centre of the city is a sister organisation of Britain's famous Royal Institution, but that is part of, I guess, the push towards making science more central in what we do here. I will just read from the RiAus statement:

Science and technology is as much a part of our cultural fabric as art, music, theatre and literature. They play a significant role in our daily lives, yet, in a world dependent on science, we often take them for granted. RiAus believes every citizen has a right, and a responsibility, to be informed, and our mission is to create programs to bring that about.

Based in Adelaide, but with a reach around the country and throughout the world, RiAus is Australia's unique, national science hub. RiAus is housed in the converted heritage-listed former Adelaide Stock Exchange building, which has been turned into a contemporary Science Exchange, trading in ideas and knowledge. RiAus brings together people—scientists, researchers, technologists and engineers, with families, educators, media, government and industry.

What I want to do today (and hopefully I am doing it) is highlight the need to have an investigator-style science centre created in the centre of the city. I fully support mobile operations as well—that is great. People in the country should not miss out on these opportunities. Wider than that, I would like to see science given more emphasis and focus through our education system at all levels, because I think our future as a state and as a nation depends on being genuinely smart. I think we have to lead the pack. We have the creative people, but we have not been stimulating young people in particular in relation to maybe a career in science or at least following and adopting the processes of inquiry, which characterise the scientific method.

I went to the Natural History Museum here the other day, which is a very good museum. It houses a lot of things which they cannot even display there, but they do have some interactive activities, and I commend them for that. When I was there recently with two little granddaughters, they were quite excited, as were a lot of other children, at what is on display and some of the activities they can do. However, they do not have the space to really provide what is needed where young people can engage and get active.

I come back to my central point and urge the government—we are not talking about a lot of money—hopefully to create, support and facilitate an 'investigator' style science centre in the city, whether on the old Royal Adelaide Hospital site (as it will become) or some other appropriate location. I commend the motion to the house. I acknowledge the work done by Dr Morrison and others who have continued to campaign for a long time to have an 'investigator' science centre in Adelaide.

Debate adjourned on motion of Mr Gardner.

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