WA’s Chief Scientist Professor Peter Klinken estimates that 40 per cent of current Australian jobs will disappear with five million Australians not doing the same job in the next 10 years.
Professor Klinken presented a How Science and Technology can build a Stronger Region talk at a Bunbury Wellington Economic Alliance’s chairman’s dinner on Thursday.
Speaking to a congregation of local government and business representatives, Professor Klinken stressed the need for WA’s education system to focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics competencies.
Biodiversity and radio-astronomy along with marine science were the two industries Professor Klinken highlighted as burgeoning for WA but cited red-tape and the education system as barriers for growth.
“We in WA are a biodiversity hot spot and particularly the South West is one of 34 global hotspots in biodiversity,” he said.
“Do you know that we are not allowed to commercialise a product out of our biodiversity when we are sitting on a treasure trove for pharmaceuticals?
“We have actually locked up our biodiversity when we need to be developing a biotech or pharmaceutical industry based around the incredible biological resources that we’ve been given.
“One of my big missions is to change legislation to extract value out of our biodiversity.”
Professor Klinken was also critical of the education system’s content-driven curriculum and the Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR).
“Look at ATAR – you’ve got this ridiculous system where it’s better for kids to do photography than physics to get a better score,” he said.
“We are dumbing down our kids and not encouraging them to take the harder options.
“Why as a society have we allowed Science and Maths to not be compulsary in Year 11 and 12?
“I for one will be doing my bit to try and convince governments the need to invest more in Science and Technology because I believe that is a big part of our future. We’ve basically got to get our s*** together.”
Professor Klinken is a leading Western Australian medical research scientist whose role as Chief Scientist involves providing the government with input to help support the state’s science industries to achieve future prosperity.
