Belinda Smith

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2,605 appearances 27 recordings 4 series first heard Apr 2026 last heard yesterday

Belinda Smith’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 27 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 6.

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The Science Show · Australian science under strain · 1 May 2026 podcast

So in terms of that, what concrete steps are being taken to stop the flow of people, mostly young people, leaving research or just taking their stuff overseas and going to where the money is like Europe?

You said there wasn't going to be a policy panacea presented to us on the Sight Show today, but what would be the obvious things that you could do, not just over the next years, but I'm talking maybe the next 12 months?

Or just get something rolling.

You heard Professor Ravenscroft there, the despair in her voice.

You said before that the government has responsibility to fund science and research in Australia and said earlier this month that it would prioritise investments in science and research that would generate tangible commercial outcomes.

But the thing is, we can't predict these things.

A lot of the technology that we use came from blue sky or fundamental research.

So how do you plan to support that fundamental research?

If one of your kids came to you and said, I want to be a research scientist, what would you say?

Oh, for sure.

I mean, a line that gets trotted out often is Australian scientists and researchers and engineers punch above their weight.

Yeah.

But they've done so much with so little, and there's only so long that a system under strain can operate before it collapses.

What's your outlook for the future?

If you were told every five years you had to apply for your job and you had a 9% success rate of holding onto your job, would you be in that position?

Would you take that job?

I also asked the Minister about an issue that we've been following on the Science Show for a couple of weeks, the government's recent decision not to pursue full membership of the European Southern Observatory.

This would have given Australian astronomers access to top-of-the-line optical telescopes in Chile, including the Extremely Large Telescope, which is on track to start observing the universe in 2030.

What sort of future opportunities are we talking here, specifically for optical telescopes?

Well, we have some domestic capability opportunities

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