Tim Ayres

And I think it's silly to position them as a binary.

We actually need both of these lines of inquiry, which, of course, intersect and overlap to be working together.

Well, I'd say your grandfather was, and he had an incredible career in Australian agriculture.

And it is a rewarding career that has a broad social impact.

There's not many careers where you get to do work that changes the world.

And science is a way of doing that.

If one of my kids came along and said that, I'd be absolutely delighted.

If they're listening, you can do whatever you want, kids.

But of course, the message that we send to young people about working science careers or engineering careers or trades careers, there's been a bit of a self-fulfilling negative talk in Australia about these questions.

Don't say that to obviate the tough challenges and making sure that these are good jobs with good career paths.

But we shouldn't talk Australian science down.

We shouldn't talk Australian industry down.

and we shouldn't talk Australian engineering down.

We've got unique capabilities here and a developed economy with a strong system, and we ought to be talking it up and offering as many opportunities as we can.

Well, I'm optimistic about Australian science and I can see just so clearly the connection between our science effort and the work of all of the researchers and all of the scientists in the system

and the big national challenges that Australia needs to solve to make us stronger, to make us more secure, to deal with the climate and energy and food security challenges for Australia and also for our region.

You know, we live in one of the most exciting parts of the world, fastest growing regions of the world in human history.

And Australian science has got its role to play here and in our region, making this a really good place to live.

Well, as a politician, of course, in the Australian Parliament, we do have to apply for our jobs every three years.

But it's not the same.