KEY POINTS:
With only weeks until a general election, the attention of the country remains focused on political hubris rather than on enhancing the future of a small nation facing the daunting challenges of economic and environmental change.
Our desire for living standards and social improvement is increasingly difficult to afford.
While we have much to be proud of in terms of our culture and accomplishments, we could do much better. In fact most measures suggest that we perform rather poorly on the global stage.
Perhaps the gravest problem is our low productivity which year after year trails further behind our key competitors. This ultimately affects our ability to pay our way - whether for health, transport, housing, education or enhancing our environment and way of life.
The National Science Panel believes emphatically that the answer lies in transforming our society and economy through the fruits of research, science and technology.
This was emphasised by the Prime Minister in 2006: "My Government believes that science and innovation are critical to driving our prosperity."
The Government's allocation through the research, science and technology vote 2008 will be $725.7 million. Their published agenda says it recognises "innovation is imperative for New Zealand" and describes the strengthening of the science base.
This year a significant commitment to adding value in the food and pastoral industries was announced in the "Fast Forward" package.
However, open letters to the minister from people at the grassroots level of science, a variety of press releases and editorials and a Science Manifesto from the National Science Panel raise serious questions about the health of the science system.
Concerns are identified in the 2007 OECD report on our innovation system which recognises New Zealand lags seriously behind global competitors in research, science and technology investment. Denmark, Ireland, Norway, Finland and now Singapore are small nations who have successfully invested much more in science systems and this is reflected in the growth of their economies relative to the OECD mean.
Many other nations have recognised that to get the best value out of their science systems, they need an independent chief scientist or science council directly advising the leader of the government. Such independent advice to government is an essential part of the functioning of the nation.
Globally, science has become the engine room of economic change and science has been, in fact, the backbone of New Zealand's economy, particularly in agriculture. It is the vital factor in determining our nation's performance under mounting economic, social and environmental challenges.
We often take for granted the everyday science that touches all aspects of our lives - our homes, our food, our parents' welfare and children's development and our health.
Scientific knowledge affects our environment and resources. It underpins any improvements we hope to make to our economy, environment, infrastructure, health, energy supply, communications, entertainment and the operation of the many institutions on which a civil society depends.
We rightly honour our great scientists: Rutherford, Wilkins, Tinsley, Axford, MacDiarmid, Jones, Pickering, Liggins and McMeekan. Our universities and research institutes have successes in their laboratories and a few New Zealand companies have enjoyed spectacular success on the international stage.
But compared with other nations these successes are far too few. Our industry is generally averse to research investment and our science system needs better resources and fewer constraints.
We lack a clear, long-term national science strategy that balances the health of the science system with the national benefit in the private and public sectors.
New Zealand must use its best available scientific talents, otherwise initiatives are misdirected and resources wasted.
We must ask why students are steering away from science as a career. It is not because they lack passion or ability.
They drop science because science is devalued here. Scientists, frustrated with the complex funding and compliance regimes, and being relatively underpaid, simply do not recommend science as a career.
We see weekly stories lamenting the loss of top rugby players. We have talented scientists leaving all the time and scarcely a word is said. We need to demonstrate that we value science highly by providing stable careers here and by assisting scientists' development, particularly early in their careers.
It is time for our political parties to focus on these central issues that underpin our nation's prosperity. How we use science and fund science is a major issue.
We cannot continue to tinker around the edges. We cannot continue to simply rely on working harder and longer.
We can try using brainpower instead - there is little else left!
* Dr Jim Watson is chairman of the 11-member National Science Panel established by the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2006. It produced a Manifesto for Science. The society disestablished the panel in May this year but panel members have chosen to continue their advocacy for science.
