August 10, 2025

Here’s one for the political tragics: which party in Australia’s history has built and backed more of our science and public research institutions than any other? Answer — the Australian Labor Party. From Ben Chifley’s decision to turn the fledgling CSIR into the CSIRO in 1949, to Roger Cook’s recent push for a Future Health Research Hub, Labor has treated science like a favourite child — one it knows must be fed, funded, and defended