Tony Healy writes:
While I commend the PM for the ambition in her speech, I think she misses the point.
The core cultural expertise we need over the next 50 years if we are to maintain the respect of Asian nations and prosper will be in using science. Our English heritage has given us a slight disdain for science and engineering. Germans and Europeans don’t share that disdain, and Asian nations certainly don’t. Asian leaders are much more likely to have science or engineering education. The dramatic growth of Singapore, Taiwan and now China shows the value of that culture.
Most of our political leaders don’t even know which science and engineering professions are responsible for what, let alone being able to assess important issues themselves. Our corporate world is better in some areas, such as mining, but poor in areas such as information technology. This is an area where we will be eaten alive.