Mr NAIRN (3:10 PM) —My question is to the Minister for Science. Is the minister aware of any programs designed to assist Australian researchers working at the cutting edge of science? Is the minister aware of any recent breakthroughs by Australian based researchers?

Mr McGAURAN (Minister for Science) —I thank the member for Eden-Monaro for his continuing involvement and support for science and innovation, exemplified by his chairmanship of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Science and Innovation. As the honourable member well knows, this government has revolutionised funding and support for science and innovation, principally through the innovation statement of early last year—Backing Australia's Ability—which injected an additional $3 billion into science and innovation. This was followed up with $233 million extra in the last budget in May, taking the government's support for science and innovation to an all-time high of over $5 billion—all of it targeted and structured to develop a skills base, to create a research environment with the best of facilities and to commercialise our research.

All of this is in contrast to noodle nation, which was a grab-fest of ideas and loose concepts, none of which were practical, let alone able to be implemented. The government has worked with the science and research community to make sure that the funding hits those issues which are impediments to world-class research and the like. In addition, over the next six months we have undertaken to commence a process for determining national research priorities with the support and encouragement of the research community so that we can again extract better and long lasting benefit from the taxpayer's investment in science and innovation—as researchers themselves would have us do.

I was privileged this morning to be involved in the announcement of a technological breakthrough by Australian based researchers which takes us into a breathtaking new era of science—teleportation. For the uninitiated, which included me before today, teleportation is the disembodiment of an object in one location and the reconstruction of it in another location in a split second. This has phenomenal importance in the world of science—

honourable member—It is an opposition fantasy.

Mr McGAURAN —It is an opposition fantasy that they can somehow be transported onto the government benches in a split second. You have three years to work out a case to convince the Australian public that you are worthy of holding office. Eight months have already gone and there is no possibility of teleportation on the part of the opposition. This breakthrough by a team at the Australian National University, led by Dr Lam, has been assisted by funding from the Australian Research Council, which we are doubling over the next five years by more than $730 million. It is one of the cutting edge areas of research and quantum mechanics that will revolutionise quantum computing, communications and the like. On behalf of the House I congratulate Dr Lam and his team on their amazing work, which establishes Australia as a world leader in this frontier science and enhances Australia's reputation as a centre of world leading research.