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Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Page: 2478

Senator JACINTA COLLINS (Victoria—Manager of Government Business in the Senate and Parliamentary Secretary for School Education and Workplace Relations) (16:12): Senator Mason and I have both been around long enough to understand that that is far from a very simple question. How the impact will be measured relates to what it is you are seeking to measure and what the project is. As to where it might fit in terms of any of the National Research Priorities, obviously measuring something in relation to an Environmentally Sustainable Australia is going to be different from how you might measure Frontier Technologies for Building and Transforming Australian Industries. It would be different on a case-by-case basis for the four projects.

I think the important element is a bit like the debates we have in this place about government addressing particular priorities and family impact assessments. Simply making the output one of the significant factors in assessing the projects focuses those who are putting forward projects and those who are assessing them on that issue and how output might appropriately be measured on a case-by-case basis.