Sometimes research funding announcements (below) are scoffed at by an MP saying they will do nothing for their constituents within the week. There are two reasons why this won’t happen today

One is that Education Minister Dan Tehan is positioning himself as a supporter of research, perhaps because he believes it, perhaps because it gets vocal lobbies off his case, perhaps both. In the Reps last month, he spoke up for Australian Research Council, “funding for research, which is in the national, and international interest.”

“Researchers in universities around the country carry out research every day on different matters affecting the everyday lives of us all, not only in Australia but also right around the world. Cutting edge research is changing our world dramatically, but the incremental progress of long-term research programs is also vital for many industries, where commercial success comes from being just a cut above the rest,” he said (CMM ).

The other is that the government will want attention focused on Labor voting to abolish the $4bn Education Investment Fund in return for $50m for TAFE infrastructure (also below). That the $4bn (less $50m) will go to a disaster relief emergency fund might strike Labor tacticians as appealing to voters who don’t care about research.

But it won’t do much for Labor’s standing with generally rusted-on supporters in the research community.