The science lobbies loved Opposition Leader Bill Shorten’s Wednesday night speech in which he came over all Aretha making the case for government respecting scientists.

The Group of Eight is “encouraged by Labor’s promised commitment to a complete reset of how Australian science and research is treated, valued and capitalised upon.” The Australian Technology Network agrees, “an important step in guiding the long-term direction for science and research in Australia.” The Academy of Science is pleased “to see Bill Shorten commit to a number of the Academy’s recommendations. So is Science and Technology Australia, “STA has been calling for a whole of government plan to support research and development and Mr Shorten appears to have heard our call.”

The reason why is respect. “No funding announcements were made and in fact in the Q&A, none of the scientists asked questions about money. The speech was more about respect, process and priorities. As a former industrial advocate, Shorten seems genuinely shocked at the conditions under which Australia’s science community works,” a Learned Reader in the audience reports.

“Shorten’s plan is to go back to Howard in terms of a prime minister’s science, engineering and innovation council with serious ministerial clout. He goes further in proposing a charter whereby a Labor government would publish scientific advice it receives and, if it rejects that advice, publish why. Labor is betting that the science community will back being respected and taken seriously over promises of any new dollars – although those might come too as we get closer to the election.”

The Shorten speech stole attention from the prime minister’s science announcement, of a new smaller and focused peak science policy committee – which absence, the Learned Reader suggests might be good for the government.

The new National Science and Technology Council excludes the ministers who spend serious money on science, health, education, defence and agriculture. “Given the current council has not met for 15 months, the undertaking to increase meeting frequency from twice a year to four times a year looks like it was added for comedic effect,” the LR adds. In contrast, “Labor is betting that the science community will back being respected and taken seriously over promises of any new dollars.”