Page 3126 - Week 09 - Thursday, 13 October 2022

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My aim in innovation is not to flood the country with shiny gadgets, but to change the culture.

Of course we will need new technologies to answer the challenges and grasp the opportunities that lie before us.

But we will also need new institutions, new forms of community—new ways of understanding ourselves and our world.

In all of this, the humanities, arts and social sciences are critical.

They will give us the ideas, the language and the self-awareness we need to make change happen.

These disciplines have to be on the same footing as the physical and life sciences.

This is more than a matter of courtesy.

It is a matter of necessity.

These are difficult times.

We have climate change to deal with.

We have globalisation to deal with.

We have an ageing population and water scarcity and social disadvantage to deal with.

And now we have a worldwide economic slowdown to deal with as well.

(Extension of time granted.)

Kim said:

There is no doubt in my mind that we can steer our way through these difficulties and emerge stronger on the other side.

In accepting his medal on Tuesday, Kim stuck to the theme that he has consistently championed for almost three decades in public life, recognising there is more to do and saying:

Science has a critical role in restoring public trust in finding solutions to the big problems this country faces.

Many of which we faced in 2008. As Professor Chubb said:

We’ll miss Kim’s three-piece suits, his mobile eyebrows and his forward lean which always preceded a tough question in Senate estimates.


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