National leader Jenny Shipley is wrong to claim that "less research will be done" in Crown Research Institutes because the Government is taking dividends from them for the new NZ Venture Investment Fund, says Minister of Research, Science and Technology Pete Hodgson.

"Jenny Shipley has succeeded only in demonstrating her ignorance of how public science is funded," Mr Hodgson said.

"Research in CRIs and other public research institutions is funded almost entirely through Vote Research, Science and Technology, which will increase by $11.6 million this year. This includes an extra $2.3 million for the New Economy Research Fund and a $2 million increase for the Marsden Fund.

"CRIs do not fund their research from their own cash balances or borrowing. Funding for research is therefore unaffected by the Government's decision to take a dividend from CRIs.

"Most CRIs are now in strong financial positions with very low levels of debt and several have unused cash surpluses. These surpluses are expected to grow, totalling more than $40 million a year over the next three years.

"An Ernst & Young report in 1996 concluded that most CRIs could manage a gearing ratio – the proportion of debt to shareholders' funds – of up to 30 percent. At present it is less than 4 percent and falling.

"Mrs Shipley is also wrong to claim that New Zealanders will pay for the NZ Venture Investment Fund through higher power prices.

"Governments – including National governments – have taken dividends from electricity SOEs, and others, since they were established. Private generators also pay dividends to their shareholders. These are part of the normal cost of doing business in the electricity market and introduce no unusual cost pressures."

Ends

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>