Australia's New Chief Scientist Has One of the Toughest Jobs in the Country

This article originally appeared on VICE Australia.

Alan Finkel was appointed to the position of Chief Scientist by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull this week. It may look like a cushy position, but Finkel has a tough job ahead of him: convincing Australia that science is real.

Finkel enters a difficult and changing political climate. But is that political climate change man-made? The jury is still out. Here are some select quotes from Australia's leaders to demonstrate the world Finkel now finds himself in:

"The climate change argument is absolute crap." – Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, speaking to an audience in regional Victoria in 2009

"If you got everything that the World Health Organization says is carcinogenic and took it out of your daily requirements, you are heading back to a cave." – Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce, speaking to ABC Radio this week after the WHO announced a link between processed meat and bowel cancer.

"It would not make the blindest bit of difference to global emissions." – Current Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in response to a call to stop the opening of new coal mines.

The outrage at the World Health Organization suggesting something we like might be bad for us is pretty emblematic of our national pastime: getting angry at science when it doesn't perfectly align with our political beliefs. If it's mildly inconvenient, we don't want to deal with it. And what do we do when we don't want to deal with something? We ship it off to the Pacific Islands.

But this time the Islands don't seem so happy about it. Kiribati's President Anote Tong has called for a global moratorium on the expansion of coal mines, before his low-lying island nation is consumed by rising sea levels and increasingly extreme weather conditions.

Sixty-one prominent Australians have co-signed a letter to Malcolm Turnbull asking him to put coal exports on the agenda at the upcoming Paris climate summit.

The Prime Minister's response was based around the incorrect assertion that the calls for a moratorium were restricted to Australia. Turnbull, whose strong views once cost him the leadership of the party, is much more measured in rhetoric these days. He continues to acknowledge the existence of climate change, but maintains that the Coalition's policies—formed under the aforementioned man who said that climate change was crap—is somehow consistent with this belief. We can only conclude that Australia is blessed with the Rorschach of environmental policies, one that suits the agendas of a man who doesn't believe in climate change and one who does.

This is the wonderful world of scientific debate that Alan Finkel is currently wading into—perhaps literally if things don't change.

So what do we know about him? At the press conference announcing his appointment, the Monash University Chancellor told reporters: "My vision is for a country, society, and world where we don't use any coal, oil, or natural gas, where we have zero emissions electricity."

Finkel is a proponent of nuclear power, and said that it should "absolutely be considered" as one of many alternatives to coal, along with wind and solar.

Turnbull added his support to this approach, announcing that the "nuclear option" must be on the table. Of course, it's worth noting that the phrase "nuclear option" is more commonly associated with taking the most extreme path in a difficult situation (as in: "Should we get pizza or burgers?" "Pizza, or I'll tell the police about the time you killed that guy.") This is probably as close to a gaffe as we'll ever see from Turnbull, who is, we're sad to say, unlikely to ever mention a suppository of wisdom or praise a female candidate's sex appeal.

It's a tricky time for Turnbull, who clearly understands the science, but is hamstrung by a party room that won't let him act on it.

The idea of a Coalition government paying attention to science has long been considered a joke. Quite literally in some cases. When Australia controversially blocked New Zealand apple imports during the Howard years, then-Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told an audience at the Australia-New Zealand Leadership Forum dinner they we were doing so based on the science. "It's called political science!" quipped Downer after a beat. With his notes instructing him to pause for laughter, we've learned that over a decade later, Downer is still standing at that podium, covered in cobwebs and dust.

Australia claimed that the ban was due to quarantine issues, but New Zealand maintained that this was merely a politically-motivated cover. Either way, Downer's joke is predicated on the accepted notion that the Coalition would never put scientific concerns above political ones, and there is always truth in humor, even when there's not very much humor.

When Tony Abbott came to power in 2013, his new ministry excluded one key portfolio: for the first time since 1931, there was no Minister for Science. "Science, as in the CSIRO, will be with industry," Abbott said, indicating that Ian Macfarlane, the Minister for Industry, would handle all the sciencey stuff.

Under the Abbott government, science was only useful in its relation to the economy and to business. Which was totally reasonable. After all, there was only so much room for portfolios, and what would it replace? Sports? The Sports portfolio? Handled by the Minister for Sports? Of course not. Science had to go.

But just over a year later, Science was chuffed to be returned to prominence during a cabinet reshuffle, where it was given to Ian Macfarlane, now the Minister for Industry And, Time-Permitting, Science. That grand title change indicated a huge shift in policy, as Abbott gladly put a new word into an MP's title to deflect criticism.

At a time when the coal industry is running a truly extraordinary PR campaign—"Isn't it amazing what this little black rock can do?"—the actual science of climate change is still struggling for airspace. With US President Barack Obama candidly calling out deniers, Australia's change in Prime Minister has had very little impact in terms of policy. Those embarrassed by Abbott and relieved at Turnbull's ascendency should realize they're using the exact same playbook.

So the best of luck to Alan Finkel, who was clearly weighing up whether to take this position, asking the day before the announcement whether there was other life in the universe. Concluding there was probably not, he then accepted the position.

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