30th Anniversary Celebration of Peter Doherty’s Nobel Prize

I begin by acknowledging the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we meet today, the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation, and pay my respects to Elders past and present.

I extend that acknowledgment to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people here today.

I would also like to acknowledge tonight’s guest of honour, Professor Peter Doherty.

Professor Brian Schmidt, Distinguished Professor of Astronomy at the Australian National University and leader of one of the teams that was awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Dr Kate Cornick, CEO of the Tech Council of Australia.

Virginia Trioli, the moderator of tonight’s panel discussion.

Professor Sharon Lewin, of course. 

Carolyn Evans, the new Vice Chancellor of the University of Melbourne, one of our great universities.

Of course, I got to know Emma Johnston well, and I think there's something about the way that the University and the science community have responded to Emma's death.

Glyn stepping up to be the Chancellor. 

I think an act really of – or to be the Vice Chancellor I should say – an act really of service to the University and the university community.

An orderly process that has selected a marvellous new Vice Chancellor, and it's Carolyn’s week one, first public event here, to celebrate Peter's contribution.

So, I really wanted to acknowledge your presence, Chancellor Jane Hansen, as well.

It's a real pleasure to be here with you.

Good news is rarely delivered at 4am, I’ve discovered.

But on the 7th of October 1996, Penny Doherty picked up the phone.

And on the other end of the line was a man whose name was Nils Ringers.

He was calling from the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm.

Penny handed the phone to Peter, I'm told.

And he was told that he had 10 minutes to notify his friends and family before the news became public.

That he and his colleague Rolf Zinkernagel were to share the 1996 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

That the work that inspired that phone call, I think it's terrific that 30 years later, we are here to keep telling young Australians and young Australian scientists about this work.

The work that inspired that phone call was done 20 years earlier, when a Swiss postdoc and a vet from Queensland worked out how a killer T-cell – a type of white blood cell – recognises cells infected by a virus.

It’s an astonishing achievement.

Made more astonishing by how unlikely Peter's journey to that laboratory really was.

Peter grew up in Oxley in Brisbane's Western suburbs.

His own words for it was “hard-scrabble,” his upbringing in those communities.

He is of course not the only Australian, not the only famous Australian, to have emerged from that community in Oxley.

There are many of them, but one other does come to mind.

And that is a reminder that you can either in your life be a builder or a wrecker.

Work hard and contribute for your family, for your community, and for your country.

Or be a wrecker, tearing down other people's work, trashing institutions, and dividing Australians for your own advantage.

Well, Peter is definitely a nation-builder from Brisbane's Western suburbs.

At 16, like me, Peter wanted to be a journalist.

I was very confident when I hit 18, that I would be hopeless at making a kind of daily deadline.

And I am sure that Peter would have been a fantastic journalist, but we are fortunate that a young woman in a white coat was there at the University of Queensland Open Day, to convince Peter that biology is worth a shot.

30 years after graduating from the University of Queensland, Peter was standing in Stockholm receiving a Nobel Prize for work that he and Rolf carried out in Canberra.

30 years on from that recognition, we appreciate just how transformative their work has been.

Their years of experimentation, grind, and research leadership gave the world a deeper understanding of how the immune system distinguishes healthy and infected cells.

That understanding, at the very least, transformed how the science community develops vaccines.

It improves the science's understanding of tissue-matching and how the body rejects or accepts organ transplantation, and it might help lay the foundations for cancer immunotherapy.

Their discovery enabled scientists working in laboratories right around the world to ask new questions, make new discoveries, and push the frontier of medical science further.

But that is the nature of scientific inquiry and progress.

Every breakthrough builds on the work of others.

Our scientists inherit the discoveries and the work of previous generations, as well as the institutions and the research capabilities that make discovery possible.

It's why it's fitting that Peter and Rolf made their discovery, did their work principally at the John Curtin School of Medical Research at the Australian National University.

The John Curtin School itself was the product of an earlier generation's decision to invest in Australian scientific capability.

And it was named in honour of a transformative Labor Prime Minister who understood that while governments cannot predict the future, they can prepare for it, and it's their duty to prepare for it.

The generation that built the John Curtin School could not have known that its laboratories would produce a Nobel Prize-winning breakthrough in immunology just a few decades later.

It would have been inconceivable to them.

But they did understand that if government didn't invest in Australian science, scientists like Peter will be less likely to develop their talents in Australia.

That's at the very heart of this Government's commitment.

You can't predict the outcomes, but you can create the conditions that make that work possible.

And of course, those conditions start with talent. Like so many others, Peter's scientific journey began with curiosity and with a chance encounter.

That's why this Government is building more opportunities for young Australians to be inspired by science, in the same way that Peter and his colleagues were.

Through initiatives such as National Science Week and the Inspiring Australia Science Engagement Program.

It's also why the Prime Minister's Prize for Science, awarded in just a few weeks' time, recognises the researchers and the educators who inspire curiosity in the next generation of Australian scientists.

But identifying and inspiring Australian talent is only the first step towards developing scientific capability.

Transformative discoveries require strong institutions, long-term investment, and world-class research environments.

Which on Curtin School, stands as proof of that proposition.

This extraordinary institution itself, with a remarkable hole in the ground, Sharon, right next door, that is going to be an extraordinary achievement for Australian science and for Australian medical science.

Those principles, of course, guide us today.

And the challenge, of course, for the Science Minister is driving that investment, driving that effort.

Of course, always feeling short, always feeling that we're falling short.

But working with all of you and our amazing science community to deliver the best outcomes for Australia.

Our Future Made in Australia vision requires Australian science too.

At the heart of our decision to invest in the CSIRO an additional $387 million, in addition to $1 billion in expenditure.

The National Resilience and Science Council, which we are building now, to make sure that our science agenda is connected to our industrial policy and our investment approach.

I want to make that a forum that will elevate Australian science and incorporate it into the heart of our industrial, strategic, and economic considerations.

Peter's Nobel-winning work is also a reminder that the success of Australian science is connected to researchers and scientists all over the world.

Just as an Australian veterinarian and a Swiss researcher were able to transform immunology, Australia's participation in Horizon Europe will unlock opportunities for the next generation of Australian scientists.

To collaborate with European researchers on the biggest global scientific challenges and the largest pool of research funds anywhere in the world – $150 billion of available funds.

None of this was inevitable. 

Australian science is stronger because people like Peter have spent decades championing it, and that's why Peter's contribution extends far beyond the work that won him a Nobel Prize.

We spoke recently to Doug Hilton, the CEO of the CSIRO, who reflected on his first encounter with Peter's legacy.

As a 19-year-old undergraduate spending a summer at the John Curtin School of Pinnacle Research, he heard stories about the groundbreaking work that Peter and Rolf Zinkernagel had carried out there a decade earlier.

By then, they were already regarded as Australian legends.

What stayed with him from those stories was that their discovery achieved what every scientist should aspire to.

It was both beautiful and useful.

Doug also told me about the support that Peter gave him later in his career.

Like so many young scientists, Doug found Peter generous with his time and with his encouragement.

It's a reminder that Peter's contribution has been measured not only in scientific discoveries, but also in the generations of researchers that he has inspired, and mentored, and led.

As Doug put it: “Peter is a living legend and a national treasure. Someone who has made a difference to the world through science and his humanity.”

In his own words, Peter has spent the last 30 years advocating “shamelessly” for Australian science.

He's treated his Nobel Prize, and the platform that it gave him, as the beginning of a new phase of his work, not the end.

He started a research institute.

He's kept publishing.

He's written books.

He gave Australia a laugh when we needed it most when he accidentally tweeted “Dan Murphy opening hours” in April 2020.

It really did matter for the country.

I can tell you in in Erskineville, it made a big difference to me and my family, I can tell you.

Egalitarian, curious, hardworking Australian.

We should be so proud of the contribution that Peter has made for all of us.

He didn't just make a series of transformative discoveries.

He's used the authority that comes with the Nobel Prize to help create the conditions for future discovery, to elevate science and research, so that Australia can build.

On behalf of the Australian Government, and on behalf of everyone in this room, thank you so much for that.

Congratulations and thank you.