Sydney

New Zealand's opposition Labour Party has promised to increase the funding for basic research by NZ$77 million (US$40 million) over the next three years, financed primarily from increased taxes on high-income earners, if it wins the general election next week (27 November).

The party is also promising increased taxes to raise an extra NZ$750 million over three years, most of which would be used to ease student debt, stop fee increases and encourage students to take up science and technology.

The ruling National Party, which recently attempted to take the initiative with measures — but no new money — intended to boost the nation's research and development (see Nature 401, 106; 1999), appears to have lost some momentum on the issue.

Many scientists were disappointed that the prime minister, Jenny Shipley, gave only passing mention to research in her campaign launch, strongly defending the National Party's belief in market forces. Indications that the party would reverse its opposition to tax breaks to improve the poor research performance by industry were scotched last week by the treasurer, Bill English.

But the government-owned Association of Crown Research Institutes, through their association, are strongly supportive of the earlier package, and have declared that “it puts research centre stage in New Zealand's development”.

Both Labour and the National Party have pronounced that the ‘knowledge economy’ is the country's route to economic salvation. But science is a less popular cause than universities, where staff and students are protesting against government policies.

These policies, which have led to rising fees and student debt, are widely cited as being behind the exodus of graduates and experienced researchers alike.

This week, New Zealand-born scientists working in the United States claimed the government's package of new scholarships would be better spent on improving research conditions in New Zealand.

Amanda Peet, a physicist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, says that higher education in New Zealand is “starved of support”

Labour's science spokesman, Mark Peck, is promising to establish New Zealand's first external body to advise the prime minister on science and technology — a significant weakening of the ministries' grip on policy.

Many are critical of the government. Mark Grimes, a member of the council of the New Zealand Association of Scientists, accuses the government of “a plot to cover up their abysmal record in funding science and education by quoting cumulative increases”.

But others are sceptical of Labour's capacity to improve the situation, given that it started the problem with its cuts. The association's president, Janet Grieve, says it is not endorsing any party.