b'Canberra observed Canberra observedDavid Denham AM Associate Editor for Governmentdenham1@iinet.net.auExploration investmentMineral exploration investment continues to growThe latest information provided by theFigure 1.Quarterly investment in mineral and petroleum exploration 2005-22 in September A$. Australian Bureau of Statistics (https:// Source: https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/industry/mining/mineral-and-petroleum-exploration-www.abs.gov.au/statistics/industry/mining/ australia/latest-releasemineral-and-petroleum-exploration-australia/latest-release) on exploration investment shows that for minerals, the overall trend shows a gradual increase (see Figure 1). The $1billion per quarter is a healthy situation.Figure 2 shows that gold remains the main target, but that investment in gold has declined significantly from the peak of $430 million in June 2022 quarter to $315 million in the June 2023 quarter. Note that the investment all others and the some base metals is steadily increasing because of the demand for copper and battery components.Petroleum exploration is stagnantPetroleum exploration expenditure is still very low because of the absence of any significant offshore investment. The total investment in the June quarter was only $231 million and the onshore component was $145 million. Figure 2.Quarterly investment in exploration for the main mineral commodities. Source: https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/industry/mining/mineral-and-petroleum-exploration-australia/latest-releaseThe war in Ukraine has resulted in a gradual increase in the price of BrentResearch prioritiesCrude, which has risen steadily to aboutjoined the conversation on revitalising US$90/bl. Unfortunately, the value ofThe Department of Industry Science andAustralias National Science and Research the Australian dollar compared to the USResources is asking the public to havePriorities and National Science Statement.dollar had fallen from 0.71 in Februarytheir say on the Governments research 2023 to about $0.64 in September. Andpriorities (https://www.industry.gov.au/ The Department is now continuing the we all know that this has made largenews/australias-draft-national-science- discussion with the release of the draft changes in the price at the pumpsandand-research-priorities-have-your-say).priorities. These priorities have four core that is starting to hurt. Hundreds of submissions have alreadyaims:23 PREVIEW OCTOBER 2023'