Australia’s new budget was announced earlier this week, bringing with it smiles for researchers. The new budget for science in 2009/10 is 8.6 billion Australian dollars (£4.3 bn).

“This is an historic budget for science, education and innovation, with a record spend in this area representing a 25% increase on last year, the highest annual increase since records began,” says Ken Baldwin, president of the Federation of Australian Science and Technological Societies (ABC News).

A detailed breakdown of where the money is going – including funding for postdocs, astronomy facilities and the indirect costs of research – can be found on The Australian’s website.

“The decision to fund the indirect costs of research in universities through increased funding to the Research Infrastructure Block Grants Scheme is a particularly valuable measure, reflecting the importance of the contribution made by university research to the basic knowledge that underpins all development,” says Kurt Lambeck, president of the Australian Academy of Science (press release).

Science Insider give the credit for the funding boost to “the hard-nosed and politically astute Innovation, Industry, Science and Research Minister Kim Carr”.

In The Age though, Rebecca Smith of Science Hub Australia, says more still needs to be done:

These increases will go some way to improving Australia’s gross expenditure on research and development, which was last measured at 2.01 per cent of GDP, below the 2.26 per cent OECD average.

But the budget was another disappointment to PhD students. Their stipends will increase 10 per cent from $20,427 in 2009 to $22,500 in 2010. This is an improvement relative to the 2 per cent increase between 2008 ($20,007) and 2009, but nowhere near what is needed