Contributions are welcome.
We are appalled that the Howard government is following in the footsteps of the Keating government by once again turning down ESO membership. This demonstrates either an unforgivable ignorance of the significance of this project or an attitude towards the Academy of Science, the Major National Research Facility selection committee and the long-term interests of the nation which is so cavalier as to defy description. While we understand the need for fiscal prudence, this is one project which must go ahead now. Opportunities like this only come by once every twenty or thirty years. The ESO will be the world s greatest astronomical facility in the Southern Hemisphere and will remain so for decades.