Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott delivers his keynote speech during the B20 Summit in Sydney, July 17, 2014. Reuters

Australian scientists gave Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott the cold shoulder after he called on them to help convince Labor and the Greens to support the government's plan to create a medical research fund. In the science awards held at Canberra, Mr Abbott said in his speech that the government must be judged based on its performance and not on titles.

In a Guardian report, the prime minister said he had hoped that the government's performance has passed the approval of Australians in the last 12 months. After his statement, only a handful of the audience of scientists applauded. Mr Abbott remarked it was a "desultory applause, but at least it was some."

It was previously reported that CSIRO's funding was cut by $111 million over the next four years in the government's budget while the Australian Research Council's budget was cut by $75 million. However, the Abbott government has expressed plans of establishing a $20 billion medical research fund in the future. The funds will be taken from the proposed $7 GP co-payment.

Mr Abbott wanted the scientists to lobby his strongest opponents who were against his plan. The prime minister told scientists that the medical research fund will ensure that Australia will remain a "champion of research and innovation." Mr Abbott told the scientists that Australia had done well in publishing scientific research but fell behind other countries in commercialising ideas.

Reports said the government has formed an advisory council to be chaired by Mr Abbott to explore ways to link scientific ideas with business. The prime minister went on to claim that science is the centre of the government's action strategy since the country cannot advance without it.

The $300,000 top prize was awarded to scientists Sam Berkovic and Ingrid Scheffer for their research on the link of epilepsy to genetics. Scheffer told the Guardian that she agrees to the medical future fund but not the implementation of the GP co-payment. She said she wants the medical research fund to get its financial support from other sources that are more innovative. She was also worried that budget cuts in scientific research may become Australian scientists to go out of the country.