Petro Georgiou (Kooyong, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

On behalf of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Science and Innovation, I am pleased to present the committee’s report entitled Pathways to technological innovation, together with the minutes of the proceedings and evidence received by the committee.

Ordered that the report be made a parliamentary paper.

by leave—The findings of the committee reflect the complexity of measuring innovation success and the multitude of pathways that innovation may take. The committee found that many successful innovators experienced a smooth pathway to developing their product and finding markets. These are the success stories and it was heartening to see the calibre of Australian innovation and the strength of the government’s innovation support framework.

However, this is not the total story. It was apparent that, while some pathways to innovation are well developed and relatively unimpeded for the Australian entrepreneur or innovating business or research organisation, other pathways are less well formed and a number of adjustments to the innovation support framework are possible. The report makes 18 recommendations to target these adjustments and to facilitate the pathways that are less well formed or less well supported, and I will touch on some of them. The recommendations address the need to better promote the assistance that is available from the Australian government and ensure that cross-portfolio cooperation is working effectively and providing a more seamless service to researchers and innovators.

The recommendations also address impediments to innovation and to the commercialisation of innovation in publicly funded research institutes. The committee made recommendations to increase staff mobility across universities, research agencies and businesses so that barriers to collaboration can be addressed and innovative researchers can be better recognised and rewarded.

A key recommendation concerns the establishment of a funded proof of concept scheme for university research projects. This proposed scheme would provide three to one matched Australian government and university funding to stimulate innovation with high potential for commercial outcomes. At this early stage of innovation, there is limited access to angel investment. Lead times and risks make it prohibitive for universities to bear the whole cost. By sharing the risk through a matched funded proof of concept scheme, we can ensure that our good ideas, our scientific breakthroughs and our innovative approaches have greater opportunities to be tested and their feasibility for the marketplace determined.

The inquiry identified the need for government to provide more support for businesses to engage in later stage commercialisation activities, such as market identification. The committee recommended more transparency in reporting on government procurement strategies to boost the government procurement of technological innovation from Australian SMEs. Another important area of concern for Australian businesses and researchers was protection of intellectual property and the proper working of the intellectual property system. The committee advanced a number of recommendations in this area. Fostering a culture of entrepreneurship is a critical step to early innovation and pathways. It is a task that is challenging to government. Formulating a program by which government might foster such a cultural shift and engender a more entrepreneurial culture requires the expertise of educators and a more facile tongue than mine is occasionally. Accordingly, the government has recommended that a whole-of-government task force be established to investigate a suite of appropriate policy and program measures to foster a national culture of entrepreneurship.

Today, innovation is recognised as the multitude of pathways that encompass all types of basic research, new technologies and improvements in business. Through implementation of the recommendations of this report, the committee anticipates that some pathways to innovation will be made easier, thereby strengthening Australia’s growth and global competitiveness.

In conclusion, I would like to thank the many individuals, businesses and organisations who provided evidence to this inquiry. I would like to thank the committee secretariat, in particular Dr Alison Clegg and Dr Anna Dacre, for their work on the report. Members of the committee demonstrated considerable commitment to working together in a non-partisan fashion. I commend the report to the House. (Time expired)

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