Andrew Leigh (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I wish to ask the minister questions relating to the funding for innovation in Australia. It is an issue that is particularly important for my electorate of Fraser. People often think of the ACT as being fundamentally a government town. I think of it as being an innovation town, a place where new ideas are generated in public policy but also in our educational institutions. There is the Australian National University, which is producing ideas across the gamut from the public policy centres of the HC Coombs Policy Forum to the Crawford School of Economics and Government and the excellent research being done on China and South-East Asia, as well as by my former colleagues in the Research School of Economics. There is also a variety of cutting-edge physical science research being done at the Australian National University.

I have visited some of the research facilities, including the solar thermal dish, which you can see as you drive along Parkes Way towards the city, and there is also the research being done at ANU looking at different ways of generating solar cells—ways of ensuring that solar cells are produced as cheaply as possible, which of course has big gains for Australia. The cheaper that we can make our solar cells, the quicker that we are able to move to renewable technologies. A price on carbon is going to substantially drive that innovation. I know that you, Minister, representing the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, will be able to tell me something about some of the research that is being subsidised by the government, investment which will lead to more clean tech opportunities for Australia.

Minister, I would also like you to provide us with some information on the square kilometre array. I know that yesterday Senator Carr met a group of primary school students on the Parliament House lawns. The square kilometre array bid is already inspiring and engaging young Australians with science and innovation. Minister, are you able to tell us how the square kilometre array funding will help secure other projects for Australia? I know that these sorts of projects can often have spillovers, much as we know has happened in many of the ideas hubs in the world. Silicon Valley spills out of Stanford, and the Boston Route 128 tech corridor spills out of Harvard and MIT. I would appreciate some insights from you as to how the government expects that some of this new investment around the square kilometre array will lead to more innovation in Australia. Of course, to the extent that that is located in the national capital, that will be a great pride to me.

The University of Canberra has a range of different research centres doing really important, cutting-edge work around the health sciences, in public policy and in the physical sciences themselves. The Australian Catholic University and UNSW@ADFA are also fine research institutions in the Fraser electorate doing really critical work which will improve living standards for future Australians as well as providing jobs in those high-tech industries. Good jobs of the future are being assisted through these science research institutions.

And of course we have Questacon now providing science education to so many young Australians. It will soon be using the National Broadband Network to allow Australian children who are not able to come to Canberra to access many of the good ideas available at Questacon. Questacon is an institution in the ACT that does the nation enormously proud. The work being done at Questacon complements the scientific research at Australia's key universities, many of which are located here in the ACT.

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