Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Manufacturing) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) congratulates the Australian researchers at Monash University and Amaero Engineering Pty Ltd who created the world's first 3D printed jet engine;

(2) recognises that:

(a) Australia has a history of punching above its weight when it comes to research and development; and

(b) huge opportunities are available to create new advanced manufacturing jobs and industries with the right government support for our science, research and manufacturing sectors; and

(3) condemns the Government's shortsighted approach to science, research and industry policy, where it has:

(a) cut $878 million from science and research, including $115 million from the CSIRO;

(b) recklessly undermined the Australian auto manufacturing sector, risking the loss of millions of dollars annually of investment in research and development;

(c) failed to support the shipbuilding industry by refusing to guarantee that the 12 future submarines will be built in Australia which would lead to millions of dollars of investment in research and innovation; and

(d) introduced enormous uncertainty for innovative businesses conducting Australian research and development, with retrograde changes to the Research & Development Tax Incentive that sees the removal of the benefit for expenditure over $100 million and a reduction in the rate of the offset by 1.5 percentage points for all firms across the board.

I congratulate Monash University and Amaero Engineering Proprietary Ltd, who in partnership with others including the CSIRO and Deakin University, created the world's first 3-D printed jet engine. Earlier today, I met with Dr Tony Peacock, CEO of the Cooperative Research Centres Association, and Simon Marriot, from the Advanced Manufacturing CRC, who provided me with a personal briefing on the printer. It is a remarkable invention that will reduce the time and cost of producing prototypes, enable the rapid and relatively inexpensive production of small quantities of parts and the production of highly customised components in small production runs. The 3-D printer was proudly developed here in Australia, by the public and private sector working together, and it was, I understand, four and a half years in the making.

The outcome highlights several critical matters: firstly, the importance of investing in science research and development: secondly, the importance of investing in and supporting university research; thirdly, the importance of innovation to Australia's future, and to the future of Australia's manufacturing sector: and, fourthly, that Australians have the ability to invent, innovate and develop new products. Australians have proven time and again that we can lead the world in science and innovation breakthroughs. Australia's future is indeed as much dependent on research development and innovation as the future of any other nation. Even our agricultural and mining sectors, which have created considerable wealth for Australia over recent years, will struggle without continuous innovation.

Disappointingly, this government does not seem to understand or value our researchers and scientists. Only last week, the Minister for Education and Training—the fixer—was holding some 1,700 scientists to ransom, using them as a bargaining chip to try to get his unpopular and retrograde university deregulation changes through parliament. This was not a one-off, misguided thought bubble, but follows a pattern of neglect of our science sector by the Abbott government. It began with a government that on coming into office did not appoint a minister for science. Then, in its first budget, the Abbott government cut $878 million of funding from science and research, including $115 million from the CSIRO. One has only to go to one of the many breakfast briefings provided by the CSIRO in this place to understand the value of that organisation's work to our nation. The stupidity of cutting funds to CSIRO is a no-brainer.

In addition, the government cut all the programs that encouraged and rewarded innovation, like Commercialisation Australia, the Innovation Investment Fund, Enterprise Connect and the Research and Development Tax Incentives. Then in a total display of ignorance and arrogance, the Abbott government turned its back on the automotive sector and the Australian Submarine Corporation, both of which added hundreds of millions of dollars of research, development and innovation to the Australian economy. If time permitted, I could talk about personal examples in Adelaide of companies that innovated as a result of the work of both of those sectors. The benefits of research and development dollars spent by the car makers or the Australian Submarine Corporation were not confined to their own sectors but ultimately spread throughout the economy. Indeed, several European countries have maintained strong manufacturing sectors not through cheap labour but by investing in science, research and innovation, and by developing niche products in advanced manufacturing.

Australia has the ability to do the same, but this government, rather than build on Australia's existing innovation strengths and opportunities, is tearing them down. It is a government that is looking to the past for solutions instead of looking to the future; a government that gives lip service to science and research but then does the reverse with its budget.

Australians can see what is happening and so can the Australian science sector and industry. They are not blinded by the government's spin. They understand the damage the coalition government is doing to Australia's future and that is why they have lost confidence in the Abbott government. The government's blind ideology has not only lost Australia tens of thousand of jobs, including research scientists and engineers, and hundreds of millions of dollars of innovation investment, but also lost the productivity gains and the export value that those investments in science, innovation, research and development would have brought to Australia. The Abbott government simply does not understand that more than ever before Australia's future is dependant on innovation, and for that it stands condemned.

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