Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Hansard source

Certainly, in our second reading amendment, whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, we note that the jobs and economic growth generated by a robust innovation ecosystem are important to the country. We also condemn the coalition for its continual failure to back Australian industry and innovation, particularly to deal with the challenges arising from the pandemic. The amendment has been seconded by my friend and colleague the member for Macquarie. We think that it's important to put that forward because this is a moment in time where we can use innovation to rethink the way that we work and to show that we back Australian ideas. We have faith in this country's heritage. We live on an isolated continent with a small population that has been separated from major supply lines in many times past, so we have had to think through the ways to get things done and we've had the people that have been able to find the ways.

But we do need to make sure that government regulations and laws in this country support that, that the funding is there to help back that, that the private sector is there to step up in greater part to believe in that, that our training systems build up our human capital to improve the quality of ideas and that we have a translation of that in a commercial sense for the benefit of the broader economy. I am moving my second reading amendment so that we can have that type of debate or that elements of the debate covered off in here. As I said, we think with the fact that we've got history in terms of ideas being translated into reality means we can do better. We also have the emergence of other developments, such as AI and robotics, so that on issues of national concern we could apply and improve the way that the economy is working. For example, if you look at agriculture, these huge labour shortages cannot be ignored, because they are affecting the productivity and performance of agriculture in this country. We know it can perform better and we should be applying ourselves to national problems like that. Clever people using AI and robotics in thinking about farm redesign could, for instance, find new ways for agriculture to be performed in the absence of labour at the time it's needed. That's the type of innovation where, if we applied ourselves, we might make a difference to communities in regions across the country. That's what should happen.

It's not going to come out of a name change. It is not going to occur because we inserted 'industry' in the name of the former Innovation and Science Australia. It will require government, business, academia and others to make it happen. Labor's got a positive agenda. I'll highlight in the moments I've got remaining that we have the National Reconstruction Fund of $15 billion to help drive the reimagining of Australian industry in this country. We've also announced a start-up plan that will provide $11,000 to university students working with university accelerators to create 2,000 new enterprises in this country that can tackle some of those national problems, either in the economic space or social impact enterprises that we think can make a difference to the quality of life in communities. We need imagination and dedication to deal with this. We don't need marketing and spin.

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