Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have to start these remarks on the Industry Research and Development Amendment (Industry Innovation and Science Australia) Bill 2021 with disappointment resulting from the comments of the previous speaker, who firstly dismissed our primary industries and said we need not care for sectors like mining and agriculture—those that create the wealth of the nation. In fact, they're the ones that empower innovation. One of the biggest sectors that we have is mining technology, which enables those sectors to be globally competitive, to more efficiently use the world's scarce resources and to be productive. Even without those sectors, we would lack the capacity to excel in some innovative sectors, but they create the wealth that supports so much of the rest of the economy.

The basic foundation of an economy starts with primary industries and builds up in manufacturing, particularly an advanced manufacturing base, and enlivens the services sector, which is all funded from the wealth created by primary industries. So it disappoints me that we have to start here, but this ultimately goes to the heart of the challenges for the Labor Party, because not only are they poor managers of matters like the nation's finances; they don't understand how the economy is structured and how wealth is created so that we can enjoy the bounty of our nation.

If you want an innovative country, you need to realise the opportunities from your natural bounty and take advantage of them in an efficient way but, more critically, utilise that wealth for the growth of other sectors of the economy, increasingly in an environmentally sustainable way. We do deeply care about the environment and our sense of stewardship to it, but we do this because the efficient use of the world's scarce resources is better for productivity, better for capital growth, better for efficiency and, increasingly—as the member for Brisbane, the Assistant Minister for Waste Reduction and Environmental Management, will tell us—is better around the role of a circular economy, where we can repurpose so much of what we have used and disused to be able to build a future in a more environmentally sustainable, economically growth-forward agenda.

Let's face it: in the end, this bill doesn't do anything particularly significant, but it's still required to be legislatively done by adding the extra I into the acronym of IISA. Perhaps it's to ensure it's not confused with that dubious and increasingly—what would you call it?—abandoned-ship organisation Industry Super Australia. You wouldn't want to confuse it with that. IISA is obviously focused on the innovation industry and the capacity to advance economic growth and scientific research, and the commercialisation of it in our great country.

One of the strengths of our innovation model in this country is that we don't look to this chamber and think that all answers happen here, or even that it all occurs in big corporates. We realise that the nucleus of innovation often comes from individuals or small groups of people working collaboratively together to address modern challenges. Innovative industry goes to the heart of what we want to see for the growth of our economy, because it matters so much for the future of our economy, particularly against the backdrop of changing structures and supply chains, particularly in the context of advanced manufacturing.

I'm sure you will recall, Deputy Speaker Wallace, an extensive paper was written on this last year for ASPI. I'm quite interested in the topic and how there is a shift in the supply chains, particularly in advanced manufacturing, and the limitations and issues that expose Australia to resource constraints in particular, but also to make sure there is a broader hedging of risk. Not all supply chains go through one nation, which risks not just disruption in areas like those that we experienced last year with PPE and pharmaceuticals, so we need to be more economically resilient as a country in working with other nations where they're less likely to disrupt our supply chains and more likely to share our values, and we're in a position to provide reliability for them as well as for ourselves. That goes to the heart of what the Morrison government is focusing on in Modern Manufacturing Strategy—recognising that having that domestic capability in some sectors is not just critical today, but is going to be even more critical in the future as those supply chain vulnerabilities present themselves in a global economy.

Now, we are not protectionists on this side of the chamber, Deputy Speaker. I'm sure I see you nod in agreement. We are not protectionists on this side of the chamber, but we also—

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