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

I remain deeply impressed that, for such a simple, straightforward bill, the member for Chifley found 21 minutes of diatribe to throw in and deliver to the parliament, including long discussions about Labor Party plans, should they come to government. Of course, he didn't mention one of the most critical factors of any Labor government plan, which is how it is that they will tax us into prosperity. When we're talking about issues like innovation there's been a constant criticism by those on the opposite side of this chamber about the government's approach to addressing one of the biggest challenges that our country and the global community face—in the space of climate change policy—where we have a focus on technology, not taxes. Their approach has been consistently to talk up technology but to impose taxes, because somehow they see innovation as a vehicle achieved by adding to the burden of those that want to invest and innovate in our country to utilise technology towards a better future.

Now, that is not what this bill, the Designs Amendment (Advisory Council on Intellectual Property Response) Bill 2020 is about, because it is a coalition proposition. It's a coalition proposition focusing on how we empower technology and innovators to help improve the state of our nation, and not just the state of our nation and the power of technology but, more critically, the cause of humanity, because we want Australian designers to be not just Australia-best but world-best, to be able to commercialise the efforts of their innovation so as to make the investments that can improve the future for all of us and to take new ideas and new innovations through to practical effect, to development and to making them commercial in the marketplace.

This bill seeks to implement recommendations from an Advisory Council on Intellectual Property report to clarify and simplify the designs system and provide more flexibility for designers. That's of critical importance because for a lot of people who operate in the space of design, truthfully, a lot of their skill isn't focused on IP law and a lot of their focus isn't actually on the commercialisation of their innovations. Their focus is on how to come up with the nucleus and the core of their designs and how they are able to use them for industrial purposes, societal purposes, environmental purposes and the like. Of course, the practical dimensions of intellectual property, and particularly the legal arrangements that operate around it, frankly bamboozle the best of us at times because of the complexity of the law, its long tradition, how it's evolved out of various international treaties and the challenge for the law to continue to meet up with and follow the pace of technological innovation and advancement.

So this bill delivers timely benefits for Australian designers and improves confidence and certainty to stimulate investment in design and innovation by making sure that our designers know that the law backs them and that it provides pathways for them to secure capital and then to be able to innovate, knowing that if they come up with an idea or design that has a practical benefit it can make a significant contribution to all of us. Already, design industries contribute around $68 billion a year to the Australian economy. That's 3½ per cent of GDP, so we're not talking small bickies; we're talking big bickies in the context of the entire Australian economy. More critically, what they do is harness the potential of creativity at the heart of our economy so that we can have an innovative nation.

The member who spoke before me, the member for Chifley, spoke specifically about the importance of innovation. We saw measures related to that in the most recent budget and have seen them in budgets throughout the entire time of the Morrison government, because our interest is always in what we need to do to back research and development and creative industries. It's one of the reasons there were such strong support measures during the pandemic for creative industries. We realised they play a critical part in the development of Australian GDP, a critical part in employing Australians, and a critical part in the conversation around the type of country that we have been in the past, that we are in the present and that we want to be in the future. We also want innovation to be at the core of the future of our country.

Some people speak derisively of traditional industries such as agriculture and mining, and people make absurd comments like, 'Australia's just a quarry and a farm.' I hate to break it to people, but it's those industries that create the wealth that can support the industries of the future. What we see is a continuum in our economy that continues to prosper and grow off not just the natural endowments we are very privileged to have inherited but, more critically, how we can harness it so that we can build new industries for the future, harnessing the power not just of physical humanity but also its intellectual capacity. Where countries do that, where economies do that, they lift all boats and they build a better future for everybody.

This legislation is but one part of the rich legislative tapestry necessary to help designers realise the benefits of their innovation and to remove burdensome red tape and needless administrative functions and obligations, as they make it impossible for people to register their designs and then commercialise them in the process, particularly around such matters as the publication of design applications without registration. Of course, it will make requests for registration automatic after six months, unless the designer indicates otherwise. So we are providing a pathway, we're providing assistance and we're making it easier for designers to reap the benefits of their innovation and design.

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