Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise to support this bill that reintroduces measures introduced by the former coalition government which lapsed at the election and have now been taken up by Labor. It's wonderful to see that bipartisan support on this bill, because it's a bill to amend the Higher Education Support Act to allow the minister to make grants for industry-led postgraduate research. This bill is crucial to assist with the growth of the digital economy. The digital economy is a valuable industry in Australia that creates many high-paid jobs while also driving productivity to many businesses and the economy. It's been estimated that it can deliver $315 billion in gross economic value to our country.

Innovation is vital to continuing the growth of the digital economy. However, it faces funding challenges, especially at the incubation or startup stage. This is a crucial stage in these projects, because many of the projects are risky, and it's a challenge for business to invest capital because there's no guarantee of a return on investment. That's where academic research and universities are so important. The grants will assist higher education providers to undertake research programs which progress the development of technologies and services to a state of commercial investor readiness in areas that align with our national priorities.

When in government, the coalition led a significant piece of work to review investment in research, looking to drive greater benefits for our economy. We have many universities across Australia where students and academics produce foundational work and research. We're up there with the best in the world. The 2022 World Intellectual Property Organization's Global Innovation Index ranked Australia fifth in the world for our human capital and research. Research translation and commercialisation is important. It means we get a bigger return on investment for research conducted in our universities. The previous coalition government found that, while we publish more than 100,000 academic papers, we don't do a lot with that research beyond the exploration stage. On that same global index, we ranked 37th for knowledge and technology outputs. This means that we are not realising the full potential of our university research by seeing it through to commercialisation and seeing our country, the economy and communities benefit. The previous coalition government saw the great potential for our nation in taking university research and giving it a tangible purpose.

Research papers are great and important, but what our country needs is real action that is going to boost our economy and find solutions for the significant challenges that we are facing. Like it has been through history, technology and innovation will be a key driver in helping us as a nation find solutions to these challenges. The coalition did the groundwork to ensure more research is translated into commercial applications, knowing it would meet some of our greatest challenges and pave the way for an improved economy. We did this by investing $2.2 billion into our University Research Commercialisation Package, to highlight Australia's incredible research minds while also boosting our productivity and creating new jobs and new industries. This placed national manufacturing priorities at the core of Australian government funded research and invested in people who were skilled in university-industry collaboration.

The former government invested a further $243 million over five years for the Trailblazer Universities Program to drive commercialisation outcomes with industry. The Trailblazer program was all about delivering research that would support our national manufacturing priorities, which were medical products; food and beverage; recycling and clean energy; resource technology and critical mineral processing; defence industry; and space. These priorities were crucial. As I used to say to my team in the business world, 'If everything matters, nothing matters.' It's so important, with endless opportunities, that you really prioritise what you're going to focus on, whether it's in business or in government. So to have these six priorities really underpinned the programs and the success and opportunities of these programs.

In addition to all these investments, the previous government also invested $1.6 billion over 10 years for Australia's Economic Accelerator—a funding program to help universities with the process of commercialising research. It is this accelerator program that is at the heart of this bill. The Economic Accelerator program is all about supporting research translation and commercialisation within our universities.

It's also important to understand and recognise that these investments in research and development are not just about economic benefits. While these are important and crucial, it's also about the social benefit to individuals, to families and to communities. Think for a second and imagine a world without the cervical cancer vaccine that was created by Professor Ian Frazer in 2006. Imagine a world without the bionic ear, which was created by Graeme Clark at the University of Melbourne. I don't think there is anyone the world over who would argue that those two products, as two examples, are not providing multiple benefits to our society. And that's what technology and innovation can do: deliver economic growth, but also deliver social benefits to our society.

The technological advancements that can be unlocked from university research is, in many ways, beyond our imagination, and that is the real excitement and opportunity afforded by technology. What products will we be talking about in 10 years? None of us in this room or in this house will have even comprehended that. As an example, Professor Michelle Simmons and her team at the University of New South Wales developed the world's first single-atom transistor, a basic data unit in quantum computers back in 2012. This was a huge step in the race to engineer substantially faster, more efficient computers.

These are just a few examples of why it is important to help bridge the gap that I spoke about around research and commercialisation. It's no secret that technology opens new doors and creates new industries. And innovation in technology is the key to increased productivity, which the RBA has said will lead to lower costs, higher profits, and a stronger economy. We have all spoken a lot this week, in particular in this House, about the challenges of cost of living and inflation, and technology will play a key role, in the short term and in the long term, to allow businesses to unlock some of those.

In my first speech, one thing I spoke about was productivity and technology. I referenced farmers and the agricultural benefits of technology, because agriculture is a big part of my community. I also talked about how tradies and builders can spend more time on the tools, which they love, and more time at home with their families because technology allows them to do their admin and invoicing quickly so that they could do that.

I do note that my good friend the member for Flinders is in the room, which is great to see, because just this week Master Builders Australia told us that the seat of Casey is No. 1 in the country for tradies as a percentage of their workforce. So when I spoke about that, I knew that our electorate would be great. And it is great to have the member for Flinders here because the seat of Flinders is No. 2 on that list. Whether it's the amazing wineries in the Yarra Valley, which we also beat the seat of Flinders in, or the number of tradies, it's great to see that Casey is leading the way with tradies. But that's why I spoke about the benefits, because there are so many small businesses, sole traders that can benefit in Casey and Flinders, and across the country, from products that we don't even know exist yet that will come out of programs like this.

To support the new grant opportunities the bill also establishes a new board, the Economic Accelerator advisory board, which is crucial. The board will have eight representatives from government, industry, business and research sectors. It is so important that the board has that breadth of experience because they will be making these crucial decisions. And projects under the Australia's Economic Accelerator program will align with priority areas, which include enabling capabilities in AI, quantum and robotic technology, which is so crucial to our future. We've seen it recently with the introduction of ChatGPT and what can be unleashed in the future with that.

It's often difficult for businesses to invest in technology, so this seed funding through grants from the government is crucial to future economic growth. This is one area where government intervention is required to help businesses innovate and increase productivity. Industry-led programs will create clear and structured pathways, and at the end of the day it is industry, researchers, people, our economy and our communities that will benefit.

Our country desperately needs to improve its economy, particularly by making the most of advancements in technology, in this time of high inflation and low economic growth. It is so important that we help bridge that gap between research and industry so our country can reap the rewards of our own research. It's time we stopped wasting research in academic journals. Instead we should be doing all we can to support the commercialisation of Australian research in order to drive economic growth. That's what this bill aims to achieve, and that's why we are supporting it.

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