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

We will be agreeing to this amendment because, through our work and the matters that have been raised by the member for Goldstein—I thank her for her work in this regard and for championing this amendment—a number of us across the chamber have seen firsthand that this is an issue that we have an opportunity to correct.

Last month, member for Goldstein, I was in the US. I had the very real honour of meeting with Australians and Australian companies doing incredible work there. One of the most eye-opening conversations I had was with Marissa Warren from ALIAVIA Ventures, a California based venture capital firm with Australians in it who are early-stage investors. Importantly, they're early-stage investors in businesses led by female founders. Marissa pointed to the fact that less than three per cent of venture funding goes to female founded companies, which is frankly a shocking number. Interestingly, investments in the ones that do get the investment deliver 35 per cent higher returns on the investment compared to those led by men.

Here in Australia, Women's Agenda issued a report recently which said that just one in three of the top VC firms here invested in a female founder in 2022, and that two-thirds of the country's top venture capital firms didn't invest in a venture led by a female founder in 2022. Again, this is something that has to be addressed. Clearly, we do need to acknowledge that there's a funding gap there. There's an opportunity for the NRF to crowd in funding, and there's also a need for a whole stack of underrepresented groups to have that chance to have the financial backing to grow their firms. We want to make sure the NRF can back these diverse businesses, to give people a sense that this is something that governments champion—the creation of these firms and these new enterprises. It's really important that this happens. We need that stream of investment made available for a wider group of people, and we also need to embark, as I've discussed with the member for Goldstein, on a culture change within the mindset of some VCs. If this can provide an opportunity to make that happen, let's see where we can go to progress that.

Again, I welcome the contribution. It is a great amendment, and we look forward to working further on this to make it a tangible reality.

Question agreed to.

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