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

No; there's genuine pleasure. It's right from here, and I will never miss the opportunity to talk about our plans, as we said when we went to the election, about a future made in Australia. We recognise that, post the pandemic, it was very important for us to learn the lessons of the pandemic—in particular, that the things that we were most concerned about as a nation and what we were expecting to be able to rely upon were there at the time we needed them the most. We know the impact of supply chains, particularly concentrated and broken ones. We know that we do need to build up capability. We know that geopolitically we cannot keep all our eggs in one basket in terms of relying upon where we source our products from and that we do, in key areas, need to build up. That's why, for example, we put forward the National Reconstruction Fund, where we target a number of priority areas. Based on CSIRO advice, we have shaped up those priority areas and we are focusing on delivering the development of manufacturing capability in those areas across resources, ag and medical science, in terms of energy, transport and defence, and we are also enabling capabilities, particularly in terms of critical technology.

This is all founded on the basis of what we think are those things that do confront the nation. We do have people who can help solve those problems. We need to be able to pair up the talent of our people with the resources that we have at our disposal and also make sure we have targeted capital available to be able to build up, through a co-investment fund of that nature, what we require. In terms of the budget itself, you saw advancements in terms of support for development following the passing by the parliament of the National Reconstruction Fund. It will support the set-up of the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation. Those funds were allocated. We also put about $500 million into science and industry to ensure that, in particular, we have stronger businesses creating more secure work and helping solve some of those problems we talked about but also, obviously, advancing human knowledge and applying that in a way that improves national wellbeing.

We've, frankly, reprioritised poorly designed and badly administered policies of the last government, and we want to be able to do that with some of the new programs we announced, not least of which being the Industry Growth Program. We do appreciate that there will be people who are affected by the decision in relation to the Entrepreneurs' Program. The reality is that we have a different view compared to the opposition. The opposition believes the Entrepreneurs' Program worked fantastically, yet they really can't point out and never really pointed out how much it was able to support SMEs in this country. We recognise that there are some people whose work is affected, but we certainly do, through the Industry Growth Program, look to engage people to help us in terms of supporting businesses. What we are trying to do is turn great ideas into stronger businesses or new firms. We will be doing that through the Industry Growth Program, connecting them with advisers and a support network. I'm a firm believer that industry can partner up with others to help mentor them and guide them in terms of growth, and we do want to see that. There is a role for grants, in particular for firms that are lower on the TRL scale, where they're potentially in what is commonly referred to as the 'valley of death'. We need to see them grow and continue to grow. We do want to support commercialisation. We've retained some of those elements in there. So we do want to have a mechanism whereby, through the Industry Growth Program, connecting them up to the NRF, we can also make happen. We'll be consulting with industry around that.

As well, we have allocated over $100 million in the budget to support the growth of Australia's critical technologies with a focus on quantum and AI. I imagine we'll explore some of the issues that have been raised by the coalition in relation to quantum, but we also do recognise and respect that there are issues facing us around the regulation of quantum, and I do want to respect the fact that the coalition has engaged on that matter, and we're keen to work on this. People want to see the benefit come out of AI, but they also want to manage the risks as well. We cannot afford to stop development in terms of things like, for example, our critical technologies. We're establishing roughly $19.8 million for the setting up of the Australian Centre for Quantum Growth and another $40 million to deliver a critical technologies challenge program with a particular focus on quantum. We will also look at the allocation of just over $40 million to support the responsible deployment of AI in the national economy.

This is a start. We know we have a lot more to do. We're always happy to work with the coalition, but respect that there will be times when we just don't agree. We've got a job to do. We told the Australian people we would do it, and we will get on with it.

See this speech in context