Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

On 18 August 2022 the Prime Minister said, 'The Australian people deserve accountability and transparency, not secrecy.' Well, I certainly agree with the Prime Minister on that point. But this recent decision of the Albanese Labor government to invest almost $1 billion of taxpayers' money into an American company raises several serious questions that cast doubt over the deal. I've heard in this place some suggestions from those on the other side that for some reason those on our side are not people of science or don't believe Australia is really committed to a future around technology and innovation. I say to those who have spoken on this MPI today: that is precisely what we on this side have been saying with respect to the debate that is underway—about the future of our energy supply, for example. We are looking at Australian technology that we have already developed—in my electorate, at ANSTO—and how we can use that and innovate into the future to determine the best way to continue to supply Australians with cheaper and more-affordable electricity.

But I'll return to the matter at hand. It is the process that has been undertaken by the government on this that is causing those on our side the most difficulty. It's a deal that's been cloaked in secrecy from the beginning, where both Labor and the Minister for Industry and Science have gone to great lengths to avoid scrutiny and transparency—the complete opposite to the thing that the Prime Minister, two years ago, said that Australians deserve—and it has followed a terrible process. There are many details around the commercial arrangement which have still not been disclosed.

This first came into the public domain when the funding was announced. The funding was announced on 30 April, and then, during Senate estimates, and through many freedom of information requests—and for that I think that the honourable member for Bradfield really needs to be congratulated—it was revealed that this deal is nothing more than a captain's pick. It's a reverse-engineered process designed to benefit PsiQuantum.

It's still clear on the available evidence that this investment does not meet the normal standards of contestability, fairness and probity that would be expected from a funding decision of this size: $1 billion. That is a sizeable amount of money, even in 2024. The Albanese Labor government, though, has chosen to bet a very large amount of money on one particular company, pursuing one particular technology path within the broad field of quantum—a field in which people who have been working for 20 or 30 years cannot say with certainty which of the many paths being explored is likely to achieve the most successful outcome most rapidly. On any view, it will be at least several years, and very possibly longer, before the technology that is currently being developed is proven to work—if it can be proven to do so at all.

What is particularly troubling is that so much funding has gone to an American incorporated and based quantum computing company, with a large ownership stake in the company being held by venture capitalists, including American venture capitalists, rather than to any of the outstanding Australian based quantum computing companies and researchers. It would be a particular tragedy if this decision by the Albanese Labor government—to allocate, alongside the Queensland government, almost a billion dollars of taxpayers' money to this particular American company—ended up making it more difficult for other Australian based quantum computing companies to compete for and attract global investment because of a perception that their own government, having surveyed the field, does not believe in them and considers that their work is inferior to the work of this American based company.

The Prime Minister was right: the Australian people do deserve transparency and accountability, and that is not what has happened in this instance. (Time expired)

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