Ian Goodenough (Moore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Industry. Will the minister please provide further details to the House on the Industry Innovation and Competitiveness Agenda and the action plan to restore competitiveness to Australia's economy.

Ian Macfarlane (Groom, Liberal Party, Minister for Industry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Moore for his question and congratulate him on the work that he is doing in that electorate. He is a more than worthy successor to my close friend Mal Washer. The member for Moore knows that the economy is changing and that we cannot just keep going on applying bandaids and simple handouts to try and fix the industry sector. Historically, the industry sector evolved around agriculture and then it moved to heavy manufacturing. But what we are seeing now is a third wave of change around fundamental economic skills and employment.

We are transitioning in Australia to higher value-added industries and smarter production and specialised services based around skills, research and innovation. The Industry Innovation and Competitiveness Agenda has some 17 concrete proposals which set out a national vision for the nation's industry to evolve into. It places science right at the centre of industry, and that is incredibly important. We need to embed scientists in industries in Australia to make industries competitive. As well as that, of course, we have emphasised the importance of STEM—science, engineering, technology and maths—and a trial of the pre-tech model, which the Prime Minister saw firsthand in the United States.

Today, the Minister for Education and I have released our document called Boosting our commercial returns, which is a consultation paper, for which we are looking for input right across the sector. In terms of the response, Conor King, of the Innovative Research University, said: 'The IRU applaud the government's commitment to enhancing industry driven research in Australia's universities'. He goes on to say, 'Universities are a critical part of the innovation process'. It is not just the universities who are singing the praises of the statement where we have changed the recognition of international standards for medical devices. We have had Georgina Sanderson, Director Policy Market Access at Cochlear, say to me in a letter on 20 October: 'Cochlear is now better placed to export its products, create jobs and improve health outcomes.' What we are seeing from this government is a government that is prepared to reform our economy and play to our strengths. Like the rest of Asia, Australia must evolve. We must play to our strengths, and we must provide long-term stability for the industries—unlike those opposite who rotated through six science ministers in six years.