Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science. Will the minister update the House on the progress of the government's National Innovation and Science Agenda, announced in December last year? How is the agenda supporting innovation, science and jobs?

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Corangamite, who has been an absolutely energetic advocate for her electorate, and that was recognised by the electors of Corangamite only a few weeks ago. Well done! When we were there recently, when I was able to join the member in her electorate only a few weeks ago, we visited a business called Carbon Revolution, which makes the world's best carbon wheels—they are the lightest and the fastest. It is an example of Australian innovation.

Whilst we were there we were able to announce, as part of the National Innovation and Science Agenda, $250,000 for a Geelong carbon cluster, which is all about creating the jobs of the future. These jobs are about manufacturing. They are about new exports. They are about increasing investment in Geelong. It is a tremendous example of what the Prime Minister set out to do and my predecessor set out to do and what the government is delivering. It is why we have been able to deliver over 200,000 jobs in the last year and 3.3 per cent economic growth—a stunning national achievement in that last year.

But under the National Innovation and Science Agenda, it is not just what we have done. It is about what we are going to do and what we are continuing to do. The National Innovation and Science Agenda is about new firms but, critically, it is also about old and existing firms—giving them the opportunity to invest and giving them the support to have an environment that will allow job creation. Against that background, in just the last eight weeks under the National Innovation and Science Agenda we have had achievements in science, where the synchrotron has been handed to the Commonwealth—we had taken responsibility—with a $520 million commitment over the next 10 years: science jobs built around the Monash precinct; creating cures for leukaemia and for diabetes; and improving the quality of rice for the developing world. This is fundamentally important research, but with enormous spin-offs in jobs and national growth.

At the same time we have been investing in the talent—women in science. How can it be that in the 21st century only one in 10 engineering graduates in Australia are women? Well, we are investing in that and we are making that difference. And we are supporting investment. There is the $500 million biomedical translation fund; tax incentives for angel investors, much loved by certain junior senators; and at the same time the global linkages as well—

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What about crowd funding?

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Their version of angel investors is a little different to ours—let me say that. There is the Global Innovation Linkages program, which is not a top-up plan for underpaid junior senators; and the Shanghai landing pad. The Shanghai landing pad, for us, is all about jobs and exports from Australians. With them, it is all about feathering their own nests. (Time expired)