Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Hansard source

I do recall saying those things, and I also recall that the government brought down a white paper entitled Powering ideas: an innovation agenda for the 21st century, which outlined the largest increase in expenditure in science and research on record. I recall that we brought down a program of measures which actually made up for the extraordinary neglect that we had seen under the Howard government in regard to innovation, science research and industry policy. Dr Cutler, along with a panel of experts, produced a report for us that was able to provide advice to us on a range of matters, including support for the research and development taxation credit, a measure which I understand is to be discussed in the House of Representatives if not today, very shortly. It is a measure which will produce results that will double the level of support for small business and increase by one-third the level of support for large business for research and development, a measure which the opposition is opposing. Like so many other parts of our innovation agenda, the opposition has opposed it because the opposition is essentially made up of people who do not want to support an innovative Australia and who do not want to support the substantive transformational change that is required if we are to bring forward this country, to ensure that we are to maintain living standards and to ensure that Australia remains at the top of the game rather than at the bottom. Our approach is essentially all about that—making sure that Australia is able to go to the top in terms of value adding rather than going to the bottom as occurred under the coalition’s policies. (Time expired)