Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

I rise to speak about Innovation and Science Australia's latest annual report. I noticed that, in that report, the chair, Andrew Stevens, mentioned 'Australia's measured decline in business expenditure on research and development'. What Mr Stevens points to is not something beyond the government's control. It's a symptom of their neglect of an innovation agenda and of the war on science they've continued waging ever since they came to office.

As I've pointed out in this place many times before, the stagnant economy that those opposite are overseeing is due in large part to their failure to invest in the drivers of productivity. This is one reason why economic growth has slowed to a crawl and growth in business investment has fallen to its lowest level since the 1990s recession. Harvard's Atlas of Economic Complexity has listed Australia as 93rd in the world. For those not familiar with this measure, having a low rating means too much reliance on what we dig out of the ground. While industries such as agriculture and mining are vitally important to Australia, we need to diversify and to add value to our exports.

It's interesting that the ISA's report makes observations about spending on research and development, cooperative research centre grants, venture capital partnerships and various other initiatives, but is silent on how these investments compare with previous years. That's because such comparisons would shine a light on this government's poor record when it comes to innovation and science. In Australia, research and development spending is currently at 1.8 per cent of GDP. By comparison, the OECD average is 2.4 per cent, and it is as high as four per cent in world-leading countries. We've had a 19 per cent decline in R&D investment since 2015-16. The following year, 2016-17, was the first year that R&D spending in Australia went backwards. So, shockingly, we come last—last!—in the OECD when it comes to the percentage of projects that include collaboration between industry and scientific researchers.

This is not a failure of industry; let me be clear. It is a failure of government. The Morrison government have diminished the effectiveness of the R&D tax incentive by ignoring their own review, which recommended a collaboration premium. They've also relied on the tax incentive to drive research and development, instead of making more direct investments in R&D, like other countries are doing. Direct investment allows other countries to focus on areas of competitive advantage, rather than having their R&D spend scattered across various disparate activities.

Not only are the Morrison government failing to drive Australia's R&D investment but they are failing when it comes to investing in innovation more generally. While former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull talked a big game on innovation, we have barely heard the word uttered since Mr Morrison became Prime Minister. In fact, the innovation agenda is going backwards. This government has cut $2.2 billion from universities. They've only spent $5.5 million of their Research Infrastructure Investment Plan and they plan to spend less on innovation over the next four years than they did in the previous four. The Morrison government is also failing to ensure that we're competitive in the emerging market of artificial intelligence. While other countries are committing billions to AI and related technologies, our government has committed a paltry $30 million over the forward estimates—that's million with an 'M'. This is for a global industry which, it is estimated by PricewaterhouseCoopers, will be worth over $20 trillion by 2030.

The failure of government to invest in innovation will be made worse by their failure to develop a workforce that is prepared for it. Domestic graduates in IT related courses are down by one-third since 2002, and school enrolments in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, subjects are at their lowest level in 20 years. When it comes to science, innovation, research and development, the Morrison government is definitely asleep at the wheel. But leaving Australia behind is exactly what we expect from a government which is living in the past and fails to appreciate that the world is changing. It is what we've come to expect from a government that stops the rollout of a 21st century broadband network and rolls out broadband technology from last century instead. It's what we've come to expect from an analog government operating in a digital world. A government of dinosaurs such as the Morrison government cannot be trusted to have a globally competitive innovation and science agenda.