Fatima Payman (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It isn't that long ago that I graduated, starting with anthropology and sociology as my primary major and then moving to pharmacy, so I have a well-rounded understanding of the social sciences and pharmacy. Higher education has played a significant role in my life, and thus far, there is so much potential that I see in Australia's youth—students and researchers in our universities.

We don't want to see Australia left behind. In the 2020-22 World Intellectual Property Organization's global innovation index, Australia was ranked fifth in the world for our human capital and research. Yet, despite leading on research, we are ranked 37th for knowledge and technology output. We need to support our students and researchers to make their work and their ideas come to reality, which will make our country more resilient and self-sufficient. These grants will turn great ideas into commercial opportunities and increase collaboration between universities and industry. These are part of the Albanese Labor government's work to diversify our economy and strengthen our manufacturing ability.

I hear brilliant ideas from students when I go and visit them at schools, all the way from primary school students up to students who are undertaking their postgraduate degrees at universities. Imagine if all these Australians could leverage their potential. Think about where we could be in a decade. I know priority consideration will be given to projects addressing the four priority areas of: renewables and low-emissions technologies, such as hydrogen, microgrids and lithium or rare earth elements processing; medical science, such as synthetic biology, mRNA vaccines and remote medicine; value-add in resources, such as provenance of rare earth minerals, advanced minerals extraction, data driven mining, and mining automation and robotics; and, finally, value add in the agricultural, forestry and fisheries sectors. These are priority areas for a reason. This government wants to do right by our constituents. We want to see Australian innovations in clean energy and in medical science. We want to improve our productivity in mining, resources, agriculture, forestry and fisheries.

When I think of Australian innovation I think of inventions that changed the world. I think of Professor Fiona Wood's spray-on skin technique for burn victims. Fiona and her team saved 28 lives during the 2002 Bali bombings. Then there is the pacemaker. An Australian doctor developed the first artificial pacemaker in the 1920s, and now more than three million people around the world have pacemakers that support their hearts. Cochlear implants, or bionic ears: Professor Graeme Clark invented this at Melbourne university in the 1970s. It's now given hearing to more than 180,000 deaf people worldwide. The electric drill: it was originally designed for drilling rock and digging for coal. Now there's a portable hand drill in almost every household. There are so many more: the refrigerator, the black box flight recorder, the ultrasound scanner, the inflatable escape slide on planes—which you've all heard of, especially flying to Canberra, I'm sure! These started as good ideas and went on to become part of life as we know it. I know there will be many more of these world-changing innovations, and I know that this bill and Australia's Economic Accelerator program will be part of this.

Last week I met Professor Peter Leedman from the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research in WA. I heard about some of the amazing work they're doing, and I'm honoured to have been invited back to tour the institute again soon. This bill will help them and other researchers to progress the development of their technologies to commercial-investor readiness. For Australia to fully capitalise on our talent and opportunities we need a research ecosystem where our world-class research can be translated into real-world innovations and productivity gains.

Allow me to reiterate that investment in research translation and commercialisation will help build a stronger, smarter and more diverse economy as well as ensuring that Australia becomes more economically resilient. We want our universities to play a bigger role, to not just produce brilliant research but to also work more closely with businesses and government to translate this research into breakthrough products, new businesses and ideas to grow our economy and strengthen our society. Feedback from the university research and business sectors shows that there is an identified need for new innovative funding mechanisms that de-risk projects for commercial partners and incentivise fast-fail research, driving cultural change in universities and creating real partnerships with industry.

The Higher Education Support Amendment (Australia’s Economic Accelerator) Bill 2022 will create the legislative authority to establish the new research funding program and a new industry led study and postgraduate program. The program will accelerate reform in the higher education sector for translation and commercialisation. It is aligned with the National Reconstruction Fund when it comes to the key priority objectives that it focuses on. The new industry led study and postgraduate research program will create a clear and structured research career pathway in innovation and commercialisation focused research. Furthermore, the program will ensure that it has been tested and endorsed by an expert panel.

These new programs were also recommended by many of the submissions received in response to the university research commercialisation consultation paper released in February of 2021. This is part of a series of initiatives which aim to boost Australia's university research commercialisation capacity, ensuring that these initiatives respond to the concerns that the sector has consistently been raising, calling for additional support to increase the translation and commercialisation of university research and encouraging workforce mobility across university and industry sectors.

As we heard from my colleagues earlier, the purpose of the Higher Education Support Amendment (Australia's Economic Accelerator) Bill 2022 is to amend the Higher Education Support Act, which essentially allows the minister to make grants to support arrangements to increase industry led study and postgraduate research and to assist higher education providers to undertake programs of research in areas of national priority that progress the development of technologies and services to a state of commercial investor readiness. This amendment creates the legislative authority, as discussed earlier, to establish these grants.

To support the operation of the program, the bill will also establish a new governance framework which includes the program's advisory board and priority managers. The board will essentially be responsible for advising the minister in relation to the program, including providing advice on the objectives, conditions of eligibility and conditions of grants. The advisory board will also provide oversight of the priority managers and will be responsible for advising the minister on the commercialisation of research through a research commercialisation strategy which is to be developed every five years from 2022-23. The bill proposes that the advisory board will consist of up to eight members who will possess experience and knowledge in research and its commercialisation, representing the government, industry, business and research sectors. This governance structure will ensure the program will operate in appropriate alignment with the policy's intent.

Finally, we are fortunate in this country to have world-leading researchers in our higher education sector. This bill supports our higher education providers and our researchers in realising the great potential of Australian ingenuity and innovation. It will help make it easier for universities and businesses to work together to commercialise research, building our sovereign capabilities and boosting our economy. It's great to see the support that we have heard from our fellow senators. I commend the bill to the Senate.