David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

The pandemic highlighted in the starkest possible terms how critical it is to maintain a sovereign national manufacturing capability here in Australia. I welcome the establishment of the National Reconstruction Fund through the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation Bill 2023. This $15 billion facility will begin to help rebuild some of that much-needed capability we have lost in recent years and will help set us up to be manufacturing into the future. It will help Australians have more confidence in supply chains and be better prepared for future shocks. It will help innovative companies, including those in the ACT, move along the innovation and commercialisation pathway.

Now, I know that when people think about the ACT, they probably think government and Public Service rather than manufacturing, but that overlooks the extraordinary startup and small-business sector we are so lucky to have based here in Canberra. Canberra has the highest number of startups per capita in the country, and some unbelievably talented, determined, passionate people doing some truly mind-boggling things, from Quantum Brilliance, whose mission is to make quantum computing an everyday technology using their diamond based tech, to Syenta, who used electrochemistry to develop a 3D printer like no other on the planet. The ACT is a microbrewing powerhouse. A local firm, Skykraft, recently deployed the largest ever Australian made payload sent into space.

We want to grow the potential of these firms even further. Currently Australia ranks below the OECD average of total government support to business research-and-development spend as a percentage of GDP. We need to turn that around. That's why I'm moving a second reading amendment to this bill, asking the government to commit to exploring additional policy mechanisms to provide Australian startups access to finance as they navigate the path to commercialisation.

We have to ensure that we have a startup ecosystem in Australia that provides the type of capital needed to keep world-leading innovation here in Australia. We've seen too many startups have to go overseas to develop technology that is important to Australia and is important to our future. For the NRF to succeed, we clearly need a sustainable pipeline of eligible projects at a stage suitable for funding through the corporation, and additional work ensuring that there is finance available for those startups will help address the challenge of early capital to get them through the valley of death.

The other second reading amendment I'm moving seeks a commitment from government to ensure the NRF Corporation has a presence here in Canberra. Yes, I'm being parochial, but I believe it's far more than that. The NRF will reach across so many sectors of our economy and it's vital that there is good engagement with other government agencies and departments. We can't afford to operate in silos. We need the NRF to be speaking to government departments like the department of industry, the department of agriculture, the CSIRO and so many more, and their presence here will help foster that.

I will also be moving a number of substantive amendments that go to governance, reducing the maximum board terms to four years plus four years, rather than the five years plus five years, and bringing forward the date of the first review to before the end of December 2026. This is not something we can set and forget. We need to know early if this is working as intended or if tweaks are needed. I thank the government for being open to these suggestions.

The other amendment I'm proposing on the bill goes to ensuring that we are meeting our international commitments under the Convention on Biological Diversity, from Rio in 1992, and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. These are related but separate to our obligations under Paris and so vital given the unique biodiversity of our great continent. We are a megadiverse country and one of only two developed countries that is megadiverse, and biodiversity often misses out on being considered. We have to ensure that in all the decisions we are making we are taking into account the impact, negative or positive, that it will have on nature. We're part of nature. If nature goes down, we go down with it, and so it makes sense to consider the impact on nature in all of our programs and funds that are being set up.

Finally, I'll be seeking commitments from government that the independent NRF board will give consideration to climate related risks and nature related risks when making investment decisions. TCFD and TNFD are gaining traction and momentum and will be critical tools in allowing companies to measure their climate and nature risks. This is more and more becoming an expectation overseas, and it will be a huge benefit to businesses for Australia to implement best practice so we are not at a competitive disadvantage when dealing with European or American based companies.

I believe the board should also be considering nature based solutions when making investment decisions as this is clearly a huge opportunity for Australia. We have some of the world's best environmental scientists and some of the world's best innovators in that space. Ensuring we can help them get that technology to the point where it is being scaled and manufactured here in Australia will open up huge markets into the future as the world grapples with the climate and biodiversity crises.

There's clearly huge potential to use the NRF to create the next generation of jobs, industries and environment we need to be front and centre in the kind of future we seek to build, so in principle I support this bill. Looking at the huge investments underway in countries like the US, with the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS act, this is us taking a significant—in the context of things, smaller, but I think really significant—step in Australia, ensuring we are making things here in Australia and we're not just making things; we're helping Australian start-ups and Australian innovation produce things here and export to the world.