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

I rise to speak to the Education Legislation Amendment (Startup Year and Other Measures) Bill 2023 in support of initiatives aimed at encouraging young people to start new businesses. Entrepreneurship is a trait that should be celebrated at every opportunity. We are facing some really big challenges in our communities, in our society and, indeed, globally: encouraging young minds to look for solutions, not only encouraging but supporting them in doing so, ensuring that they have the support necessary to bring these ideas, these dreams, into reality.

The ACT does a good job of this. We have the highest rate of new startups per capita in the country. Canberra is on track to become a world-leading innovation hub, a model city where we see a high degree of collaboration between multiple levels of government, some of Australia's best universities and research institutions, and a proud business community fostering a forward-thinking entrepreneurial culture. CBRIN, the Canberra Innovation Network, is doing fantastic work supporting a robust variety of early-stage startups here in the ACT. Their return on investment has been independently assessed as 50 to 1.

Like many of the local entrepreneurs I've met, I would love to see further investment in their programs from both the territory and federal governments. The ANU, University of Canberra and UNSW Canberra are all working actively in the commercialisation of local research. They are producing impressive spin-offs in areas like high-tech recycling, advanced manufacturing and precision fermentation. The Australian Catholic University and Charles Sturt University also have active business incubator programs based out of their interstate campuses. They've also expressed interest in increasing their engagement with Canberra's innovation ecosystem.

My consultation with these institutions has indicated in principle support for the intentions of the startup year initiative. Concerns have been raised, however, regarding the design of this program. Every accelerator program I'm aware of in Canberra is currently provided to participants for free. As Senator O'Sullivan pointed out, it's often funded by wealthy philanthropists who believe in young entrepreneurs, who believe in providing entrepreneurs with an opportunity and the support that they need. But they don't pay for it—because, as we know, as has been pointed out in this debate, a small fraction of startups are actually successful.

What we have here is a proposal that requires universities to start charging for these courses. We're going to take free incubators, start charging and, at the end of it, you're going to have a HECS debt. And maybe you don't end up with a small business. The intent has to be around getting startups off the ground, and I don't understand why we're introducing a debt facility for something that's currently free.

I understand this was an election commitment from the government. It sounds like a great idea when you first hear it but I believe the legislation, as it's been written, misses the mark. Its stated objective is 'to develop a person's skills, capabilities and connections for startup businesses'. But will it actually develop any startup businesses? We will likely see a number of startup courses, popping up at universities across Australia, with no assurances regarding their quality or whether they can deliver outcomes that we should be focused on, that we should be seeking here, which is more young people starting businesses.

There's also a risk that resources are pulled away from the existing accelerator programs that are already doing a great job for free. Canberra is home to some of the brightest minds in Australia—indeed, in the world—and our community wants to see those minds and their ideas funded and supported. Sending students further into debt so that they can be educated about startups, rather than funding their startups, doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. I believe there's a strong case to instead see this money given directly to students with innovative ideas to help them turn their great ideas into exciting new businesses. This is actually consistent with Labor's initial policy announcement.

Again, I agree with the intent of this bill. It is good. We do want to drive innovation and we do want more start-ups, but what we see here is young entrepreneurs and students having to get into a course that then results in a HECS debt, rather than actually encouraging universities, and providing the support, to provide their students who are entrepreneurial and want to have start-ups spin out of the university with opportunities that are free, because we know that there are huge risks in the start-up ecosystem.

I think there is also an opportunity to support the excellent programs that already exist in this space and have a proven track record of producing new start-ups, like those run by CBRIN here in Canberra. It has a 50-to-one return on investment. They work with universities and provide expertise. They have successful entrepreneurs volunteering their time and mentoring. They are creating an ecosystem that is conducive to young people seeing their ideas become reality.

I understand that there have been a number of amendments circulated on this. I will continue to engage with the crossbench in these discussions to ensure that we do support young entrepreneurs and universities that are helping their students make their ideas into start-up businesses that are helping solve some of the huge challenges we face—start-ups that are pioneering new fields and creating new opportunities for us, such as quantum computing. We have start-ups here in Canberra looking at the recycling of plastics and other materials that are currently not recyclable. We have people doing innovation in food. There are a huge number of start-ups worthy of support. I have real concern with the potential founders going through an accelerator program and having a big HECS debt that they will one day have to pay off, with no guarantee that that start-up will actually be successful.