Sarah Henderson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I was saying earlier on the Higher Education Support Amendment (Australia’s Economic Accelerator) Bill 2022, we outlined the mechanisms to drive these reforms through five key strategic and targeted investments, including our $243 million Trailblazer Universities program to boost research and development, and drive commercialisation outcomes of industry partners; a $150 million capital injection to expand the CSIRO Main Sequence Ventures program, which backs startup companies and helps create commercial opportunities; $296 million for 1,800 industry PhDs and over 800 in new fellowships; the creation of a new IP framework for universities to support greater university-industry collaboration and the uptake of research outputs; and, of course, $1.6 billion over 10 years for Australia's Economic Accelerator, a new stage-gated competitive funding program to help university projects bridge the so-called 'valley of death' on the road to commercialisation—the subject of this bill.

In relation to the first element of the package, the Trailblazer Program, this research component was aligned with delivering research that would support our national manufacturing priorities. These priority areas were those we had identified as areas where Australia has significant comparative advantage and a strategic national interest. The areas at the time were medical products, food and beverage, recycling and clean energy, resources technology and critical minerals processing, defence industry and space. We ran an expression of interest to determine what potential projects were out there, to identify where there could be partnerships with industry and where these ideas could be supported through to commercial application. This process garnered significant interest from researchers, and the types of projects proposed were impressive. The proposals were reviewed by a panel comprised of leaders in the research field as well as industry and business leaders.

We announced the successful trailblazer universities in early 2022. They included Curtin University for the resources technology for critical minerals trailblazer, to establish our competitive advantage in the critical mineral sector and to look at ways to shield Australia supply-chain disruptions; the University of Southern Queensland for a space project dubbed 'iLAuNCH' that will look at automation, novel materials, communications and hypersonics; the University of Queensland for a food and beverage project that would support doubling the value of Australia's food and beverage sector by 2030; the University of New South Wales to lead a recycling and clean energy initiative to innovate our technologies from the lab to industry, from communities and homes; the University of Adelaide for a defence trailblazer aptly named 'concept to sovereign capability', which is focused on developing new technologies and defence projects; and to Deakin University—in my hometown of Geelong—for a recycling and clean energy commercialisation hub, also known as 'REACH', which will spearhead our recycling and clean energy advanced manufacturing ecosystem in Australia.

The REACH project at Deakin, on its own, is expected to generate more than $1.4 billion in revenue and create around 2½ thousand direct jobs over the next decade. With further investment and partnerships, Deakin estimates it could create as many as 7,000 additional jobs—all driven by the coalition's trailblazer program. Deakin will partner with other universities and education institutes including Federation University, RMIT, Swinburne and the University of Southern Queensland. Deakin also has vocational education partners, which are essential for enhancing the skills and knowledge of the workforce. These partners include the Gordon in Geelong, Bendigo Kangan Institute, South West TAFE, Holmesglen Institute of TAFE, Wodonga TAFE and Swinburne TAFE. There is a long list of industry partners for this project. I'll just raise and mention a few, including Scale Facilitation and Recharge Industries—which are headquartered in Geelong—BMNT Technology, Calix Limited, Oztron Energy, Gen 2 Carbon, Carbon Revolution—another great advanced manufacturer based in Geelong—White Graphene, Quickstep, Viva Energy, JET Technology and HighQ. As I say, the list goes on and on.

These six projects alone, supported by close to $250 million in coalition funding, will create hundreds of partnerships across the higher education sector and, most importantly, with industry. They will inject billions of dollars into the economy and create thousands of jobs right across our nation. It is certainly a very exciting time for research in Australia.

The key element of our University Research Commercialisation Package, as I mentioned, is our $1.6 billion investment in Australia's Economic Accelerator, the subject of the bill before the Senate today. This bill amends the Higher Education Support Act to make the appropriate provisions in schedule 1 to deliver this program and provide increased support to our universities to commercialise their world-leading research. This component of our package provides a 10-year investment for a competitive grant funding program. Again, our investment was to be aligned to areas that we identified as national priorities outlined in our Modern Manufacturing Strategy, a strategy which was focused on expanding and modernising Australia's sovereign manufacturing capability, securing the supply chains and investing in the skills and world-class research needed by our manufacturing businesses.

The Albanese government has since scrapped this strategy and is attempting to replace it with its National Reconstruction Fund, which is really just a big bucket to fund their election commitments. Labor keep saying this will rebuild Australia's industrial capability and that they want Australia to be a country that makes things again, but they simply aren't listening to the sector. These businesses are essential to our economy and yet they are being crippled by skyrocketing energy prices and are struggling to get the workers they need to keep their doors open. And of course they are facing great concerns with Labor's IR changes, including its introduction of multiemployer bargaining. Economic mismanagement and skyrocketing inflation will only mean businesses will pay more under this Albanese government.

I can tell you that these concerns are ricocheting through many businesses across this country. I was at the Geelong Manufacturing Council's 25th anniversary dinner last week, and there was deep concern about Labor's mismanagement of energy policy as well as its IR changes, including multiemployer bargaining. So there is deep concern across our country about what Labor is doing to small businesses and medium businesses and large businesses, including in manufacturing.

I do want to say that we designed our competitive grant for Australia's Economic Accelerator program around three stage gates. The first is the initial proof of concept, the idea and the testing stage, to establish if the project is viable. The second is to support the idea through what, in research terms, is known as the valley of death. This is typically the development phase where significant investment is required and where the greatest risk of projects not proceeding lies. The final stage is supporting the project through to commercial realisation. This is all about getting the product through the development process where it is ready to be sold in the marketplace.

At each stage of the process, projects will be evaluated for their probability of success, with larger funding for each stage and greater industry contribution. This will ensure we are supporting projects with the greatest likelihood of success. The commercialisation component, effectively stage 3, or the final stage, would be further supported through the $150 million commitment to CSIRO's main sequence venture. The program will work to attract projects with high-commercialisation potential at the proof-of-concept or proof-of-scale level of commercial readiness.

To support this new grant opportunity and ensure its success, the bill also establishes a governance framework, including a new advisory board. The board will have up to eight expert representatives from government, industry, business and the research sectors. The advisory board will oversee the program, drawing upon their collective experience, to drive the translation and commercialisation of research.

The next and final element of the bill amends the Higher Education Support Act to allow for grants to be made under part 2 and part 3 of the act to support the new industry-led study and postgraduate research grants. This will enable the creation of industry-led programs that pave the way for clear and structured career pathways. It will also imbed researchers in industry settings, build research careers within industry and, more importantly, create cohesion between academia and industry. Industry will benefit from the opportunities to host PhD students, which will open pathways for them to recruit high-calibre graduates.

This is a very exciting bill. It has attracted enormous support. I am pleased to see that the government has carried this through and is attracting support of the government. Let me reiterate the support from the Group of Eight universities, who said in February:

The commercialisation of Australia's world class university research is key to the nation's growth and prosperity, meeting the challenges ahead and enhancing the lives of future generations.

The Business Council of Australia said:

The government's $2.2 billion package will significantly improve Australia's ability to commercialise our best ideas and innovations, scaling them up to create exciting new industries, new exports and new highly skilled jobs for Australians.

This bill to support Australia's Economic Accelerator program and all of the supporting elements of the coalition's university research commercialisation package ensures that government investment into research is targeted and supports areas of national priority.

Our investment supports the economy, industries, businesses and our local communities by creating the jobs for our future generations. I commend this bill to the Senate.

Mehreen Faruqi (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to the Higher Education Support Amendment (Australia's Economic Accelerator) Bill 2022. This bill amends the Higher Education Support Act to allow the education minister to make grants to support arrangements to increase industry-led postgraduate research and assist higher education providers to undertake research in sectors aligned with the areas of national security. The bill also provides legislative authority to establish a national industry PhD program, aimed at enabling PhD students to better translate university research into commercialisation outcomes.

The Greens are supporting this bill because we will not stand in the way of more funding for research. But I do want to emphasise that the bill represents a worrying continuation of the Morrison government's agenda of commercialising research and increasing industry influence while neglecting fundamental research. In fact, this bill is a reheated version of a February 2022 Morrison-era bill. Translational research is of course important, but pure curiosity-driven research is just as important, if not more so, often forming the foundation for applied research.

Research borne of curiosity holds infinite possibilities. The invention of wi-fi is one famous local example of astroparticle physics research. This research that created the technology behind wi-fi has changed our lives. It is therefore short-sighted to solely focus on translational research. As Professor Brian Schmidt, Vice Chancellor, ANU, states:

This short-term thinking fails to understand that the innovations we need actually come from the giant pool of ideas generated by curiosity …

I'm pleased that Minister Clare was quick to initiate a review into the Australian Research Council Act. Such a review was long overdue, with the past few years being particularly troubled for the ARC. Increasing political interference has damaged its integrity and independence.

Trust of the ARC amongst the research community has diminished due to acts of political interference, such as the vetoing of grants and the introduction of the national interest test as well as the rejection of grant applications due to their citation of pre-print publications. The review must address all these issues and must also enshrine the importance of fundamental research.

The government needs to make sure that researchers are supported and well paid, and I haven't been shy of raising that issue over and over. PhD students are increasingly struggling to make ends meet, with stipends falling well below the minimum wage and universities being relied on to top up these stipends. PhD students are also locked out of the government's Paid Parental Leave scheme, making it extremely difficult for them to have a family should they wish.

It is really disappointing that this morning the Labor government voted down the Greens amendment, which was very reasonable, to extend the Paid Parental Leave scheme to PhD students. Not only is it fair that researchers be paid a decent wage and have good conditions, but if we don't, there is a significant risk that Australia will lose out on talented researchers. The UK, Germany and Italy all offer stipends to PhD students that are closer to the average wage, whereas in Australia they are well below the average wage. Australia's public investment in tertiary institutions is also amongst the lowest in the OECD, ranked 31 out of 37 according to Universities Australia.

The solution to improving research in this country is not more commercialisation. We need to significantly invest in pure research. That's why I move the following second reading amendment:

At the end of the motion, add ", but the Senate:

(a) notes that this bill:

(i) provides a significant amount of funding for research translation and commercialisation, and

(ii) provides absolutely no funding for pure research; and

(b) calls on the Government to:

(i) recognise that pure research is a public good with immense value,

(ii) recognise that pure research is as important and worthy of funding,

(iii) commit to substantially increasing funding for pure research, which has fallen significantly over the past three decades, and

(iv) commit to a substantial increase in stipends, given PhD candidates are increasingly struggling to make ends meet with stipends falling well below the minimum wage".

I will also be moving amendments in the committee stage to ensure the Economic Accelerator Advisory Board's research commercialisation strategy cannot be inconsistent with Australia's greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets. This will ensure that this significant new funding program cannot be used to fund research that could put our emissions reduction targets at risk and make sure that the research commercialisation strategy is consistent with Australia's greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets. While this amendment does not go as far as I would have liked to get support for in expressly preventing the accelerator program being used to fund research which could contribute to the development of new coal and gas projects, I am nonetheless very pleased to work with the Labor government to embed a commitment to climate action within this bill.

The reality is that new coal and gas is simply incompatible with the survival of people and the planet. Australia is the third-largest exporter of fossil fuel. It doesn't matter where coal and gas is burned; emissions drive global warming and climate change everywhere. Conveniently, pollution that is released overseas, called scope 3 emissions, is not counted as our emissions. We wash our hands of the problem, but that is a dangerous approach which ignores Australia's true global contribution to climate change. Australian coal and gas are fuelling climate disasters everywhere, from the floods in Lismore to those in Pakistan, from the bushfires in the Bega Valley to the drought in the Horn of Africa. Research should contribute to progress and will be key to mitigating and surviving the climate crisis. At the end of the day, though, we must stop opening new coal and gas mines.

Fatima Payman (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to 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.

Kerrynne Liddle (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Higher Education Support Amendment (Australia’s Economic Accelerator) Bill 2022 is the reintroduction of measures introduced by the former coalition government, which lapsed at the election and has now been taken up by Labor, so we do support this bill. A substantial piece of work led to a review of the government's significant investment in research because, although we do some of the finest research, it does not necessarily follow through to commercialisation to drive greater benefits for our economy. This will result in $296 million invested in 1,800 industry PhDs and over 800 fellows over a period of 10 years. For those researchers, this fuels their ideas, supporting Australia's cleverest research minds, and more broadly boosting productivity and creating jobs and new industries.

A key component of the coalition's $2.2 billion University Research Commercialisation Package was translation of research to application through reform across four key areas: placing national manufacturing priorities at the core of Australian government funded research; using priority driven schemes to ramp up commercialisation activity; delivering university research funding reform to strengthen incentives for genuine collaboration with industry; and investing in people who are skilled in university and industry collaboration.

Strategic and targeted investments included $243 million over five years for the Trailblazer Universities Program to boost prioritised R&D and drive commercialisation outcomes with industry partners with this research component aligned with our national manufacturing priorities in areas where Australia has significant comparative advantage and a strategic national interest. The areas at the time were medical products, food and beverage, recycling and clean energy, resources technology and critical minerals processing, defence industry and space.

This bill amends the Higher Education Support Act of 2003 to make the appropriate provisions to deliver this program and provide increased support to our universities to commercialise their world-leading research. As an undergraduate and postgraduate student and a lecturer at one of those universities, and having been on the council—the governing bodies—of two universities, I understand the importance of supporting the commercialisation of research in universities. This component of our package provides a 10-year investment for a competitive grant funding program to give the best chance of commercial realisation but with evaluation to support projects with the greatest likelihood of success. Its design was to get research through the known gates, the initial proof of concept, through to the valley of death, where there is the greatest risk of projects not proceeding, and through to commercial realisation. The commercialisation component, which is effectively the final stage, would be further supported through a $150 million commitment to CSIRO's main sequence venture.

The Australian Economic Accelerator program will work to attract projects with high commercialisation potential at the proof-of-concept or proof-of-scale level of commercial readiness. It establishes an innovative governance framework, including the new Australia's Economic Accelerator Advisory Board. It creates a new suite of Australian Research Council industry fellowships that will recognise and reward our academics who collaborate with industry. In development, there was extensive consultation and wider sector support. The group of eight universities supported it, Science and Technology Australia supported it, Universities Australia supported it, and the Business Council of Australia supported it.

In my own state of South Australia, associated with Flinders University—which has nearly 26,000 students and 998 higher degree research students—is the Factory of the Future, which is an industrial collaboration already underway with BAE Systems Maritime Australia, which is focused on innovation and industry technologies and research and training to advance manufacturing.

Additionally, South Australian Scientist of the Year, Professor Colin Raston, and the vortex fluidic device is transforming green chemistry. The high-tech yet simple device can be used in medical and pharmaceutical research, rapid COVID diagnostics, cancer treatments, food processing, materials processing, and much more across a myriad of industries, all with a focus on cleaner, greener and cheaper production. It is being commercialised right now. The Chalker lab has developed novel polymers made from waste products, which can clean oil spills, PFAS and arsenic contamination in gold mining and is now proceeding to commercialise the new material for global markets. At the University of Adelaide, with almost 24,000 students, 1,670 of those are postgraduate researchers.

Bygen Pty Ltd is the world's first producer of sustainable and tailored activated carbon. The global activated carbon market is currently valued at around $10 billion and is growing at almost 10 per cent per year. The uses for activated carbon are diverse and growing in number. Some of the most common markets include, but are not limited to, water purification, gold recovery, soil remediation, decaffeination, drink processing, PFAS removal, mercury removal and energy storage. Bygen recently announced that they have received planning approval for an activated carbon production facility in Swan Reach, on the Murray River, in South Australia. The concept to support our valued researchers underwent appropriate consultation with sectors. It will be good for university students, good for our researchers and inventors, good for our university sector and good for Australian industry.

Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, I have concerns about the Higher Education Support Amendment (Australia's Economic Accelerator) Bill 2022. We can hear the cheers of joy from the research rent-seekers. This bill includes a huge $400 million grant program, over four years, adding to the nearly $4 billion a year the government already spends on research. Research is important; I know that myself. In the past Australia has led the world on innovation. Yet I'm not convinced the government deserves the credit for our country men and women's inventions.

Research is not just about money. I'm not convinced that a huge, centralised, bloated federal government splashing huge amounts of cash is going to supercharge our economy. Science grants have already been responsible across science sectors for corrupting science. We see that in climate. We see that in COVID. We see that in water management and many other areas. Money for advocacy on behalf of government ideology—that is what has plagued the CSIRO and turned it into a siphon for taxpayer funds. In return, the CSIRO is now corrupting science and being an advocate.

Don't take my word for it. I'm talking about senior research scientists who have retired from CSIRO saying exactly what I just said. CSIRO is now an advocacy group for government ideology and policy—not just the Labor Party but the general policies that have been pushed by governments. Australia's Economic Accelerator has a focus on translating research to commercial outcomes. Sounds good! Has it occurred to anyone that the reason some of that research has not been translated into a commercial outcome might be that businesses have looked at the research and decided it's a terrible business idea? What if we're spending nearly half a billion dollars here to flog dead horses or giving taxpayer money to companies which would have commercialised the research anyway, without grants, because it's a good business idea? That's the point: in a free society, not corrupted by massive bloated government, merit determines what succeeds.

These handouts for projects that businesses would have undertaken anyway are corporate welfare, or maybe they're corporate bribes. Only the big companies will get access to this corporate welfare. Small business misses out yet again. Only the huge corporates can hire the grand consultants, navigate the forests and weeds of more than 200 grant scheme programs through which the government provides research funding, and make the applications.

The Department of Education confesses that most submissions to the University Research Commercialisation Action Plan:

… agreed that there is no 'silver bullet' solution to improving research commercialisation outcomes, and that new reforms need to be integrated across the whole research commercialisation ecosystem.

Anyone reading between the lines on those bureaucratic super buzzwords will realise that no-one really knows if the economic accelerator will do much to achieve its supposed purpose. We know that the biggest brake—b-r-a-k-e—on our country, and particularly our country's innovation, is big, bloated government pushing on the brake and the accelerator at the same time.

There's a big assumption underpinning this bill and research funding in Australia. It assumes that a big, bloated federal government, with bureaucrats sitting in Canberra enforcing grant guidelines, will lead to innovation and commercial activity. That's a big assumption. If we want true innovation—I think we all do—and a boost in commercial activity, government grants are a terrible way to do it. Government is the one standing in the way. It's not just the Labor-Greens government; it's also the former Liberal-National government. The government is the one standing in the way of innovation and commercial outcomes.

Instead of grants, how about this: get government policy focused on getting back to basics, firstly making electricity as cheap as humanly possible, after government has spent decades blowing up the price of electricity with artificial subsidies that are destroying our electricity sector. That ripples right through the economy; every sector uses electricity. Once it has been made expensive, there goes the competitive advantage that used to apply. Aluminium smelters are now shutting down, rather than coming on, because they can't afford the electricity.

Secondly, simplify industrial relations. Instead of protecting the industrial relations club members—large foreign and domestic corporates, unaccountable union bosses, lawyers, consultants and bureaucrats—exploiting workers, as I've discussed so many times, and suppressing small and medium-sized businesses, we need an industrial relations system that protects workers and enables small and medium-sized enterprise to get on with the job of employing people.

Thirdly, fix the taxation system's hideous complexity and the counterproductive behaviours that it drives. Fix the taxation system with comprehensive reform so that multinationals pay their fair share of tax and relieve the burden on families and on Australian companies struggling under a high tax burden in times of severe inflation—yet another highly regressive government financial burden.

Do these three things, Minister, and watch the commercialisation of research take off. The government will never have to make another grant. One Nation will not oppose this bill. Without proper reform of the important parts of our economy, though, research grants are just flogging a dead horse. I will be returning to the topic of research grants lacking accountability, which is such a widespread problem in our country.

Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

CHISHOLM (—Assistant Minister for Education, Assistant Minister for Regional Development and Deputy Manager of Government Business in the Senate) (): I thank senators for their informative and constructive contributions to this debate. The Australia's Economic Accelerator program will support our universities to work in partnership with industry to turn Australia's world-class research into the innovative products that will inform and drive Australian businesses of the future. The AEA will bridge a gap in the current research landscape by funding projects which have higher translational and commercial potential. The measures in this bill will support our higher education providers and industry to leverage the great potential of Australian ingenuity and innovation. Once again, I thank senators for their contributions to the debate, and I commend the bill to the chamber.

Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the Greens amendment on sheet 1812 be agreed to.