Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I present the explanatory memorandum to this bill and I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation Amendment Bill 2017 will provide Australia's national nuclear science and research agency, the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, or ANSTO, the flexibility required to successfully establish an innovation precinct adjacent to its Lucas Heights campus in southern Sydney and to potentially establish an additional precinct in association with its other campuses. More broadly, the bill will facilitate enhanced collaboration between industry, universities, researchers and ANSTO across all its sites.

Driving Australian innovation and the Australian economy through greater synergies between science and business is a key government priority. As such, we want to give Australian industries every opportunity to collaborate, partner and engage with our world-leading research agencies and universities, and remove any impediments that may limit the flexibility of organisations such as ANSTO in doing so. This is at the heart of the government's National Innovation and Science Agenda and the National Science Statement. Nationally and globally, nuclear science and technology is a major basis for innovation across a range of industries. ANSTO operates much of Australia's landmark research infrastructure, including the OPAL multipurpose research reactor, the Australian Synchrotron, the Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering and the Centre for Accelerator Science. This infrastructure places Australia at the forefront of innovation for the benefit of public health, the environment and industry. It is used by researchers and industry from around Australia and the world.

The proposed ANSTO innovation precinct will co-locate and crowd in scientific partners; launch intensive businesses; high-tech industry; and science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine graduates, or STEM graduates, around Australia's centre of nuclear capabilities and expertise. The proposed ANSTO innovation precinct will have three major components: a graduate institute, an innovation incubator and a technology park. These three core components will enable ANSTO to act as a conduit between research, industry and universities. It will support the achievement of science, innovation and technology excellence and foster research and industry linkages, technology development, commercialisation, entrepreneurship and STEM education. These changes to ANSTO's governing legislation support the vision of the ANSTO innovation precinct and enhanced collaboration.

This bill makes minor amendments to the ANSTO Act to provide flexibility around ANSTO's ability to use its property or facilities for the purposes of an innovation precinct or for collaboration. This includes the use of ANSTO's property to bring together start-ups, high-tech industry and university graduates to create synergies and cross-fertilisation of ideas and knowledge, and the flexibility to use its property to support a graduate institute, for example. The proposed technology park will crowd in SMEs, high-tech industry and knowledge intensive business, which will have the benefit of close access to ANSTO's unique capabilities, nuclear applications and research infrastructure. Businesses that have already approached ANSTO regarding possible co-location include those in high-end medical manufacturing, next-generation food production and 3D data capture.

The bill also supports the establishment of an innovation incubator, which will be the first nuclear science incubator in the world and will become the home of knowledge exchange, commercialisation, innovation and entrepreneurship at ANSTO. The graduate institute will establish a more formal program of postgraduate training and development in partnership with universities. Through co-location with ANSTO and industry, the graduate institute will focus on deepening skills and translational research and the application of nuclear techniques for real-world problem solving. It will also foster cross-discipline work amongst the STEM disciplines. The bill supports ANSTO using its knowledge, resources, property and expertise—for example, for development of a graduate institute as part of an innovation precinct—and provides greater flexibility to allow for the potential construction of postgraduate accommodation and facilities, just as an example, which may not necessarily be undertaken on a commercial basis.

The introduction of the bill also provides an opportunity to update and expand the constitutional limits provision in the ANSTO Act to support ANSTO's expanded function. Industry groups, universities and state and local governments have all actively been engaged in the planning process for the ANSTO innovation precinct and are excited about the opportunities it will bring. They include smart jobs, a boost to the local economy, industry experienced graduates and a drive in Australian innovation. On 14 June, like many parliamentary colleagues, the minister attended the ANSTO-hosted breakfast event which showcased the vision for the ANSTO innovation precinct and the vital role ANSTO plays in driving innovation and contributing to Australia's economy.

The bill will enhance ANSTO's capacity to contribute to the creation of smart jobs and economic growth in Australia. It provides greater flexibility for ANSTO to fulfil its mandate to support and investigate innovation and research that will benefit the Australian community, industry and broader national objectives. As a parliament, in passing this bill we are providing ANSTO with every opportunity for the successful establishment of its proposed innovation precinct and for others that may follow. I commend the bill to the chamber.

Andrew Leigh (Fenner, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As a primary school child in the early 1980s I lived in Waterfall, 15 minutes down the road from the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor. It was the time of the Cold War, and anything with the word 'nuclear' in the name sent chills down the spine of the typical child, but my father was always at pains to emphasise to me that Lucas Heights was doing the kind of nuclear production that was important for building a civilised and healthy society. As Senator Carr pointed out in the other place, some of those who criticise nuclear research fail to acknowledge its presence in smoke detectors and in dials that we use in our clocks.

Every week ANSTO delivers 10,000 patient doses of potentially life-saving nuclear medicines to over 250 hospitals and medical facilities across Australia. As Senator Carr puts it, ANSTO is 'one of the jewels in the crown of the Australian innovation system'. The Sydney campus, the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor, the Melbourne campus and the Australian Synchrotron are vitally important research facilities. ANSTO has been expanding activities in the Sydney campus by including a nuclear medicine plant, which has tripled the production of molybdenum-99, of which there is a world-wide shortage. The aim is to develop the campus into a major national innovation precinct. The notion of innovation precincts was announced in 2011 under Labor. It was then formalised as part of the 2012 Australian jobs plan. Labor is pleased to see the government continuing this principle of innovation precincts.

This Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation Amendment Bill 2017 is necessary because the legislation governing ANSTO currently unduly restricts the scope and potential of the precinct. The bill overcomes this by allowing ANSTO to share its knowledge, expertise, facilities and property with other entities. Those entities don't need to have a direct involvement in nuclear science or technology, and the bill broadens the definition of 'scientific research, innovation and training' in the ANSTO act so they are not restricted to nuclear science and technology. The precinct will include a graduate institute that will provide research training for up to 400 post-graduate students and post-doctoral fellows in Sydney and Melbourne. ANSTO will be better able to collaborate with industry, universities and other publicly funded research agencies. That kind of collaboration was promoted by Labor in government and, accordingly, Labor supports this bill.

When one looks at international rankings of innovation and commercialisation, Australia is about on par with other OECD countries for our public expenditure on research. But where we often fall down is on public/private collaboration. The extent to which Australian businesses create new-to-the-world innovations and engage with research institutes is short of that in many other countries, and this initiative is one way in which we might continue to encourage that cooperation. I commend the bill to the House.

Debate adjourned.