Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Innovation is the key to our future as a nation. That is why the stewardship of the Innovation, Industry, Science and Research portfolio is so vital to our individual futures and the future of Australia. On becoming Labor leader, Mr Rudd said his frontbench would serve at his pleasure and he would appoint them purely on merit, irrespective of faction. Like so many of Mr Rudd’s promises, the spin does not match the reality. The fact is Mr Rudd’s ministry was selected on factional lines. Sure, a formal vote may not have been held, but the result is identical to a factional ballot. The stark proof of this is shown by Senator Kim Carr being appointed to the cabinet and then to the sensitive Innovation, Industry, Science and Research portfolio. His performance to date—and I will be kind—has been unfortunate, clumsy and detrimental to the interests of his portfolio stakeholders, which ultimately, of course, includes our nation. The fact that Senator Carr is the senior minister to Dr Craig Emerson debunks any suggestion that factional power plays are not alive and well.

Minister Carr’s stewardship of his portfolio both in opposition and in government has been a failure. In opposition he made numerous promises either which he had no intention of keeping or on which he has simply been rolled by his more astute cabinet colleagues. When companies closed their operations, Senator Carr demanded that Howard government ministers go overseas and slam their fists on the boardroom tables. Yes, he actually did say that. He promised freedom to our scientists. He promised to streamline the highly successful Commercial Ready program to make it even better. He, along with the Prime Minister, said he wanted to be a minister of a country that still made things. An analysis of these promises exposes the sham and joke that the minister has become within the sector. When companies closed their doors or scaled down their operations while Senator Carr was in opposition, it was all the Liberals’ fault. Now, as minister, he has presided over one of the biggest declines in the manufacturing sector ever witnessed in this country. One assumes that Senator Carr slammed his fists on the boardroom tables of Mitsubishi, Goodyear tyres, Pacific Brands, ACL Bearing—and the list, which has seen the shedding of 75,000 manufacturing jobs, goes on.

As opposition spokesman, I have not made the same ridiculous claims as Senator Carr. We on this side will not play politics with people’s livelihoods, but what we will do is expose the duplicity of saying and promising one thing before an election and then doing the exact opposite after. Labor played a cruel hoax on thousands of workers by saying Labor could and would protect their jobs. Do not take my word for it; take the word of the 75,000 workers that have lost their jobs whilst being promised job security in the manufacturing sector. On 3AW earlier this year, the minister himself said about manufacturing jobs, ‘I wouldn’t say anyone’s job was safe.’ Five months later, the union movement itself was telling us, ‘The manufacturing sector is in crisis.’ That was courtesy of the Australian Workers Union. So we have a sector where no job is safe, according to the minister, and that is in crisis, according to Labor’s own union movement—a great scorecard after two years in office.

In the science area, Senator Carr promised complete freedom to scientists, the right to speak without fear or favour. We needed scientists to speak out. Indeed, they would be encouraged to speak out. That is, of course, until one took a whack at the government. All of a sudden we needed appropriate restrictions. We needed protocols, and they had to be rushed into place. So, when the CSIRO’s Dr Spash had a peer reviewed article for publication that was critical of the government, he was denied permission. Not until the censor’s pen had done its bit would the full scientific gems and thoughts be allowed to circulate to us, the great unwashed. George Orwell would have been proud. I understand that Senator Carr’s ministerial title will soon become ‘Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science, Research and Truth’.

As an aside, Labor’s censorship now also extends to the fact that if a listener wants a copy of this speech I will not be allowed to mail it to them using my meagre postage entitlement under Labor’s new rules. Reason: I have criticised the government. However, if I gave a speech and misled this place by saying what a good job the government was doing I would be allowed to use my allowance to mail out the speech. The sinister control-freakishness of the Prime Minister now reaches from members of parliament to our scientific community. This culture of censorship, vetting and ‘no criticism of government to be tolerated’ supposedly will help foster and grow innovation. I say to the government: this is the culture that fosters the Trabant of last century totalitarianism, not 21st-century thinking.

The next promise Senator Carr made was to streamline the highly successful Commercial Ready program, which helped transition our innovations from design bench or laboratory to the marketplace. The government’s very first budget saw the abolition of the Commercial Ready program in May 2008. Not satisfied with announcing its abolition on budget night, Labor and Senator Carr backdated the decision by some 14 days, putting a spiteful edge on a foolish decision. When asked, Labor’s finance minister, Mr Tanner, said that the Rudd government’s best decision in its first budget was the abolition of the Commercial Ready program. When quizzed, Senator Carr said the program was abolished because he was not in the business of giving money to millionaires. Yes, that is right: ‘not in the business of giving money to millionaires’. Senator Carr’s and Mr Tanner’s comments are on the public record for all to see.

So a prime mover of innovation in our country was axed—all $700-plus million of it. What for? To make room, no doubt, for the $2-plus billion of the pink batts program. Now, there is innovation for you! There is smart thinking! There is a long-term investment for our country—getting Irish backpackers to install imported US pink batts in the name of stimulating our economy. It would be quite hilarious if it were not so serious. This scrapping of the Commercial Ready program was a silly, short-sighted, ideologically motivated decision, and it was condemned by all with any knowledge of the innovation system.

This is what a former Labor science minister had to say about the abolition: ‘It is truly disappointing to see such an effective government initiative scrapped with seemingly little regard for Australia’s innovative future.’ So said Mr Chris Schatt, former Labor science minister. What about former Australian of the Year and Australian Living Treasure Sir Gustav Nossal? He described it as short-sighted. The CEO of Cochlear, Chris Roberts, described it as ‘the saddest and dumbest decision of the entire budget’. Alistair Murdock, CEO of Spirogene, said:

… terminologies about daggers to the heart of innovation within Australia has been used, and I really do believe that.

These are not a group of Liberal flunkies; these are people like former Labor ministers and national treasures, who actually understand the innovation space, roundly condemning Labor and their decision.

Why did they do that? You just cannot turn innovation off and on and pretend that no lasting damage has been caused. Innovation relies on security, certainty and trusting a government to keep its word. A stable investment environment is paramount to innovation success. Having promised to streamline the Commercial Ready program, Senator Carr abolished it. That is one interpretation of streamlining—he sure got rid of all the paperwork. But what it shows is that this government’s word is not its bond. Senator Carr clearly intended to abolish the scheme, because Labor crowed about it as their best decision, and Senator Carr said he would not give money to millionaires. I can say that I have not met one millionaire in my travels who would have been a beneficiary of this scheme.

This lack of integrity in public utterances is most regrettable. But, of course, it is part and parcel of what the minister did in the May estimates when he absented himself and said that he had to attend a cabinet meeting. During the October estimates, when asked if he had actually attended a cabinet meeting he replied that he had, and then proceeded to give me an earful about how little I knew about cabinet, and that I should check my facts. The normal silly rant appeared quite effective, albeit on the face, but for one thing however: unfortunately for the hapless minister, the Leader of the Government had already stated in writing to me that there was no cabinet meeting on the day in question. Why would he mislead the Senate committee over such a small issue? Who knows—other than we know he misled. He either did so wilfully or ignorantly, but mislead he did.

What the sector can know from me and expect from a Turnbull government are clear answers, no excessive promises and an understanding of the sector. We support innovators and we want more success stories; would it not be good if more of our innovators actually did become millionaires? I say: bring it on.

In an attempt to overcome his difficulties, with much fanfare Senator Carr delivered a white paper on innovation which has politely been described as ‘very general’ and ‘open to many interpretations’. The simple fact is that there is no echo in the two Labor budget speeches of the point made by Labor before the election that innovation is and must be a central plank of economic policy. But this approach by Labor should not surprise, for it was in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when Labor was last in power, that we saw the destruction of core R&D and innovation capacity in basic areas of the economy.

Innovation is like knowledge: it is cumulative. That is, innovation builds on innovation. Innovation capability takes a long time to translate into socioeconomic benefits, so the impact of capability destroyed today can have long-term consequences well into the future. In the case that this critique sounds familiar, I would invite the minister to read Professor Cutler’s article in last month’s issue of Focus.

The Howard government had a proud record on R&D and innovation. Labor has tried to trash that record, and its own two years in office have left the sector shaking its collective head. We oversaw a substantial increase in business expenditure on research and development. Our last year in office, the 2007-08 financial year, saw expenditure top $14 billion, a 15 per cent increase over the previous year. The average increase over the previous five years was 17 per cent. Business expenditure on R&D exceeded one per percent of GDP for the first time ever in 2005-06. As is the wont with the coalition, there were no grand promises and no centrally controlled 10-year plans from the politburo paid for by borrowed money, just sound, sensible and practical policies to foster and encourage the private sector to do what it does best, and that is to innovate. I thank the Senate.