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

My question is to the Cabinet Secretary, Senator Sinodinos, representing the Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science. Will the Cabinet Secretary inform the Senate how the recently announced National Innovation and Science Agenda sets out a new vision for Australia's innovation and science ecosystem?

Arthur Sinodinos (NSW, Liberal Party, Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable senator from Western Australia for her question, her great support for innovation and the work she does on the ground with innovators in Western Australia. The government announced, of course, this National Innovation and Science Agenda on 7 December last year as part of our broader aim of promoting jobs and growth, and this year, Mr President, I predict—I fearlessly predict—you will hear a lot about jobs and growth, because that is the framework which will encompass the policies of this government. We are putting together an agenda in innovation and science which will foster an ecosystem—a series of measures which will make us have a sustainable innovation system going forward. It comprises four pillars. There are four pillars—not three, not seven but four pillars: culture and capital, collaboration, talent and skills, and government as an exemplar.

Culture and capital involves measures around tax to promote investing in start-ups and early-stage capital. It involves collaboration where we bring together researchers, universities, industries and investors, because the best sort of innovation is when you bring those disparate skills together so that they can collaborate to promote commercialisation within Australia of great Australian ideas. We will promote talent and skills through measures to promote greater take-up of science, technology, engineering and maths in schools, including addressing the lack of diversity in some of those classes, particularly where women in STEM are concerned. Part of this will also be to promote the entrepreneurs visa to bring bright people from all around the world to Australia to share their ideas—people who want to invest in Australia.

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

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Will the Cabinet Secretary inform the Senate how the government will implement the National Innovation and Science Agenda?

Arthur Sinodinos (NSW, Liberal Party, Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I believe we will implement it well. How will we do that? We will do it by establishing a new innovation and science committee of cabinet, for a whole-of-government approach. This is the meat and drink of cabinet secretaries. We love process. There is nothing we love better than another cabinet committee—a whole-of government committee where ministers across the government with an interest in innovation and science will come together to monitor the implementation of those initiatives. That is the sort of stuff that gets me out of bed in the morning, Mr President, I have to tell you. This innovation and science subcommittee of cabinet will be ably assisted by a new statutory board, the Innovation and Science Australia board, chaired by that great Australian investor in innovation Bill Ferris and our new Chief Scientist, the distinguished Alan Finkel, as the deputy chair, who will provide independent advice to this committee and to the government. (Time expired)

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

Mr President, I ask a final supplementary question. Will the Cabinet Secretary also explain to the Senate how the agenda builds on existing programs?

Arthur Sinodinos (NSW, Liberal Party, Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The context for this agenda is that in the last year under this government more than 300,000 jobs were created. The government cannot take the credit for all of that—a lot of the credit goes to the workers and the businesspeople of Australia—but we are putting in place a framework of policies to aid them as they work and go about the business of innovation.

Those workers and those businesspeople will have the benefit of our new free trade agreements—our North Asian free trade agreements with Korea, Japan and China—and, significantly, the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement now coming down the track. Small and medium sized enterprises will of course continue to take advantage of the initiatives in last year's budget, the 2015 budget, around things like tax cuts. There is also the government's $482 million Entrepreneurs' Program, a flagship firm-level initiative that continues to grow the economy and jobs. (Time expired)