Rudd Government Releases Innovation Green Paper. (September 9, 2009)

The Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Kim Carr, has released the 226 page report of the Review of Australia's National Innovation System (green paper).

The Review was conducted by a panel chaired by Dr Terry Cutler.

Senator Carr said: "This Review represents a vital first step in harnessing the potential of innovation... [it] provides an honest appraisal of Australia’s innovation effort and concludes that while our global competitors have been increasing their innovation efforts, our performance has been falling. This [requires] researchers, businesses, workers and governments coming together to play their part in the innovation system, all in the national interest. The Government will take a close look at the recommendations and will respond before the end of the year."

He noted specifically the following overall recomendations from the review:

• increasing the level of Commonwealth spending on science innovation

• scrapping the R&D tax concession and replacing it with two R&D tax credits

• adopting national innovation priorities to focus our efforts and resources

• meeting the full cost of university research

• and providing open access to the results of publicly funded research.

The following chart from the green paper demonstrates the marked downward trend of government support for science and innovation as a percentage of GDP from the 1993-94 financial year until the present.

The review lists a total of 72 recommendations in all and of particular interest to the higher education and research sectors are the 14 recommendations in Chapter 6 of the report on ‘building excellence in research’. It is noteworthy that the review makes very specific recommendations regarding Australia's publicly funded research infrastructure (6.13 and 6.14).

But the review also makes specific recommendations regarding tax concessions for industry in chapter 8, and considering the current low rate of investing by our private sector in research and development relative to our cohort nation's, the government's reaction to the recommendations will give a strong indication as to how serious it is in encouraging business expenditure in research and development (BERD).

The Cutler Review has done a fine job in talking the talk, the question is now how well will Kevin Rudd's government walk the walk.